Lost and Found: A Heart of the City Collection

by Steenz

"Warm, funny, and a visual delight, Steenz's take on Heart of the City is next-level."  –Dana Simpson, Phoebe and Her Unicorn

The second book collection of Heart of the City comics by Steenz digs deeper into the adventures, friendships, and daily dramas of Heart Lamarr, a girl from Philadelphia with big dreams of heading straight from middle school to Broadway stardom.

From renowned cartoonist Steenz comes the second book in the Heart series that follows Heart Lamarr, a middle school student in Philadelphia. The delightful blend of hilarious and heartwarming, Heart is back with another adventure filled with laughs, friendship, and always some trouble. A true slice-of-life story about middle school, this book is perfect for middle-grade readers.

 

Genres: Graphic Novels, Realistic Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade, Fiction, Comic Strips, Comics

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2023

Reviews

[boat_tiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an adorable picture book of a girl named Heart Lamarr who has always dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps as an actor.
Her father whom she hasn’t seen in years suddenly shows up at Christmas with a surprise gift The illustrations are detailed and beautiful

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the arc of this book.

[Lacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I enjoyed volume one of A Heart of the City, I loved volume two even more. Heart and her friend group continues to grow and be even more relatable. I laughed out loud so much. Though, nothing too detailed or serious, this volume also touched on deeper topics like absent parents, race, puberty, getting glasses for the first time, learning to lose, and realizing that people come from all different walks of life. I hope the series continues to evolve and talk more about serious topics while still keeping it's signature humor. My biggest complaint is that the story is still slightly disjointed. The story jumps back and forth from different plots randomly. It can be kind of jarring. Also, some plots never have a resolution. But I absolutely can recommend this Middle Grade series. Especially for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Kayla Miller.


***Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with a review copy.***

[GlitterWater79 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second of two volumes I’ve read, each collecting this comic. I enjoyed this one even more than the first, and I loved that one. Steenz’s writing and art are really wonderful. Funny, well paced, with interesting characters and the development of strong relationships in their families and friend groups. The larger story of Heart’s relationship with her Dad was well written and age appropriate for discussions of being co-parented by unmarried parents and the challenges of it using humor to take it on in a substantive way. I think overall matters around race, gender, and sexuality are taken up in a relevant and useful way in terms of representation in this book in ways that make sense for the story moving things forward as well. Relatedly, I love the various kinds of identity based diversity among the cast of characters and their parents too. I would love to keep reading Steenz in this book and to just follow Heart’s adventures further in general. Well done!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart of the City: Lost and Found is the second collection of Heart of the City, and ongoing web comics about a young girl, in middle school, Heart Lamarr, who wants to become a star, like her absentee father is.

The story follows Heart around with her other middle school friends, doing things such as having sleep overs, and getting new glasses, and wondering if you should rat on your sister, that sort of thing. It is a pleasant read, with little hints of other things going on.

The writing feels very real, and down to earth. When the children are confronted with not being able to get brownies because the younger sister at some, they debate on whether they should rat her out, or if they should all take the blame. In the end, they decide to take the blame, because the younger sister didn’t know it was wrong, and it didn’t feel right to punish her for that. In the end, the little sister confesses, and the others explain she didn’t know it was wrong, and they all get to eat the brownies after all, for coming forth and being honest.

Cute series, fun reading.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest reveiw.

[Tonja Drecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friendship, middle school drama, and a touch of situation comedy come together in this graphic novel to create a light, enjoyable read.

Heart might have stardom dreams, but first, she needs to make it through middle school. Surrounded by a wonderful group of friends, each one steers through every day situations as best they can. Add a little mystery on top of things, and life is sure to be interesting with this bunch.

Note: I did not read the first book in the series, but that wasn't a problem. This works very well as a stand-alone.

The tale rotates around four friends with Heart at the center. While they have a wonderful friendship, working together at every twist and turn, they each have their own lives and struggles outside of the group. This allows a wide range of situations to roll into the mix, while the group works together on other events such as the lost and found mystery. The group is supportive, wholesome, and has their own quirks, which create a light sense of humor as well.

The graphics are well done and carry an original style. Each scene brings across the moment and emotions well, while creating a nice balance with the dialogue and thoughts. Some of the scenes did come across disjointed, which broke the flow, but in general, it's enjoyable and easy to get lost in.

This is a spice-of-life, and the humor flows right along in this direction. The situations stay close to real life, allowing readers to connect with the characters on a personal level and smirk or chuckle as they recognize some of the moments. So this book isn't as strong on the humor as it is on life drama. There are more than a few messages along with the heart, making this one for readers, who enjoy middle school drama, friendship, and everything that entails. I received a DRC and enjoyed getting to know this group.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean, Heart, Kat, and Charlotte are back for another look at the lives of sixth graders that could really live most anywhere. In this installment, there are several storylines intertwined just like in real life! Dean has a cousin who thinks there must be something wrong with him if his closest friends are girls, Kat may have a crush on a new girl at school, Heart’s dad is trying to be a part of her life after being gone since she was 4 or 5 years old, Kat has to get glasses, something fishy is going on with the school lost and found, and Heart and Kat have a fight that may end their friendship for good. Author Steenz does a great job of representing middle graders and while many of the situations are resolved completely and happily, a few are left unfinished and/or not happily ever after. And again, isn’t that just like in real life? Main characters are Black, biracial, and Caucasian with one key figure in this book 2 presenting as Muslim/Middle Eastern. Family configurations are equally diverse with single mom, two moms, and mom/dad present. Graphic novel collections with high readership of Raina Telgemeier, Maria Scrivan, Jerry Craft, and Terri Libenson will also circulate this one well. Text is free of profanity, sexual content, and violence (except for one wrestling match and one strong “push back”).

Note: This is the second book in the “Heart of the City,” series but it can absolutely be read without having read book 1 (Heart Takes the Stage).

Thanks for sending me a finished copy for review, Andrew McMeel/Simon & Schuster.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I read a Heart of the City comic. I'm guessing this is a webcomic since each page typically contains four panels and can work alone for the most part, though many pages make one continuous story arc. For example, the first two pages are stand-alone, followed by an arc exploring Christmas time, though many pages in this arc could work as individual strips.

I quite enjoyed this collection. The synopsis made it sound like it is more serialized, but it is more of a series of slice-of-life arcs. The main characters are distinct, in both personality and design, though the character of Dean (the only boy out of the main characters) does get pushed to the background for the majority of the collection.

I quickly devoured the volume while bringing some much-needed lightheartedness (though some more serious issues do get touched upon throughout; i.e. Heart's relationship with her estranged dad).

[Lynda Pires · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy. This is my first review of a book from NetGalley and I had high hopes that this was a comic I could read to my daughter (will edit with her review later.)

Pros: Sweet, nice illustrations, and some good building blocks.

Cons: Story is disconnected and flows poorly with little character development. The story lines are oddly laid out and poorly weaved. If the characters had a bit more nuance/development and the tough issues were addressed with a smidge more sophistication, this would be a much stronger book series. So sad to offer three stars generously. It needs a better editor and guidance.

Overall, readable and may be worth a library borrow or free kindle read, but definitely not purchase-worthy for our permanent bookshelf of graphic novels.

[Bexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun to watch Heart grow up a little, but this lacked the humor of the previous edition. This provided a realistic version of middle school, sort of, and I appreciated the diverse characters. I think my issue is that these are meant to be a one off, but when they're put in a collection it doesn't work well. I enjoyed it though.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even make it halfway through these "comics" before giving up. They are way more concerned with telling a moral lesson than telling a joke. It's like reading a whole collection of a less funny Goofus and Gallant from back in the day. Absolutely awful for anyone older than 7 or 8.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic Novel
A second book about Heart and her friends as they move through the school year. Readers see the various scenarios that touch their lives, break their hearts and challenge them to grow. Steenz humor shines through with reminders to readers to see the serious too.

[Ave Reads ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a fun read overall 💛

[D.T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Dear_Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story. I did not know at first that it is part of a series, so I will have to check that out. The artwork is amazing and adds to the story!