Chasma Knights, written by Kate Reed Petty and illustrated by Boya Sun (First Second, 2018)
Chasma Knights is a candy colored celebration of chemistry and engineering. The main character, Beryl is a Neon Knight who cannot use the special toys that most knights use. She finds the toys that have been broken and discarded by other knights and fixes them up or combines them into new and inventive alloys. Each knight represents an element and, depending on the element of the toy they interact with, there are different effects.
Beryl bemoans the consumerist nature of the Knights and takes the discarded toys to her workshop to repair and care for them. She meets an Oxygen Knight who follows her back to her lab of misfit toys. There is a clear difference between the two since the Oxygen Knight, Coro doesn’t understand why Beryl would want to keep such useless and boring toys. Together they learn about the discarded toys and work together to try something new.
The graphic novel introduces a lot of new vocabulary that the reader may have to look up. For instance, when a Coro the Oxygen Knight, demonstrates a new toy, she chants, “’OXYGEN, CHROME, RECOGNIZE!! MEET, MERGE, CATALYZE!’” (Petty, 22) This activates the toy. A younger elementary student interested in science or would enjoy the book, but it’s appeal may be more with middle-grade readers.
The panels are bordered with thick black lines with a clean white gutter between. There are a few one or two page spreads showing the rolling, squishy landscape with sparkling gumdrop hills and domed houses. The illustrations themselves are soft with curved lines and round faces and eyes. There are very few straight lines beyond the panel boarders, and even then, the corners are rounded. The colors are bright and sweet, but never fully saturated giving the entire book a comfortable feeling. There are sections in the back with information about the characters and Chasma Knights in general. It also encourages the reader to make their own Chasma Knight and gives examples of elements.
The book would pair well with a makerspace activity such as a toy-take-apart, where old or broken toys with speaker boxes or electronic parts are donated and the kids encouraged to don their safety glasses and use screwdrivers to open them up and see how they tick. The book could also be paired with a science experiment where the elements used in the book are discussed or possibly used in an experiment, such as elephant toothpaste (hydrogen and oxygen.)
















