How To Grow Your Geek: Parenting and More!

A book review by Darcy Low

from the back of the book:
Possessing an awesome power he is only beginning to understand, young Jair Ohmsford must summon the devastating, yet darkly seductive magic of the wishsong on a fateful mission to save his friends….and protect the future from the forces of evil.
if you never ventured into the wondrous world of Shannarra, consider this an ideal opportunity.Prepare to enter the breathtaking realm of the Four Lands, where beings both noble and sinister have quested and clashed; crossed swords in the names of darkness and light. And engaged in adventures rich with mystery and majesty.

This a brand new GRAPHIC NOVEL of Shannara. Yeps a graphic novel this time. Something Mr. Brooks in his opening of this books says he has always wanted to do and if this goes well, and people like it; he will do more. Well, I think he will make more because this is way cool! The story is about Jari ohmsford and his understanding of the gift of the wishsong he has been given. When the book opens he is on a mission to destroy the last pages of a evil book called the Illdatch. With it, evil beings can learn the forbidden secrets of the druids. All but this last page remains, and it’s not going to be easy to destroy. A group of lizard men like creatures have it, and Jair is using the wishsong to turn himself invisible in order to get close enough to destroy it. Once he gets to the page, by touching it he loses his concentration and becomes visible again. Right in the middle of all these evil lizard men. Having to act fast he calls on the wishsong again to aid him. Something very strange happens then, the ghost of his old mentor, Garet Jax shows up and bonds itself to Jair. He becomes Garet jax and makes it out to safety. After destroying the page, he journeys on to the town of his sister Brin, and tells her what has happened. She warns him not to use the wishsong again, because she is afraid that by doing so he will lose himself and become a shadow of his old mentor. And be lost to her and the world forever. Jari promises and journeys on.
The great druid Allanon shows up and tells Jari that two of his friends, Kimber and her father Cogline have been kidnapped by the Lizard men and a evil witch. They are going to use spells on the old man Cogline to learn how to bring the druid’s castle back to their world and gain all of the druids secrets. Allanon sent the druid’s keep into another world, but Colgline was once a up and coming druid himself and he knows where Allanon sent it.
Can Jair rescue his two friends before the Lizardmen get what they want? Even with help, will he have to use the wishsong to help in his quest and maybe risk losing himself? hmmmmmmmm, I can’t tell you that. hehe. You’ll just have to read and find out.

The whole book has some great pictures and really help you picture all the characters and everything that is going on. The picture of Allanon is really great! It is just like what i thought he would look like. The story is good, even though this kind of story has been told before. The part about the wishsong changing Jari was a new thing and very well done, made you wonder like the character, is this a good thing or bad. Is it the ghost of Garet Jax or is it something bad or evil?

This fits well in with all the other Shanna books, and tells more of a story of Jari, Brin, Kimber and Cogline. Also lets you know more about Allanon, well a little bit. There is still a lot of mystery with him. One thing I never understood in all these books, Allanon is this great and powerful druid, and yet he always calls on other people to do the work for him and save the day. At first I didn’t understand why he just didn’t change things himself, now i think I get it. Allanon is like god in a way. Okay just listen before you say, huh???? Look at god in the old testament books, remember Moses? Or even Paul? God could have just done things himself, and been done with it. But he used regular people and got a lot better results. So I kinda think Allanon is the same way in these books if you think about it. He shows up, picks a regular person and sends them on a mission, and at the end of the book that person grows and becomes something better than what they were before. See? Or am i just thinking wrong? Oh well, everyone gets different things from books i guess.

Another cool thing about this book is in the very back. There are pages of drawings, story boards of the book, details about Mr Brooks and the people that worked on this book. And a section from the book the Wishsong of Shannara, which helps people who don’t know maybe who Jari and Brin are. Or might have forgotten the story like I did I think this is really a cool thing to do for your readers.

Overall this is one of the best graphic novels I have read, and I think anyone would love it.

The book is from Del Rey trade paperbacks and Sells for 13.95. You can find it on Amazon, Borders or maybe your local comic book store.

Go out and look for it guys, its REALLY good.

Darcy