A Medieval Mess

Mystical Pencil

by Dustin Evans

Alex is your average fourth grader who loves to draw. One day, Alex's father, an archaeologist, returns home from a dig in a distant country. Alex finds an old wooden pencil in his dad's bag and uses it to finish his homework. But, this pencil has mystical powers and suddenly his drawings come to life! Alex tries desperately to return the pencil to his father, but it keeps falling into other children's hands. Will Alex ever get it back where it can be kept safe under lock and key?

In the Mystical Pencil's first adventure, Alex has decided to create a graphic novel to complete his fourth grade assignment on the Renaissance. His pencil is nearly worn out when his father returns from an archaeological dig and suggests Alex get a replacement pencil from his bag to complete the assignment. Alex uses the borrowed pencil to draw a monster that a knight must put a stop in order to save the village and its inhabitants. When he wakes up the next morning, the paper is blank and the monster is staring at him! Can he figure out a way to get things back to normal?

Graphic Planet is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO Group. Grades 3-6.

Genres: Graphic Novels

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this first installment in the “Mystical Pencil” series, Alex picks up a pencil his archaeologist father found at a dig site. Neither one knows that the pencil has magical powers. Since he likes to draw, he designs a monster for his Renaissance homework assignment. To his amazement, the monster comes to life, escapes from Alex’s house and terrorizes the visitors attending the Renaissance Festival in town. Quick-thinking Alex draws a Renaissance village, complete with a knight and other medieval characters to try to keep the monster in check. But this plan goes awry and he reasons that if he can draw what happened before the monster materialized, then things might return to normal. He does and disaster is averted. But he becomes concerned when he cannot find the magic pencil. Of course, it is found by Sara, Alex’s classmate, thereby setting up the second book of the series. The final page offers instructions for drawing a knight. This graphic title has lots of kid appeal with its adolescent plot and bright and colorful illustrations. The title is a good choice for a school library, though purchasing the series will be expensive; these titles don’t offer a lot of bang for the buck. But it will appeal to graphic novel fans and reluctant readers alike.

[Ham · Rating 1 out of 5]

My kids tried to get me to read this to them (twice.)
The story was cliche-ridden and the art seemed as if it had been thrown together by a group of computer programming interns. No, interns would've been more savvy. This felt like it was written by a board of corporates in an office that "know" what kids like to read nowadays.
I still get shivers of disgust when I think of it.