Drawing a Blank

by Trevor Ristow

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Carlton Dunne IV, 16, is rich in material wealth, poor in social skills. The subtitle—"Or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams"—hints at how events will unfold. With Carlton's mother long dead, his wealthy father has shipped him from Manhattan to a Connecticut boarding school, where Carlton retreats into self-acknowledged misanthropy, living vicariously through Signy the Superbad, a comic strip chronicling the adventures of a buxom crime fighter that he pens for a local newspaper. His life—spent hunched over his sketch pad—is upended when an evil Scottish rival kidnaps his father and Carlton must rescue him. At the airport, a gorgeous female stranger saves Carlton from becoming roadkill; her moxie parallels the derring-do of Carlton's comic super-heroine. Of all the implausibilities in this entertaining, if overlong farce, the most unbelievable aspect might be that an aspiring graphic novelist like Carlton would write 300-plus pages of text. More of Ristow's pen-and-ink drawings, interspersed irregularly throughout the narrative, might have helped the pacing, which sags at times. Ristow's panels could also have served to carry the plot points instead of simply mirroring the events of the narrative. That said, the short chapters, abundant one-liners and Carlton's engaging, self-deprecating narration make this a fun, light read. Ages 12-up. (May)
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Starred Review. Gr 9 Up–Once again, Ehrenhaft has created a sympathetic and hapless teen antihero who manages to retain his sense of humor even when the chips are way, way down. In this outing, the plotline zigzags from a posh New England boarding school to the site of Carlton Dunne's father's kidnapping in Manhattan to a rescue mission undertaken in rural Scotland. The teen deals with a publisher who doesn't know that his hired talent is a boy rather than the man Carlton Dunne III; with nasty dorm mates who break all his personal stuff; and with a mystery girl who seems to be helping him in his Scottish quest to recover the dad he isn't sure he likes one bit. The girl, not surprisingly, isn't as simple and sweet as she seems at first blush. Carlton's parallel black-and-white comics (informed by his favorite childhood book of Nordic legends) do a clever job of echoing the story with its cast of superhero–and superantihero–antics. A fair amount of drinking in the Scottish countryside both advances the plot and makes the characters seem all the more real for their grittiness. Footnotes abound, and provide their own diminutive jokes as well as useful explanations of such traditions as the ancient game of ba'. Fluffy, but with that spicy edge of a deep-thinking outsider.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
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From BookList, May 1, 2006, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
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*Starred Review*
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Gr. 8-11. Surprising in format as well as plot, Ehrenhaft's novel intersperses chapters of first-person narrative with episodes of Signy the Superbad, a superhero comic strip drawn by the narrator and inspired by his experiences. For Carlton, drawing comics is both a way of life and a retreat from it. Shipped off to a New England prep school by his distant father, who seems obsessed by an ancestral Scottish feud, Carlton copes by going through the motions at school and drawing his own alternate reality. A phone message from his father's kidnapper jolts him into action--and divides the novel into before, when Carlton's life features classmates barging into his room to conduct their annual "Who-Would-You-Bang Forum," and after, as Carlton and his enigmatic new friend Aileen roam the Scottish countryside attempting to find Carlton's father and recover an ancient dagger. For a self-described misanthrope, Carlton makes a very engaging character, caring but wary, vulnerable but game, and readers occasionally willing to suspend disbelief will find the narrative highly entertaining and sometimes enlightening. Intermittent footnotes supply information on various people (Dylan Thomas, Keith Richards, etc.) and facts and fictional details (prehistoric stone circles, a recipe for bannocks, Carlton's half sister's imaginary friend). A fresh, effervescent combination of mystery, adventure, and teen angst.

CarolynPhelan.
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