The Golden Age vol 1 by Roxanne Moreil

Illustrated by Cyril Pedrosa

In a distant kingdom that feels very much like medieval France, the king has just passed, and the coronation of his daughter, Tilda, is soon. The greedy barons want to tax peasants more and blame everything else for their poor yielding fields, but Tilda isn’t about to have her people suffer even more.  The coronation doesn’t even have a chance to start when Tilda is usurped and betrayed, then thrown into exile. Flanked by her only two loyal retainers left, Tilda decides to head to the Peninsula, where there is one more loyal man left in her kingdom, one more hope for taking back her throne. Filled with intrigue, secret societies, and treasure, Tilda’s adventure is just getting started.

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Throughout book one, the storyline is a little predictable, but the art more than makes up for the easy storyline.  The art is very reminiscent of the stills from Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty or The Sword in the Stone movies, but the colors are often hauntingly beautiful.  Everything is fairly fluid, but the character design is right out of that era of film.  

There is also some potential for the second book to be less predictable with the mysterious treasure Tilda went after at the end of this book, so hopefully that will add some complexity moving forward.  Tilda starts off as the obvious choice for the reader to be invested, but by the end of the book, she has morphed more into an anti-hero than a true protagonist, and I'm sure it has something to do with the mysterious treasure. 

This book might appeal to students who like fantasy stories and had a childhood full of Disney movies.  There is some violence in the first book, but not overly gory.  

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: First Second
Publication Date: February 11th 2020​
ISBN: 9781250237941 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Graphic Fiction, Fantasy, War, Family, First Second