In the world of teenage witches, anything goes. Cheating on tests, not doing homework, ruling the school, all these things and more are quite delightful for three very witchy teenage girls, Jesse, Kimmie and Cynthia. “Best Friends Forever” and “Three in Power” might have been the phrases they used as children to assert their power and togetherness, but now that two of the three are losing powers as well as having to put up with some pretty nasty graffiti about them, it might just be two against one. No matter how much Jesse protests that she knows nothing about Kimmie and Cynthia becoming regular teenagers again, they just don’t believe her. They’ll find a way to make her tell the truth, but they’ll have to do it without magic, and they’ll have to do it fast, before Jesse becomes the teenage witch that rules the school.
In Spell Checkers, a supernatural series by Jamie S. Rich, Nicolas Hitori De, and Joelle Jones, readers will come to love, and probably loathe, teenage witches Jesse, Kimmie, and Cynthia. As they’ve grown up together, they’ve perfected their witchy ways as well as their bad attitudes and mean girl status at school. They are bad to the bone, both to their classmates and to each other. So, when graffiti starts showing up around school blasting Kimmie and Cynthia, they have a hunch they know who is behind the dirty deeds. Plus, when each witch discovers that this graffiti isn’t just spray-paint, but done with spells, they pretty much think they have the case all sewed up. But when they start losing their powers, the two decide that Jesse must be stopped. And where’s the best place to publicly humiliate their ex-bestie? Well, her 16th birthday party, of course. But Kimmie and Cynthia will be surprised when they find out who is really behind all the magical mayhem.
This black and white manga-ish graphic novel will be a guilty pleasure for all the mean girls (and not so mean girls) who like a little magic in their stories. The three girls are absolutely irredeemable, but that’s part of their charm; they are rotten with a capital R and they know it. Pretty mean insults and cigarette smoking are both integral parts of the story; neither is seen as a negative and there is no evolution of any of the characters by the end of the story. The illustrations are action packed and easy to follow; the illustrators use a slightly different drawing style when showing things that happened in the past which is extremely helpful. The story and drawings are perfectly in sync and expressions and exclamations are pretty funny as they are drawn out. The illustrations definitely bring to life the bratty nature of each girl. Readers will definitely want to follow this coven as they bring magic, mayhem, and mischief to whomever dare crosses their paths.
Spell Checkers, vol. 1
by Jamie S. Rich
Art by Nicolas Hitori De, Joelle Jones
ISBN: 9781934964323
Oni Press, 2010
Publisher Age Rating: T (Age 13 )
