MirrorMask

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When Helena is drawn into a strange and magical realm, one where anything can happen, her real life is stolen by a runaway from the other side. Helena must rescue the realm from chaos in order to win back her not-so-ordinary life.
'Mirrormask' is also a breathtaking film, and this book includes the story in Helena's own voice, accompanied by original art as well as images from the film. A funny, scary and magical picture book for older readers.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 6-9--Graphic novelist Neil Gaiman offers up this odd novella (HarperCollins, 2005) based on a screenplay of a movie available on DVD (Sony Pictures, 2005). Helena, a young English girl, travels through Britain with her family's small circus. She longs to run away from the circus and live a normal life in a home not on wheels. A fight with her mother turns nasty, and Helena angrily wishes her mother dead. Shortly after their argument, her mother becomes very ill, leaving Helena to wallow in guilt. In her dreams, Helena enters a mirror world where she is a princess. She meets a juggler, Valentine, and together they seek the charm that will wake the sleeping queen. The story began as a screenplay, was turned into an adult novel, and was then shortened for children--and it suffers along the way. The plot moves too quickly--first Helena trusts Valentine, but he betrays her, and before you know it they patch up their differences and proceed on the quest. The narration by Stephanie Leonidas, who reprises her movie role as Helena, is pleasing but can't save this choppy, unsatisfying tale.--Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.