The Bramble

Nordling, a veteran of the comics industry, produces a fast-paced, largely wordless story that might end on a note of menace—or might not. The neighborhood kids scorn small, pokey Cameron when he plays tag with them. In need of solace, the boy explores a deep, thorny tunnel and emerges into a community of monsters whose lumpy bodies, big eyes, and striped horns make them look a lot like Wild Things. Zick, an artist who has worked in comics and film, draws storyboard-style panels in shadowy hues that evoke deeply tangled forest thickets and occasionally make the action hard to decode. When Cameron first arrives, a hedgehoglike creature saves him from a huge wave that’s terrorizing the Bramble, and they forge a cozy friendship. Cameron defeats the wave when it reappears by messing with its mind: “Tag,” he tells the wave, dodging and feinting. “You’re it.” Returning home, Cameron wows the kids who scorned him, but a hulking monster with sharp claws is seen lurking as Cameron celebrates—and the story ends there. An unsettling story about coming into one’s own. Ages 5–9. (Sept.)