They paved paradise, put up a parking lot,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” Joni Mitchell
Norwegian children’s book author Nora Dasnes’s book about a bunch of kids They paved paradise, put up a parking lot,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” Joni Mitchell
Norwegian children’s book author Nora Dasnes’s book about a bunch of kids who want to keep their bog and not cave to the local "Need" for yet another parking lot. Accompanied by a guide to student activism re: the environment. Very colorful and vibrant and hopeful!
Club Microbe, by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly) is an adorable and enthusiastic sciencBest Publication For Early Readers
Club Microbe, by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly) is an adorable and enthusiastic science book for kids by one of the most fanatical advocates of teaching science to kids. This one is about microbes, filled with lots of fun facts, that they live in us and in a sense rule the planet. Ways ot keep bad germs from making you sick, hopes for microbes in the future. Adorable drawings of various microbes, too, to which she adds eyes and teeth to make them cuter....more
Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee for Best Publication for Early Readers (2025)
Bog Myrtle (December 2024) is a terrific--Kyo Maclear calls it Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee for Best Publication for Early Readers (2025)
Bog Myrtle (December 2024) is a terrific--Kyo Maclear calls it "freeaking gorgeous" in a back cover blurb--graphic novel principally about two very different sisters and a forest witch. And some spiders. The two sisters live together; one is kind, the other mean. The nice one wants to knit; the other just wants to make money. And they are broke. So nive sister gores out in the forest and finds a nice stone, a cicada shell, and tries to sell them and Bog Myrtle threatens to turn her into a fly and eat her.
Why? Because the forest is an ecosystem, you don't disrupt it by taking stuff from it, so nice sister returns the forest stuff, and gets some magic silk as an act of forgiveness. So she knits several sweaters, one for mean sister, then others she gets rich on, elevating the price as the demand goes up, of course. Spiders help in the production line.
Spiders are angry that they are not getting a fair deal, so they unionize--the union makes webs strong--and though things don't work out so well for mean sister (hint: She is turned into a fly and eaten by Bog Myrtle when she comes in all capitalist-demanding), things end up pretty much okay for nice sister. You get the various "morals" here.
The art is even more of a "draw" here, ha ha, than the story! One of the best graphic novels I have read this year ....more
Loose Threads (2024) by Argentinian Isol is a really innovative picturebook involving embroidery. Leilah keeps losing things, and Mama just wants her Loose Threads (2024) by Argentinian Isol is a really innovative picturebook involving embroidery. Leilah keeps losing things, and Mama just wants her to be more attentive, but Leilah, with the support of her grandmother, has a different theory: Things may be slipping into "holes" in the world that lead to The Other Side, which is of course less orderly and certainly stranger than the world you and I live in (mostly?).
So Leilah has this idea to sew up these holes, this tears in the fabric separating the two sides, whcih initially works pretty well. The art in the book, I repeat, is embroidery, stitching threads, so it is part of the story. ...more
Another good entry in the attractive Little People, BIG DREAMS picture book/children's bio series by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara, this one illustrated byAnother good entry in the attractive Little People, BIG DREAMS picture book/children's bio series by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara, this one illustrated by Erica Salcedo. The story has O'Keefe as a kid in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin who prefers to look at things rather than do her schoolwork, which I get as a point about an artist, but it slightly demeans her, I thought, as she was widely read and smart in many ways. Not just a day dreamer.
The book takes her from rural Wisconsin flowers to big cities such as Chicago and NewYork, where she met and married the iconic photographer Alfred Steiglitz, then back to flowers (and skeleton skulls) in the desert. But in the light of the 2024 Chicago Art Institute exhibit on her New York paintings, there is a page here on her Manhattan art work. Making the ordinary extraordinary, Vegara says is the point of her art, and that seems right. O'Keefe said at one point regarding her flower piantings that no one really looks at flowers. But she helped us do that. ...more
A sweet wordless graphic novel for children about Immie, a girl who finds one of the flowers in a rose bush blooms into a fantastical creature, a ros A sweet wordless graphic novel for children about Immie, a girl who finds one of the flowers in a rose bush blooms into a fantastical creature, a rose wolf. An adventure ensues, a journey. Both Immie and the rose wolf are missing limbs, but they in a sense "replace" what's missing with magic and the love of nature and friendship. ...more
"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your place in the family of things"--Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"
Gran died and mom is still spinning into grief. So Poppy takes Pepper outside and meets Rob, and they discover the wonders of the world together.
I have sort of not been looking for children's graphic novels lately, but every once in a while I peek in the children's section of the library for what's new, and when I saw this cover I knew I would like it. Then--oh joy--the whole opening only has images, forcing you to slow down and look as Popper looks at what will save her and us: beauty, nature, friendship, family, love. Many many panels with just views of the "wild" in all its richness. Magic....more
People is, like Blex’s Seasons, a conceptual book, to make you think about language and relationships, and a comparison or contrast between two facingPeople is, like Blex’s Seasons, a conceptual book, to make you think about language and relationships, and a comparison or contrast between two facing images/concepts. Sometimes the relationship seems crystal clear and sometimes its elliptical and sometimes you have to work very hard to see the connections at all. Which sounds potentially frustrating if you are reading this with a kid, but I say it is interesting, if you have the time.
This is again a wordless book, maybe a picture book or children's book, but the images are not warm and fuzzy and cute. No stories here. The images are flat and unemotional, colorful, muted, block prints.
Philosophy of language stuff, really. Useful to look at with second language learners in an ESL class, maybe. Use it for creative writing. Have people write about the juxtapositions, which is sometimes what poetry is about. Surprising relations.
Such as: *Nudist and Invisible Man *(Musical) Conductor and Tyrant (both waving sticks) *Chef and DJ (mixing!) *Contortionist and Plumber *Homeless Person and Camper *Hunter and Soldier *Cowboy and Actor (playing a cowboy)
So interesting what you can do with this book! Maybe sometimes it’s a book for older kids such as when we see paired images of Corpse and Retiree. But it's thought-provoking....more
Congrats for the Eisner 2024 Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Watership Down, by Richard Adams, adapted by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin (Ten Speed Congrats for the Eisner 2024 Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Watership Down, by Richard Adams, adapted by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin (Ten Speed Graphic)!
“Men will never rest until they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals.”
A masterpiece of literary adaptation of Richard Adams’s classic Watership Down by comics stylist and founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies James Sturm, illustrated by Joe Sutphin. Deeply researched, including an exploration of the original area of Hampshire near where Adams and his family lived, led by his daughters.
“Once there were two rabbits called Hazel and Fiver.”
Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this 1972 children’s novel was an almost immediate sensation, revived in 1978 by the success of the animated adaptation. It’s a journey tale, a fantasy adventure employing anthropomorphic rabbits, and was somewhat reminiscent for me of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (because of the cute Hobbit-y rabbits and the journey and the fight against bad guys).
“Every rabbit that stays behind is in great danger. We will welcome any rabbit who joins us.”
Everyone was reading it in the seventies, as I recall, an inspirational tale of cooperation, courage, and survival. Adams didn’t like all the theorizing about it; for him and his daughters it was “just a story,” but you know, the author’s dead, and all: You read it the way you wanna read it, Richard, and we'll read it the way we want to!
For instance, it’s an environmental tale published within two years of the first Earth Day, as the first threat that makes them hit the road is man’s development of the natural world with tractors and guns. Man's inhumanity to nature, for profit. The rabbits journey from their native Sandleford Warren, facing various predators and adversaries, to what seems to be safe haven, and maybe a more perfect society, or at least perfect for a sixties/early seventies romantic tale?
Yeah it’s a lotta rabbits, and they are sometimes hard to distinguish, but that’s not a huge issue. Yes, there are great distinct characters, but the point is the collective, the shared commitment to survival. Sure, we lose a lot of Adams’s lyrical language (it was a big book!) in trimming it down to fewer--more focused--episodes, but it remains a lovely poetic myth, where the rabbits speak their own language from time to time (with a Lapine vocabulary in an appendix); we learn of their history and religion. And they have their own artists and storytellers, in the grand oral tradition of nomadic creatures. And heroes, who sometimes die tragic deaths.
Speaking of symbolic meaning: Our favorite sweet and hopeful rabbits face down both a farmer with his dog and cat (hiss!) who keeps rabbits in pens (!? pens!? Let them be free!). Bigwig infiltrates a neighboring warren of rabbits, the Owsla in Efrafa, led by a fascist dictator, General Woundwort, manipulating the bad guys into believing that he is acting alone, and then he escapes with the does. Go ahead, deny the influence of George Orwell’s 1984 when you hear the General speak. I know, I know, Richard, yopu probably never read 1984, sure. . .
We seem to be in an era in which great adaptations of classic literature proliferate. Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade and To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel, Speak, The Handmaid’s Tale. But trust me, this is a classic five stars easy....more
A long graphic novel (more than 150 pages) about a girl who feels alienated by her parents' divorce, runs away to live in the woods and escapes into A long graphic novel (more than 150 pages) about a girl who feels alienated by her parents' divorce, runs away to live in the woods and escapes into a world--The Wondrous Wonders--with elves, foxes, multi-colored ponies fighting a tomcat. So it's a story within a story, and a kind of allegory on facing your challenges: 1) fantasize; 2) get over your anger.
I'd say it is longer than it needs to be, but since I just read and reviewed the author's Juliette and have fallen in love with her art--sweet, pastel colors, delicate, loose, intimate lines--I can move my 3.5 rating up to 4 stars. The translation into English is great, makes it feel contemporary and quirky/snarky in places. ...more
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is of course iconic, required reading for mystery and detective readers. So why not get young readers introduSir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is of course iconic, required reading for mystery and detective readers. So why not get young readers introduced to one of the foundations of the genre? This is what I imagine to be the thinking of NorthSouth (NordSud Verlag AD) Press, that produced this volume of one of the most thrilling of the early Holmes stories.
There’s a few potential problems; 1) David Henry Wilson is named as the translator of the book, which I am guessing was translated from the English for a German audience, though the language in this translation back to English is simplified and cut for children--a reasonable thing to do, maybe, as some of the Victorian English of Doyle is stuffy and quaint, but what’s kept seems sort of flat in places; 2) the indigo scratchboard illustrations by Hannes Binder are superb, worth taking a look at just for that--there’s even some surreal images that are marvelous--but the art seems more appropriate for an adult audience than for children. It's much darker than most children's books, so I am guessing they might not like the art as much as adult readers;
3) this was intended by Doyle as the last Holmes story; the prickly Doyle was sick of Holmes, and wanted to kill him off in an encounter with his nemesis, Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls, and that apparently happens, which would seem to create a problem for young readers who discover Holmes in their first story about him suddenly dead! Why read the "last" story first?! Though the lure of money for Doyle made him change his mind, explain away the ending, and create the possibility for The Hound of the Baskervilles and other great Holmes stories, so maybe it's a moot point. Maybe. What you get in this story is a dead Holmes, period.
I still liked it, because of the art, especially, and it reminded me of the way the BBC production handled the apparent death of Holmes, and the final encounter with Moriarty. ...more
You may know that Batman was in part inspired by both Zorro and a 1931 creation, The Shadow, who persists to this day. Young Shadow is beautifully draYou may know that Batman was in part inspired by both Zorro and a 1931 creation, The Shadow, who persists to this day. Young Shadow is beautifully drawn and illustrated by Ben Sears, a kid version of a night-time crime fighter. The art is the real appeal; the story not all that engaging to this reader....more
The third collaborative effort by the "rock star" duo of Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault. The first two--Jane, the Fox, & Me, and Louis Undercover-The third collaborative effort by the "rock star" duo of Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault. The first two--Jane, the Fox, & Me, and Louis Undercover--came out in 2012, and so this is ten years later, three short comics stories for kids about Truffle, a goofy kid. In the first ruffle wanst to start a rock band; in the second he falls in love and wants to know how to talk to the girl, an in the third he deals with death--of pets, of his great-grandmother.
Quirky stories, and fun. I am a huge fan of Arsenault's illustration work-- delicate, expressive, minimal/restrained, light. As always I love her use of color. The positive sensibilities of Britt and Arsenault seem perfect for each other. Don't make us wait another ten years for another book!...more
The Flamingo by Guojing is a beautiful, mostly wordless picture book reminiscent of the vibe of Studio Ghibli movies, which is to say lovely, sentimenThe Flamingo by Guojing is a beautiful, mostly wordless picture book reminiscent of the vibe of Studio Ghibli movies, which is to say lovely, sentimental, rendered in watercolor, colored pencils and photoshop. It’s also a chapter book graphic novel, probably directed to older children.
This book is about a girl who gets told a story by her grandmother about a girl who finds an egg, and how that story sets her imagination going. It’s about friendship, grandmother-child relationships and beauty conveying deep emotion. Mostly muted color, in grayscale, with some light pink, except for the brighter pink flamingo, and then there are some flamingo pink images in the grandmother’s life. Guojing also wrote "The Only Child" that I liked even more. ...more
A wordless picture book by Sandro Bassi that features mainly people on the subway looking at their phones. The catch is: They are cthulhu (LovecraftiaA wordless picture book by Sandro Bassi that features mainly people on the subway looking at their phones. The catch is: They are cthulhu (Lovecraftian) monster heads and some other kinds of bizarre fantasy configurations for heads. A kind of discussion starter for readers. The publisher put it in the category of children's picture book which feels like a stretch, but the black and white art is wonderfully done and I liked it. I call it horror for older readers. ...more
The true story of an all girls' school in Canterbury, Connecticut in 1832. So what's the big deal? 1) first, it's a girls's school in 1832, a rarity, The true story of an all girls' school in Canterbury, Connecticut in 1832. So what's the big deal? 1) first, it's a girls's school in 1832, a rarity, as girls were not at this time seen as much worth educating, but a Quaker woman, Prudence Crandall, decided otherwise; 2) second, at some point, some actual black girls were quietly admitted to this school, an almost unheard of rarity, and 3) this school opened in the wake of the controversial Nat Turner Rebellion, where more than sixty members of slave-owning families were killed, the warning backlash from which killed thousands of black people and distrust about blacks living among whites spread across the country, and acts f cruelty and violence against said blacks, who just wanted to live free and happy in a land supposedly known for opportunity.
As Wilfred Lupano's historical fiction story has it, the Nat Turner story was taught in that school and one girl in part defended Turner. At one point some people in the town who did not want blacks living there attacked the school and (spoiler alert) burned it down. So: Not a happy ending. Except that all of the girls in the school kept learning, and thriving. And Ms. Crandall, who moved west, kept teaching.
Stephanie Fert's art seemed to me initially a little light-hearted for the subject matter, but given that the audience is children--maybe 4th grade?--and given that the subject matter has at the very least some dark and shameful historical dimensions as well as hopeful ones, maybe it is appropriate to keep it at least visually hopeful. Some inspirational stories here, for sure. Reminded me of Karen Hesse's Witness, about racism and the KKK in a small Vermont town in 1924....more
A sweet inspirational book with sentimental aphorisms throughout.
“Often the hardest person to forgive is yourself.”
“What do you think success is?” asA sweet inspirational book with sentimental aphorisms throughout.
“Often the hardest person to forgive is yourself.”
“What do you think success is?” asked the boy. “To love” said the mole.
The pen and ink and watercolor art I like very much, feels intimate, and I think the cursive inked lettering is also meant to contribute to that vibe. Like a journal or sketchbook. Dedicated to his mum and his dog Dill. It opens with an essay where Mackesy actually explains the whole point of the book, (over)-elaborating on his every intention. No, Charlie! Let us read it and figure it out for ourselves, and I just bet we could do that because it is a children's book with a simple lesson. Trust us!
It has a bit of an AA Milne feel to it. It has a very high Goodreads rating, so I am in a minority here and it makes me feel kind of guilty like I am sorta beating up all these adorable characters and punching the author in the face when he just wants us all to be kinder to each other. But three stars means good! I like it okay! I like the feel of it, the tone of the art. But it is a bit sappy in places, I think. I see others LOVED it, for which I give you all hugs....more
A aweet middle grades graphic novel that I read because I had just taught Wang's Prince and the Dressmaker and some said they like this even better. A aweet middle grades graphic novel that I read because I had just taught Wang's Prince and the Dressmaker and some said they like this even better. I liked it, and it is more relatable than the very different Prince and the Pauper spinoff, but I still like the different kind of sweetness and goofiness of Prince a bit more.
Christine is a quiet, "good girl," who is intrigued when a wilder girl named Moon moves in next door. They become friends, and Moon pushes her to be more adventurous (paint your nails! let's do the talent show!) Moon tells Christine her deepest secret: that she sometimes has visions of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Moon says some day she will return to the stars where she truly belongs.
When we find out that the stars she sees are actually connected to (spoiler alert) a brain tumor, things get deeper and more serious, of course. In an afterword we find out that Wang's story, which is almost completely fiction, is based on her own life too in that when she was young she actually had a brain tumor as well. I like her artwork and sweet family/friend relationships, and that point about being yourself, of course....more
The second in Lorena Alvarez Gomez's series, Nightlights. The first book was Nightlights, and there doesn't seem to be any real connection between theThe second in Lorena Alvarez Gomez's series, Nightlights. The first book was Nightlights, and there doesn't seem to be any real connection between the books to make it a series, except maybe that the art style is very similar--for young kids, colorful, fanciful. Hicotea is an improvement over Nighlights, though both focus on the importance of imagination.
This book opens with a teacher announcing a class field trip to the (endangered) wetlands, so you're thinking this will be a book primarily about the environment, but when Sandy finds a tortoise shell and looks inside, she sees a veritable library or museum of art and history. I don't mean that Gomez intends to tell us that a turtle is a living artifact of its own experience, and aesthetically beautful, though these things may be true. The turtle, Hicotea, invites Sandy inside where there are paintings and books. Is this a story about the thirst and passion for knowledge and imagination? It's nt completely clear to me.
Hicotea invites Sandy to complete her own painting of the wetlands, her own vision of it. So she does this for her teacher. Is this fantasy? What does this have to do with the wetlands? Hicotea's artworks, NoBrow (the publisher) says (in its description of the book), constitute a "museum of the natural world." Okay. I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but the effect seems to be that it invites readers to experience the natural world in their own creative ways. I think.
I am pretty sure this story and the meaning of the art/natural history museum inside a turtle would be confusing for a child reader, since it was for me, but I like it and think other readers would, too. It's more developed, more elaborate, than Nightlights. The digital art is busy, packed with images, but impressive.
Because of my confusion, 3.5 stars, rounded up for the artwork, though it could have been rounded down to 3 stars for the story. But she got me on a good day, when two others in the house, teenagers, also read it and said they liked the cool art. When I asked them what it was about, one of them said: "Beauty!" I said what about the natural world? "Beauty!" What about that inside-the-turtle museum? "I have no idea, but it's cool! And the art is really good."...more
A middle grades graphic novel, just awarded the Newbery Medal of 2020, the first comics story to ever win that award, one school year in the life of wA middle grades graphic novel, just awarded the Newbery Medal of 2020, the first comics story to ever win that award, one school year in the life of would-be artist Jordan Banks, who lives in Washington Heights on the upper west side of Manhattan, but whose parents enroll him in a posh private school in Riverdale, in the Bronx. Culturally, financially, these are two very different places, and Jordan and some other new students of color encounter some challenges, mainly on racial lines, in their new school. It doesn't seem to be really nasty, and it's not black vs. white kids, or black kids vs. white teachers, but he and his friends navigate some complicated racial territory as "new kids." One rich white kid becomes his good friend, but a favorite page is one illustrating how Jordan becomes a very different person each neighborhood along the way from Washington Heights to Riverdale.
I am reminded of another and more complex and layered (for an older, YA audience) book on the subject of racial issues, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, but really, there are now many, many books to help students explore these issues with friends and adults. This one is likable, with realistic dialogue....more