Review by Ian Keogh

Rikki and Ross are at the summer camp for magical children run by Zatanna Zatara at the local library. It might be for magical children, but Zatanna’s idea of fun isn’t working with magic, but making friendship bracelets, which doesn’t interest anybody.

Matthew Dow Smith has a strange idea of what it takes to captivate young children. He has the kids themselves underwhelmed at the thought of spending weeks in the library, yet pretty well the first third of the book is just them chatting or wandering around. Furthermore Smith throws in a bunch of supernatural terms without any explanation. Imagining a young child asking their parent what a spirit jar is, or to explain runes is frankly more fun than the first sixty pages. Smith does introduce a bunch of classmates, but very few of them matter when it comes to the eventual story, by which time Rikki, Blue Devil, Dead Kid and Enchantress have teamed up. Rikki considers herself an investigator, and even investigating the library is better than feeble pursuits.

Smith’s drawing delivers the characters as simply as possible, and they’re placed in equally basic surroundings, with much of the impact delivered by the bright colour, which is an unusual choice for any kind of supernatural story.

When a plot eventually forces its way into focus, it concerns science in the library being replaced by magic, although that doesn’t seem to be any concern to Zatanna, the only authority figure ever seen. There’s a clever and emotional reason for what’s happening, but reaching it takes far too long, and it’s doubtful the mystery will sustain the attention of children through what it takes to reach that solution.