Surfside Girls: The Mystery at the Old Rancho by Kim Dwinell

7th thru 12th grade – Graphic Novel – Tween Graphic Novel

Genre or category

Mystery

Fiction

Supernatural

Target Age Group

Ages 9 -12

Grade and Lexile Level not provided by NoveList (EBSCOhost, 2023)

Summary

Sam and Jade are put onto a new mystery to solve when one of the ghosts they are acquainted with gets startled beyond consolation. Readers will follow these two girls as they work to solve this two-hundred-year-old mystery with a lot of leg work, and a lot of research to find the answer for their friend.

Justification

My local library has this graphic novel cataloged and shelved as a Tween Graphic Novel (Tulsa City-County Library, n.d.). While this story has not won awards the author and illustrator, Kim Dwinell, has worked on several advantageous projects and teaches several classes at California State University at Long Beach. Her Surfside Girls graphic novels have reached notoriety as the title was developed into an Apple TV+ show as well (kimdwinell.com).

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating the design and layout, illustrations, and plot.

Surfside Girls: The Mystery at the Old Rancho is very appealing to look at and appears to be a well-thought-out and developed graphic novel. This is the second graphic novel I have picked up, and it was very different from the first both in style and appearance. The pages are not busy and allow for the story to be followed easily. The colors have a calming effect and belay a sense of introspection in the reader. The page layout is evenly spaced and the illustrations are clean and simple but are full of beauty and character. The panels are symmetrical, and none of the artwork overlaps and stays within their designated boxes. I love that this wasn’t an overly busy story to look at, if the pages were busy or bright, this mystery story wouldn’t have felt right while reading - the story would have clashed with the appearance.

While they are not the most intricate drawings, they are skillfully drawn and appealing to look at. The facial expressions that the characters make throughout this graphic novel also help tell this story beyond words, especially when it is just a panel with a close-up of one face, with no words attributed to that specific square. We can see jealousy, joy, fear, and sadness clearly within these moments, helping the reader relate to the character even if the character in question is a ghost. Outside of the characters themselves, Kim Dwinell created beautiful landscapes and scenery to set her story in, she even took the time to include handwritten notes as a part of her storytelling, I found this to be both a great creative choice and a fun way to continue the story. Having lived in Southern California myself, it was refreshing to see missions and relatively historically accurate characters and buildings within this story.

A visitor in Surfside has turned this ghost’s life upside down, and it is up to Sam and Jade to figure out what happened 200 years ago. This ghost is distraught, and the kind tweens just want to help, Kim Dwinell did a marvelous job of playing out this story. The reader will want the main characters to find justice for this long-departed friend. While this isn’t the most well-developed plot I’ve read, and it certainly doesn’t bring about feelings of anxiety or intrigue, the story was interesting enough that it somewhat rescued this lacking plot and still gave readers something to look forward to and root for the good guys.  

I gave this graphic novel 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads because it wasn’t the most substantial mystery story I have read, or even the most satisfying tween novel I have read. I believe that the average tween who occasionally dabbles in reading mysteries will thoroughly enjoy this skillfully drawn story, but the more avid mystery readers may not find the most fulfilling story between the covers.

 

References and other helpful resources

About me. (n.d.) Kimdwinell.com. Retrieved March 20, 2024. https://www.kimdwinell.com/about

California Missions Project. (n.d.) The California Missions. https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/the-california-missions/

Dwinell, K. (2019). Surfside girls: The mystery at the old rancho (K. Dwinell, Illus.). Top Shelf Productions.

EBSCOhost. (2023). Surfside girls: The mystery at the old rancho. NoveList Plus. https://www.kimdwinell.com/about

Goodreads. (n.d.) Surfside girls: The mystery at the old rancho. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046462-the-mystery-at-the-old-rancho?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=1Olwl4Sya9&rank=1

Tulsa City-County Library. (n.d.). Surfside girls: The mystery at the old rancho. Catalog. https://tccl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S63C4680648