Review: Wars in Toyland by Joe Harris

Wars in Toyland by Joe Harris
Illustrated by Adam Pollina, Brent McCarthy, Nolan Woodard
Hardcover, 104 pages
Published: July 10th 2013 by Oni Press
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Toyland was once a place of wonder and beauty, at least until the teddy dictator Roxbury took over. After Matthew's brother and playmate, Alex, disappears, Matthew finds himself carried into Toyland by his own loyal toy soldiers. Matthew soon learns that Alex has been here, too, held captive by Roxbury. Leading an attack on the teddy bear's fortress, Matthew never considers that his brother might be beyond saving.

My Review:

First I would like to say that I had this book for review on my computer and the time has run up on it so I can’t go back and reference. This is all coming from memory.

Ever wonder what your toys do when you’re not playing with them? Well this might be it. This graphic novel follows a young boy, Matthew, as he goes on an adventure through his toy box in hopes of stopping the war that is raging inside. His toy box is also shared by his older brother who goes missing one day. They were inseparable playmates so of course his Mathew takes this quite hard.

Then randomly one day his toys start talking to him and lead him away to the world of Toyland. It always makes me sad when I see a book or movie about a toy that isn’t played with. One of the “bad guys” in this book is an old teddy bear who has never been hugged. Mathew soon learns that his brother might also be trapped in Toyland. So he puts on a brave face to go conquer the bad guy. He soon finds out that his brother might not be the nice boy he remembers and must save himself and his brother from the world of Toyland.

The illustrations in this book are nice though. I really liked the toys themselves and even the evil toys were drawn really well. The story itself really didn’t hold me to well but I still enjoyed looking at all the detail. It’s interesting point of view to look at Toyland as a war ridden place rather than a happy go lucky world.

Do I Recommend this Book/Series?

I would recommend this for children from the ages of 10-15. I think they would probably enjoy this the most. However, if you are a fan of well-drawn graphic novels then I would say go ahead and check this out for it is a different type of story than normal.

My Rating:

 

*This book was provided by NetGalley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.