In The Hunt Is On, set in a fantastical version of medieval China, Nie Jun (My Beijing) combines breathtaking illustrations with a thrilling and unpredictable quest. Hunt, the first in a YA graphic novel series, balances dynamic action sequences with a nuanced exploration of environmental commodification and resource scarcity.
Brothers Xinyue and Qiliu and their mother, Bu Ren Niang, are "aweto seekers," magical thieves who roam the countryside in search of deities called chadolos. Each chadolo contains an aweto, a primitive magical being with the ability to bring life to the land it inhabits. Aweto are coveted for their agricultural value and can be sold at very high prices; as a result, they have become vanishingly rare.
Xinyue and Qiliu botch a raid on a local village where a dying chadolo begs Xinyue to save its child. Xinyue, keeping the baby chadolo a secret from his brother, begins to suspect that it contains a priceless "celestial aweto," rumored to grant eternal life. The chadolo's presence soon threatens to undermine Xinyue's bonds with his family--but it may also hold the key to Xinyue's true identity and fate.
Jun's watercolor illustrations pulse with energetic movement--the huge, temperamental chadolos erupt out of the earth in swirling explosions of color each time they appear. Jun's expressive character designs imbue his protagonists with nuance, wit and humanity, and his brisk narrative (translated by Edward Gauvin referring to the French translation and the original Chinese text) remains fresh and unpredictable, building toward a conclusion as exhilarating as it is devastating. --Devon Ashby, marketing and sales assistant, Shelf Awareness