Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race

by Jen Breach, Douglas Holgate (Illustrator)

Overview

The start of an exhilarating, high-stakes graphic novel series that is sure to appeal to fans of Kazu Kibuishi!

A dangerous rally race... and archaeology?!

Clementine Hetherington and her robot brother, Digory, have run away from the orphanage they've been living in since their parents died. Clem and Dig want to follow in their famous archaeologist mother's footsteps, but no one will take them seriously. Their chance arrives when a man from their past saves Digory's life, and to repay the debt they enter a multiday rally race... to recover stolen artifacts! Clem and Dig hope to win so they can give the artifacts to a museum, but their opponents want to sell them on the black market. The Ironwood Race has no rules, and Clem and Dig might be in over their heads!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545814461
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/27/2018
Series:	Clem Hetherington , #1
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jen Breach is the author of Something's Amiss at the Zoo, which was illustrated by Douglas Holgate. She has received several grants, prizes, and fellowships for her work, and her essays have been featured in various publications. She gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian Society of Authors and the Australia Council for the Arts. Jen is originally from Melbourne, Australia, and currently lives in Boston. Visit her online at www.jenbreach.com.



Douglas Holgate is the illustrator of Something's Amiss at the Zoo by Jen Breach. He is also the illustrator of The Last Kids on Earth series by Max Brallier and Wires and Nerve, Volume One by Marissa Meyer. Douglas lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his family. Visit him online at www.skullduggery.com.au.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race:

"Delightful...Indiana Jones meets Mad Max in a whirlwind as exciting for teens as it is for middle-grade readers." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Holgate's adorable and fun illustrations recall the style and execution of Ben Hatke's art in the Zita the Spacegirl series, and they seamlessly shift from the many action and racing scenes to quieter moments. A great addition in the growing number of kids comics with spirited heroines." -- Booklist

"An action-lover's dream." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A unique, fast-paced story." -- School Library Connection

From the Publisher

01/01/2018
Gr 3–6—The pair behind Something's Amiss at the Zoo team up once again. Clementine Hetherington is a scrappy, prodigious young teen with a knack for archaeology and fast cars. She lives on a diverse, alternate Earth populated by humans, humanoids, and dinosaurs with her faithful robot companion Digory. Clem and Dig are down on their luck when a shady character from their past finds them with a proposition to win the Ironwood Race—a multiday rally race of competitive archaeology site digging. What follows is a race full of danger, drama, and betrayal. At just over 200 pages, this series opener is all action for more than half of the volume. The galloping pace is perfect until the end, when it screeches to an abrupt halt. However, this won't be enough to sully the experience for most readers. Clem's ultimate discovery of her missing parents' fates is expected, but she's surprised to find out who's responsible. Holgate's illustrations are vibrant and evocative, with clever compositions in each frame. These creators have built a wonderful universe in which to continue Clem and Dig's stories, should they choose, and readers will be glad to ride along. VERDICT A general purchase and an excellent recommendation for reluctant readers.—Taylor Worley, Springfield Public Library, OR

School Library Journal

2017-11-22
Young archaeologists Clem and her android brother enter a dangerous race to find priceless artifacts.Fourteen-year-old Clementine Hetherington wants desperately to break into the archaeology field. Not only because she is struggling to find food for herself and "spark" for her android younger brother, Digory, but also to continue their family's legacy after the mysterious deaths of both their parents. When the academy proves unwilling to admit Clem and Dig because they are too young, the siblings are left with frighteningly few options until a nefarious ex-friend, Alistair Kilburn, tells them about the Ironwood Race. Combining desert motor racing and archaeological excavation, the Ironwood is a multi-leg race to find four priceless artifacts, which will go to the victorious team, but for Clem and Dig it also means unearthing treachery as well as treasures. Breach and Holgate have delivered an impossibly energetic graphic novel with action that leaves many a panel in a cloud of dust. A tight narrative arc allows the pacing to shift intensity in all the right places, although it also means many things are left unexplored, such as characters' racial backgrounds (Clem is brown-skinned), Digory's sentience, or the Earth-like but ET-populated and futuristic setting. Archaeology purists may balk a bit, but fun and peril outshine inaccuracies here. The older protagonist and teen-oriented emotional turmoil are balanced by the delightful, adrenaline-charged incongruity of high-stakes excavation and absolutely-no-rules racing for a fairly broad audience.Indiana Jones meets Mad Max in a whirlwind as exciting for teens as it is for middle-grade readers. (Graphic science fiction. 10-16)

Kirkus Reviews