The Backstagers and the Ghost Light

August 1, 2018
The Backstagers gets the Lumberjanes treatment in this novelization of the comic-book series.Backstage drama kids Aziz, Hunter, Beckett, Jory, and Sasha have a few more performances left at St. Genesius Preparatory High School before the end of the school year. At the latest cast party, a bunch of actors, or Onstagers, pull out a spirit board for a few laughs and end up accidentally busting the Ghost Light --the stage light said to keeps ghosts away. When a ghost lurking backstage tries to get out, the lore turns out to be truth. Now it's up to the crew to go back into the unknown to save the theater. But can they do it without the stage managers? Sygh's two-color spot art and the overall whimsical narrative tone keep the comic-book series' spirit intact. Unfortunately, the sometimes-lofty third-person omniscient narrator is a bit of a mismatch. The sweet, blush-filled romances read a bit more chaste here than in the comics, but this may attract younger audiences. The already-diverse array of male characters broadens to include Reo, who is biracial (Japanese/Irish) and a witch. Fans of the series will appreciate Mientus' exploration of characters' backstories--and all will have a chance to learn more in future prose installments.An adequate dessert for existing fans that just may tempt a few new ones as well. (Fantasy. 10-14)

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August 1, 2018
Grades 5-8 As if the technical challenges of mounting a high-school production of the Broadway musical Phantasm (chandelier and all) aren't steep enough, a ghost has taken to haunting the theater, there's a ringer with a secret agenda in the cast, and head builder Hunter is having a rough time juggling the workload and his relationship with new boyfriend Jory. This prose spinoff of the Backstagers comics series, also illustrated by Sygh, takes up established story lines, and though Mientus makes earnest efforts to fill in the backstories, readers would be well advised to start with the original. Still, as the author sends his resourceful stagehands to battle an archetypal theater ghost, he preserves the spirit and flavor of the comics with hilarious pranks and theater talk, high-energy hustle, and, particularly, in a young cast, notably diverse in ethnic and gender identity, who face personal issues common to everyone . . . as well as the odd supernatural threat. Sygh's occasional portraits and action scenes, seen in unfinished form, offer a visual link to the graphic volumes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)