Misfit Mansion

by Kay Davault, Kay Davault (Illustrator)

Overview

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends meets Hilda and the Troll in this spooky and sweet middle grade graphic novel about a monster girl who sneaks out of her foster home and into a human town in search of a forever family but finds more than she bargained for.

Despite her monstrous appearance, Iris has never felt like she belongs in a mansion filled with kelpies and gorgons and unicorns. She longs to find a family. Unfortunately, she and her housemates are trapped in a “foster home for horrors” run by former paranormal investigator Mr. Halloway. So, when a human boy named Mathias breaks the house’s sealing spell, Iris and her companions are set free upon the town of Dead End Springs.

What Iris doesn’t know is that Mathias is also a paranormal hunter (the kind who seeks to capture and destroy the horrors), or that there are other dangers ahead. As Iris searches for a home, she makes human friends, explores a brand-new world...and stumbles upon a dark secret that Halloway has kept locked in the basement of the house. Will this long-slumbering mystery destroy the family Iris so desperately seeks?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665903073
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/25/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	141,177
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 18 Years

About the Author

Kay Davault is an illustrator and comic artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the graphic novels Star Knights, Misfit Mansion, and Oddity Woods. Kay spends her time creating stories about cute characters in vibrant worlds, which may or may not contain a monster or five. Visit her at KayDavault.com or @KayDavault.

Kay Davault is an illustrator and comic artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the graphic novels Star Knights, Misfit Mansion, and Oddity Woods. Kay spends her time creating stories about cute characters in vibrant worlds, which may or may not contain a monster or five. Visit her at KayDavault.com or @KayDavault.

Editorial Reviews

05/22/2023

On the outskirts of Dead End Springs is an enchanted foster home for supernatural creatures rescued by their brown-skinned human guardian Mr. Halloway. But the magic that keeps the creatures safe also keeps them locked inside the mansion, and blue-skinned Iris longs to visit the places she sees in comics and on TV. Moreover, she yearns to connect with humans, believing they will be more accepting of her than Mr. Halloway, whose anxious nature convinces Iris he’s afraid of her. While Mr. Halloway is on an excursion rounding up more horrors in need, a young paranormal hunter manages to break the magic seal before being scared off by a resident. Emboldened, Iris seizes the opportunity to attend the town’s Harvest Festival, a Halloween-like event that encourages costumes, providing ideal cover for Iris and her friends. As Iris interacts with the townsfolk, she considers where she truly fits in, even as a mysterious voice in her head portends trouble. A cartoonishly adorable monster cast populate the brightly colored pages of this uplifting tale. Through earnest and optimistic depictions of found family dynamics, Davault (Star Knight) presents the ups and downs of relationships while emphasizing openness, communication, and acceptance. Ages 8–up. Agent: Britt Siess, Britt Siess Creative. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"The charming, stylized art is set in pleasingly muted colors and dynamic layouts that keep the eyes moving from scene to scene...It's fun to imagine a world where humans and fantasy creatures exist in harmony, and Davault has done just that."

7/1/23 - Booklist

2023-04-24
A sheltered young monster discovers that the world isn’t as hostile to her kind as she had been led to believe.

Readers who like their monsters cute as well as scary are in for a treat, as Davault fills her panels and montages with the (mostly) humanoid but variously horned, clawed, fanged, and multiheaded inhabitants of Mr. Halloway’s Home for Horrors. They possess expressive faces, stylishly disarranged bangs (or, as the case may be, tentacles), and distinctly childlike ways. Blue-skinned, tufty-tailed Iris has always been told by (human) Mr. Halloway that he is protecting her and her fellow creatures in his isolated manor house from being hunted down. But when she takes advantage of a rare chance to venture into nearby Dead End Springs, she gets a warm welcome—from everyone except Mathias, an orphan raised by his traumatized aunt to believe that monsters are dangerous. Some actually are, it turns out…but after the frightening dolls one horror creates sell like hotcakes to the delighted locals and Iris’ companions help to save the town from an escaped dreamon who has turned into a nightmare, even Mathias comes around. Better yet, Iris emerges with her yearning to belong to a family fulfilled by the discovery that she has really been living with one all along, and she joins her housemates in turning the mansion into a monster hotel.

A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise. (author’s note, concept art) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews