cover image Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed

Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. by Leila Del Duca. DC Comics, $16.99 paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-4012-8645-3

On the hidden island of Themyscira, where ageless warrior women, the Amazons, wait to protect the world from “Great Evil,” Princess Diana has struggled with the physical and emotional upheaval of puberty, whose changes she’s told will end by her 16th birthday. When she swims out from the island one day to rescue refugees on a raft that has broken through the island’s magical barrier, Diana finds herself adrift in the modern world, unable to return to her own. As a refugee, she spends time in a Greek camp before two United Nations inspectors, recognizing her extraordinary gift for languages, take her to New York, where she learns about the mortal world and its perils from new friend and housemate Raissa, 17. Though Anderson goes beyond the typical superhero-villain conflict, commenting on a broad range of social issues (among them activism, corporate greed, homelessness and income inequality, human trafficking, immigration, and misogyny), the abundance of issues unfocuses the plot, resulting in disparate story threads that are too conveniently resolved. Del Duca’s dynamic art, filled with female representation across ages, ethnicities, and body types, fills the pages with color and carefully observed detail, firmly situating the story. Ages 14 –up. (June)