Jillian Tamaki,
Half World
Penguin Group, 2009

Rating: A *

Half World is a fantasy novel which vacillates between the human world and another realm. The introduction provides background to the concept of the Three Realms - Flesh, Spirit and Half World as written in the master book - The Book of the Realms, and sets up the tale of the child born in the Half World whose quest is to save the day by interrupting the perpetual cycles of suffering and realigning the realms to their original order.

Melanie, the underachieving, overweight, ridiculed, bullied heroine of the story lives in the human world with her alcoholic mother who, one day, disappears. Melanie is distraught, wondering what has happened to her mother, and goes in search of her. Her journey takes on the qualities of a nightmare as she is catapulted from the human world into the world of the realms, and finally, the Half World where she meets and escapes from monsters and creatures who look half human, half monster and whose cyclic, repetitive behaviours in the Half World hold untold dangers for Melanie as she uses her wits to evade and escape the dangers in her quest to find her mother. As a result, she is able to save the Half World and finds her self-confidence and her self worth.

In its story form, the plot is difficult to follow. The descriptions of the illustrations would seem to complement the story and are set to be placed inside the chapters of the novel as opposed to the beginning of the chapters to help set up the next part of the adventure. The story would be much easier to follow as a graphic novel, and teens would find it more engaging. The vocabulary and sentence structures seems to be intended for a Junior/Intermediate or Middle School audience and as such, would lend itself to a high-interest, low-vocabulary book for lower functioning Intermediate/Senior students. As a graphic novel, the vocabulary would work with all levels of ability and would capture both the female and male audiences.

Overall, Half World holds potential as a fantasy novel, but is much better suited to the genre of graphic novel than a chapter novel and destined for recreational reading programs.

Thematic Links: Fantasy

Sharon Armstrong
Vol. 14, number 3
February 2009

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.