Name: Foiled
Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
ISBN: 9781613838266

Jane Yolen

This first graphic novel by celebrated fantasy author Yolen introduces readers to Aliera, a young fencing champion, whose life changes in strange ways after her mother buys her a fencing foil with a ruby glued to the hilt.

Foiled

Mike Cavallaro

Aliera Carstairs prefers fencing to high school, where she does not fit in, but her life changes when her mother buys her a new weapon and a gorgeous new boy named Avery Carstairs shows up in her biology class.

Sarah Sammis

Foiled is Jane Yolen's first graphic novel. She is a prolific author, having written 300 books and her books cover as many genres and nearly as many age groups as Neil Gaiman's books do. Yolen writes about being a fan of Gaiman's in her post about writing foiled so the comparison is a fair one.

As Yolen ex plains in her blog, she started the story when her grand-daughter took up fencing. Her experiences brought up memories of fencing in college. My brother briefly did fencing too so the fencing details seemed spot on and knowing the history behind the book really brings it together. Even the set up of losing the foil in Grand Central Station has its roots in Yolen's life.

Now of course the book is fantasy but I don't want to spoil the big reveal. What I will tell you is this: pay attention to the artwork. It provides important clues to what's really going on.

Foiled

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