Juniper Mae: Knight of Tykotech City

Sarah Soh’s first graphic novel is a tale of female ingenuity and courage suitable for junior school age. Influenced possibly by Japanese comics, it mixes armour-clad, sword wielding young women, with an urban tech world of skyscrapers and futuristic machines, and imaginary woodland creatures called tama-tamas. Our heroine, Juniper Mae, is a shy girl, who loves inventing things and longs to emulate the legendary warriors who protected Tykotech city long ago. Testing one of her inventions, she is thrown completely off course and ends up in the dark unknown forest that surrounds the city. There she meets the tama-tamas, who are difficult for this reader to describe, but whose appearance is somewhere between a teddy bear and a frog. With the tama-tamas she discovers how the city’s power source is being stolen and, in a battle with metal insectoids that are attacking the city, realizes her wish to become a warrior. Soh tells the story principally through her illustrations, which are bold and colourful, cleverly characterised, never afraid to be cute, and slyly humorous.