The Silver Six

June 3, 2013
In a bleak and urbanized future Boston, self-sufficient 12-year-old Phoebe Hemingway’s luck runs out when she is found illegally living on her own and is placed into child welfare services. It’s been a year since her parents and 10 others died in a shuttle accident while working for Craven Industries, an unscrupulous and omnipresent energy corporation that supplies the world with power. CEO Hayden Craven has an interest in Phoebe and pursues her relentlessly after she and five other kids escape the prisonlike orphanage to an abundantly vegetated moon. The six eventually discover that their parents all died in the same shuttle explosion, which certainly wasn’t an accident, and that whatever they were involved with could bring down Craven.
In their first comic for young readers, Lieberman (Harvest) and Rawlings deliver an earnest and enjoyable SF adventure, balancing thrilling action with chirpy dialogue, ably rendered in Rawlings’s Blade Runner–meets-Nickelodeon cartooning. The likeability of the characters shines through the somewhat formulaic plot, but the creators are clearly enjoying themselves, showing readers just how much can be overcome by working together. Ages 8–12.

September 1, 2013

Gr 6 Up-After Phoebe's parents are killed when their shuttle mysteriously explodes, Phoebe and her robot, Max, hide her illegal orphan status for an entire year. When she is finally discovered and sent to Child Welfare Services, she and five other orphans discover their secret connection-all of their parents were killed on the same shuttle, and they all left their children identical Moon-registry documents. The plot unfolds from there, weaving themes of friendship and teamwork into an exciting sci-fi story that will keep readers turning the pages. Rawlings's illustrations are bright, colorful, cartoony, and so appealing that they could attract readers who are not mature enough to fully appreciate this story on all of its levels. Strictly judging by the cover, one might assume that this is a story about six children having a futuristic adventure, appropriate for third or fourth graders. But in reality, the story focuses primarily on Phoebe, who is 12 and who experiences several tragically painful circumstances, so The Silver Six is actually more appropriate for a slightly older audience.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

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