Hocus & Pocus

July 16, 2018
Like Choose Your Own Adventure before it, this new series, Comic Quests, allows readers to make decisions that send the protagonists on a variety of narrative threads. Hocus and Pocus excel in class, where they learn to befriend magical creatures and protect their environment. For their final, they must help two parents locate their two children, John and Margaret, who have disappeared into the Grimm Woods. Now comes the real plot twist: the reader must choose to be either Hocus or Pocus and follow their chosen character’s story, making decisions on that character’s behalf. Among other adventures, readers can accompany Pocus into a den of wolves or choose to follow Hocus into battle with a giant rat. As they follow the bright, colorful panels and emotive characters, readers can collect artifacts along the way, fill out character sheets, and flip back and forth to enjoy the possible iterations. This series opener takes a simple but enjoyable form, mixing literary autonomy with the traditional role-playing video game—the resultant gaming comic promises to delight young decision-makers. Ages 8–12.

August 15, 2018
A seemingly innocent red-cloaked girl and her evil grandma aren't the only hazards awaiting visitors to a magic wood in this graphic "choose your path" adventure.Eager to undertake their "Masters of the magical creatures" exam, sibs Hocus and Pocus trot off into Grimm's Woods in search of two vanished children--then proceed to go their separate ways to encounters with wolves, witches, and other familiar, if sometimes tweaked, residents. The intertwined storylines are played as a game: Readers choose either Hocus or Pocus as avatars; select one of three magical helpers; and then flip back or forth from one numbered panel of cleanly drawn cartoon art to another as options and narrative instructions direct. Challenges added to the plotted hazards include simple number and math puzzles to solve, mazes to run, phrases with missing letters, mini board games requiring coins and dice, and other tests. Game sheets (6 provided, further copies available as a download) are required to keep track of used supplies and accumulated rewards. Players with short attention spans may find all the record-keeping onerous, and too many of the panels are only transitional filler. Still, there are a fair number of cliffhangers, the level of explicit violence is low, and ultimately "you" as either Hocus or Pocus get to shove the witch into a bubbling pot and rescue the children. Hocus, Pocus, and the other human and humanoid characters for the most part present white.Saddled with lots of rules and constraints but some brainwork--and no batteries--required. (Graphic game fantasy. 8-11)

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October 15, 2018
Grades 3-6 In this choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel, siblings Hocus and Pocus must venture into the woods to find two lost children abducted by an evil witch. The brother and sister duo split up early on, forcing the reader to choose a character to follow. From there, every decision is made by the reader, and numbers direct them to flip to the next panel or page. It feels next to impossible to do a journey the same way twice, as every choice usually gives you two more options to choose from. But Manuro has taken the stress out of the enterprise by making every path lead to the ending in some fashion. There are no wrong answers, just certain actions or choices that will be worth more points than others, which readers need to keep track of with a handy worksheet at the front of the text (watch out, librarians). Gorobei's bubbly, rounded figures in pastel candy colors definitely add to the lightheartedness of the adventure. An innovative twist on a familiar format and fairy tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)