The Road to Inconceivable (Abadazad, Book 1) [Hardcover]

J.M. DeMatteis (Author), Mike Ploog (Illustrator)

Book Description

Grade Level: 4 and up

Kate's little brother Matt is missing, and Kate thinks she will never see him again.  But then she finds out that Matt is trapped in the world of Abadazad. Will Kate have the courage to look for her brother?  And if she leaves home--will she ever return?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. A victim of CrossGen Comic's bankruptcy, the Abadazad series gets a new format here--diary entries interspersed with spot and full-page pictures and short episodes of sequential art. It's been five years since 14-year-old Kate's beloved brother, Matt, disappeared, and still raw from the tragedy, Kate and her mother are constantly at each other's throats. Then a neighbor tells Kate that Matt is in Abadazad, the mystical land featured in a series of books that Matt loved. Kate follows Matt into Abadazad, and as the first volume in the series ends, she is poised for adventure. The black-and-white art is an appealing mix of realism and exaggeration, but it is occasionally awkwardly inserted into the text, and the sequences do little to enliven the fantasy. It's Kate who makes the story shine: hyperdefensive and plagued by guilt, she is powerfully and believably depicted. A thoughtful read with surprising psychological nuance, this is not typical fantasy fare. Jesse Karp
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children; 1st edition (June 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142310062X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423100621
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,160,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, J. M. DeMatteis was a professional musician and rock music journalist before entering the comic book field.

Although he's written almost all of the major DC and Marvel icons--including memorable runs on Spider-Man and Justice League--DeMatteis's greatest greatest acclaim has come for sophisticated original graphic novels like Seekers Into The Mystery, Blood: A Tale, The Last One, and Mercy. The autobiographical Brooklyn Dreams was picked by the ALA as one of the Ten Best Graphic Novels and Booklist, in a starred review, called it "as graphically distinguished and creatively novelistic a graphic novel as has ever been...a classic of the form." The groundbreaking Moonshadow was chosen (along with Brooklyn Dreams, Blood and other DeMatteis works) for inclusion in Gene Kanenberg, Jr's 2008 book 500 Essential Graphic Novels. "While Sandman may be the best known fantasy comic," he wrote, "Moonshadow is arguably the finest."

More recently DeMatteis has had great success with the acclaimed children's fantasy Abadazad --which Entertainment Weekly, giving the series an A grade, hailed as "...one of those very rare fantasy works that can enchant preteen kids and 40-year old fanboys..." and Publisher's Weekly, in a starred review, called "an appealing blend of Spirited Away and The Wizard of Oz." Abadazad began life as a CrossGen comic book before morphing into a three-book series, a unique blend of prose, illustration and sequential art, published by Disney's Hyperion Books For Children.

His success in the comic book medium has led DeMatteis to work in both television (writing live action and animation) and movies (creating screenplays for Fox, Disney Feature Animation, directors Carlo Carlei and Chris Columbus and producer Dean Devlin, among others).

DeMatteis's latest work includes the fantasy novel Imaginalis, published in July, 2010 by HarperCollins, and a variety of television and comic book projects.

DeMatteis and his family live in upstate New York. His blogs can be found here at Amazon.com and at www.jmdematteis.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Abadazad, June 13, 2006

By 

Eruch Adams (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road to Inconceivable (Abadazad, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I guess you could just read all the other rave reviews, but I had to throw in my two cents. This is the type of book that I feel excited that I found out about it before it became so amazingly popular that everyone else has already read it. It's the kind of book that I will buy multiple copies of so I can give to my friends, young and old, and dedicate it to them so that when they read it to their kids or their kids read it to their kids years from now, they'll know who gave it to them and have a pleasant association with me in my old age.

So I'm 29 and I really enjoy it, but I would have liked it if I was only 9. I suggest buying 2 copies of each to start with. That way you can keep one set and be the first to give one away to that friend, nephew, niece, kid, or coworker who would love to read something original, imaginative and fun.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic For A New Generation (and a Aging One), November 14, 2006

By 

Whoop2Do "Whoop2Do" (Gaithersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Inconceivable (Abadazad, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Cross Gen Comics was a noble failure. The publisher tried to expand Comics by publishing stories in as many far-thinking formats as possible. They also tried to create tales for all age groups and interests by pushing into as many genres as possible, eschewing for the most part the capes and tights superheroics that still dominate this dusk of the comic industry. Alas, the financial side of the equation did not match the creative and Cross Gen was in the end unsuccessful.

However, one of the last enterprises of the company was the launching of Abadazad. It lasted a mere 3 issues, but fortunately showed enough of it's promise (and generated good word-of-mouth) to be picked up by Disney.

Abadazad is clearly the Wizard of Oz for the generations that have grown up demanding more depth even for Children's entertainment.

Abadazad is a dynamite mix of prose, traditional illustrations and pure comics. The prose adds so much more to the story than could ever be portrayed in traditional panel comics and the comic pages add so much more illustrative depth than could otherwise be conveyed.

The story is strong. While it concerns a more or less standard quest of fantasy ( a young girl must travel to a strange and enchanted land to rescue her little brother), the main character's persona is so much richer (and just a little edgier) thanks to the circumstances of her rather difficult life and family relations perceeding the jump to pure fantasy.

And what a fantasy world she jumps into! With all the depth and colour of Oz or Narnia, but with just a slightly harder edge that should be acceptable to both parent and child. Mike Ploog brings the fantastic world of Abadazad to life and proves the axiom that a picture is worth a thousand words!

A wonderful start for a series that should be immensely enjoyed by anyone 8 or older (or even MUCH older).

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the uninitiated: this book is absorbing, stylish and for all ages, June 19, 2006

By 

Cocoabeach "Parent of 2 precocious children" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Inconceivable (Abadazad, Book 1) (Hardcover)

This is one of the most stylish and interesting books you will ever come across, I promise. Children will love it but you'll find adults and young adults as engaged as anyone else. The book will absorb you in it's world of wonder.

Comparisons between this book and Alice in Wonderland are valid, but the freshness of characters and the presentation of this story is unlike any other. Alternating between a girl's journal, excerpts from an absorbing fantasy book she reads and her own amazing adventures with characters beyond imagination, the book is novel and fun. The storyline begins with a preface by the girl explaining that the book is magical and warning readers. The unfolding story of a girl who lives with her single mom and her close relationship with her younger brother quickly moves from the touching yet ordinary into a wonderland of hope and fun. Highly recommended.

The format of the book is a small hardcover and contains some animated portions, some narrative and some excerpts from a fantasy novel all interwoven into this "magic" story. It is longer, certainly, than a typical comic/graphic novel but the book itself feels like such a treasure and is so curiously written and illustrated that my kids were enchanted by it and begged me to read it to them. My daughter is a little young to read it by herself so we read it together and the interesting parallels between the girl reading to her brother and our own reading makes it all the more interesting.


For the uninitiated: the story was originally published incomplete in a series of comic books and the rights were purchased by Disney a few years ago before the comic published more than just the first few issues. Disney liked the series concept so much but wanted it to reach a wider audience so the authors rewrote the story into this charming small hardcover format. The current plan is an 8 volume series.