Recommended by Amy H

Eleven-year-old Orthodox Jewish Mirka lives in Hereville with her father, stepmother, and many siblings. She dreams of acquiring a sword and fighting a dragon. She encounters a witch, a talking pig, and sneaks out at night to challenge a troll for a treasure.

Hebrew and Yiddish words and phrases are translated at the bottom of the page(s) where they appear.

Limited color palette (tan/peach, black, and white). (The second book expands this palette with muted versions of more colors, such as blue and green.) ( )

Trying to branch out, I googled “graphic novels for people who hate graphic novels” and found this. When I read the tagline, “yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl,” I had no choice but to check it out.

I’ve never been comfortable with graphic novels, in part because there’s so much going on on the page and my left-to-right-reading brain doesn’t always know where to jump to. The Kindle version (borrowed online from my local library) offers Guided View which helpfully moves panel by panel. This was my first experience with the Guided View feature, and I think I could handle reading more graphic novels in this format.

The story of Mirka is cute and at times pretty funny (e.g. one of her powers is knitting), and it’s peppered with Yiddish and cultural bits. Also, the illustrations use a calm color palette that isn’t overwhelming. It’s definitely made for kids/YA, but I enjoyed it and immediately checked out the other two in the series (though this was the best of them). ( )

Unexpectedly, this is a fascinating graphic novel. The setting is unusual and the whole feel of it surreal- is this supposed to be a fantasy adventure or a young girl imagining things to make her life more exciting? I think I will tend toward the former, and as such it is interesting. The illustrations in tan and black are simple, yet expressive. The introduction to a culture fascinating, the characters unexpected. I do like that even though Mirka wants to fight battles against monsters, it is her wits that defeats the troll. ( )

Excellent art, but full of the unexpected in both good and bad ways. On the good side, it's not boring. The reader learns about growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community and how to fight trolls. On the bad side, it's over so fast it hardly makes sense. She gets her sword, but what's she going to do with it? Perhaps there will be sequels? ( )

What an amazing graphic novel, really for anyone, but to imagine having such a wonderful book written that 12-year-old Jewish Orthodox girls can relate to. Also conveys the rich "language" of folk tales/"old country" stories that we seem to have lost/ ( )