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August 24, 2010 by Esther Keller

Review: Sonic Select

August 24, 2010 by Esther Keller   1 comments

I should be writing how much I hated Sonic Select.  If anything that I’ve read lately has shown me that I’m getting old, these two volumes of Sonic Select have accomplished that.

Sonic Select: Book One

By Mike Gallagher, Illustratedby David Manak

Grades 2-5 (Publisher Recommendation)

Grades 4-8 (My suggestion)

Archie Comics, April 2008, 978-1-879794-29-0,

$11.95, 128 pp.

Sonic Select: Book Two

Grades 4-8

Archie Comics, November 208, 978-1-879794-36-8

$11.95. 128 pp.

So why did I read these comics?  Well, I had to know why these books were so popular with the boys! 6th and 7th graders would jump all over me the last couple of years wondering where the volumes of Sonic were. And since the volumes can be rather slim (Not the Sonic Select, but the regular Sonic Archives), they easily got lost on the shelf (or lost in some students backpack or you know somehow lost from the library, but that’s another story!).

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I have to admit, it did take me a while to get into this.  Like I said, these books made me feel old, and it took me a while to connect. But slowly, I started to enjoy the adventures of Sonic and his pals.

For those who aren’t familiar with Sonic’s history, it goes as follows. Sonic the Hedgehog is based on a videogame that was created in the early 1990s by Sega Genesis.  As a videogame there have been many incarnations since and is available for current game systems, like Wii, DS, etc. (we are reviewing the comic here, and not the game!  GameSpot has a 25-minute video that explains the history of the Sonic game.

Sonic fights the evil Dr. Robotnik and his robot creations.  He has a team of friends, freedom fighters that help him in his fight for good over evil.  There’s Sally, the princess of Knothole village. Tails, Sonic’s trusty apprentice, Knuckles his friendly nemesis, as well as many other endearing characters.

Sonic Select is like a short story collection of many different Sonic tales.  As pegged by the publisher, the best of the best stories will appear in these volumes.  The selections don’t necessarily flow one into the other.  Some sections/chapters are continuous stories, while other stories seem to stop in the middle.  A box does appear to let the reader know where readers can find the rest of the story, but somehow that just seems like too little too late.

For those unfamiliar with Sonic history, connecting to the characters might take a while. The Sonic Select editions don’t build with the characters from the beginning, but readers will feel like they’re coming into the middle of things.

The artwork is lively. The coloring was simplistic, but just enough to hook a reader’s eye. At times, the graphics felt like they were right out of the video game.

While Sonic probably won’t make it to the top of my reading list anytime soon, I do think that it will continue to appeal to all those 6th and 7th grade boys that come into my library.

Filed under: Graphic Novels, Reviews, Uncategorized

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About Esther Keller

Esther Keller is the librarian at JHS 278, Marine Park in Brooklyn, NY. There she started the library's first graphic novel collection and strongly advocated for using comics in the classroom. She also curates the Graphic Novel collection for the NYC DOE Citywide Digital Library. She started her career at the Brooklyn Public Library and later jumped ship to the school system so she could have summer vacation and a job that would align with a growing family's schedule. On the side, she is a mother of 4 and regularly reviews for SLJ and School Library Connection (formerly LMC). In her past life, she served on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee where she solidified her love and dedication to comics.

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Comments

  1. Mark says

    June 23, 2011 at 2:46 am

    hey man.. the whole purpose of sonic select is to reprint stories from sonic super specials ( these were special 48 page specials that sometimes finished off a big story arc or something like that) so the reason the stories don’t go together is cause they aren’t supposed to .. you are supposed to read the sonic archives and when it tells you “hey this story finishes in sonic select volume 2” THEN you read sonic select volume 2 and only the story in it that you want.. you cant expect to jump into the middle of a long running and extremely popular with all ages comic series and just read a brand new story.. I am 25 and i collected to comics since i was very young and they were awesome.. in my opinion they are still an awesome read but you gotta read them in order. like for example would you start reading lord of the rings at book 2 half way thru that book and expect to know whats going on? its just common sense

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