BookDragon Blog

“At the center of the universe, at the beginning and end of all creation, sits the planet of Vermonia, ruled by Queen Frasinella.” Thus begins the first of a 10-volume series that stars none other than a heroic skateboarding foursome of 12-year-old warriors-in-training. But I jump ahead …

So chaos and tragedy is about to strike Vermonia. The Queen’s commander, General Uro, has gotten too big for his flowing britches and decides he wants the royal Bolirium which will give him universal domination. His twin brother, Lord Boros, tries to save his Queen, but no go. In a last-minute survival tactic, Queen Frasinella transforms her four most trusted minsters into powerful animal spirits and tells them to run for it. Meanwhile, she grabs hold of the “four veras of her spirit,” and sends them to a distant planet to get reborn.

Welcome to Blue Star, not unlike Earth. Queenie’s four veras now have names – Mel, Jim, Naomi, and Doug – and they just want to get their neighborhood lot back for skateboarding. But Mel’s mayor- father not only has other ideas for their playground, he also doesn’t want his daughter associating with such riff-raff kids. Since she can’t defy Daddy, she gets mad at her buddies instead and walks out of their band. Bad timing, as the other three were hoping to win the upcoming band battle and use the $5K prize money to finally build a real skatepark. But the evil Captain Uro has other plans. He traps Mel into another dimension, and her three best buddies must risk all to save her – getting in touch with their inner warriors along the way.

Much more than just an actual book – which you’ll need to play – Vermonia has a whole other life beyond it pages. With hints hidden in the text, readers are invited to start playing on Vermonia‘s website for an enriching graphic experience. The complete Vermonia project was apparently envisioned by Akihiro Miyata, an ex-editor at Kodansha (one of Japan’s major publishers with an international presence) who discovered and nurtured Haruki Murakami (!!!), arguably the best-known, bestselling contemporary Japanese writer. Miyata shared his ideas with Saki Uchida, still a graphic arts student at the time, who now is a manga professor! With Miyata’s guidance, Uchida pulled together a “collective”  called YoYo to make manga. Vermonia is their first published effort. Amazingly enough, the series debuted in the U.S. first, rather than in Japan, but they’ll get their turn soon.

Certainly this is manga for the 21st century: a collective creation with continued adventures on the Web … what kid (and even parent) is not going to love that? They have to read the book first (parents are cheering) to earn the screentime to continue the game!

Vermonia 2, by the way, is coming next spring. We’ll all be on the lookout for sure!

Readers: Middle Grade

Published: 2009