This prescient, thrilling, unusual and occasionally hilarious graphic novel uses scrapbook-style content to tell the story of two of Earth's human survivors of a sun shift that causes a fatal sickness in mammals.
It's the year 2101. In a MacGyvered copper van, Elvie, a plucky 10-year-old, and her wry, brilliant guardian, Flora, follow migrating monarch butterflies along the west coast of the United States. Their vital, life-sustaining purpose is to harvest scales from the butterflies' wings to use both in a medicine Flora produces to prevent sun sickness and also--they hope--in developing a vaccine. Along the way they must protect themselves from marauders, deepers (people who live underground during the day and scavenge at night), earthquakes, tsunamis and betrayal by the very people they hope to save with the vaccination. "Desperate people are dangerous," Flora warns Elvie.
In his magnificent Little Monarchs, Jonathan Case (Before Tomorrowland illustrator) uses a rich blend of journal entries, maps, diagrams, scientific illustrations, instructions on celestial navigation and hammock-hanging, and tips on foraging and scavenging to allow Elvie to narrate her strange yet normal daily experience. Just about everything one might need to survive post-apocalyptic life on Earth is packed into these colorful pages. Case's choice to use comic-strip style art is canny: the somewhat realistic human figures are highly expressive and the panels are representative of the constrained life the characters lead, never able to break out of their roles--or the boxes drawn around them. The stunning backdrop of abandoned buildings, crashed vehicles and nature left to its own devices tells the story as vividly as Elvie's words. Save the planet--read this book! --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor