The Oldest Trick is part of Brezenoff’s Library of Doom graphic novel series. Each installment can be read as a standalone. In this installment, illustrated by Patricio Clarey, Dace and his family enter an antique shop looking for a dresser.
Each installment has one line–life lesson, if you will–that sticks with the reader long after they close the book. In The Oldest Trick, this line is “You control the power [something] holds over you.” In Dace’s case, it was a book, the Oldest Trick. But, this advice can be applied to anything, which is pretty powerful in a book written for third graders.
The only complaint I have about this series is that each installment isn’t long enough to satisfy my curiosity, but it is just the right length for a young, possibly reluctant, reader. I cannot wait for the librarian’s next book to collect.
The Oldest Trick is scheduled to be released by Stone Arch Books on August 1, 2022. Arc was provided by the publisher.