Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels Galore! (Three Cybils, Two Not.)

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I went on a graphic novel spree because the week was crazy and those were the easiest things to read when I was super tired and super busy. Some were really good, some not so much, some pretty darn weird.

Tiny Titans: Adventures in Awesomeness – it was more like a comic book than most graphic novels. Short panel stories, single panel posters, word searchy type games. Reminded me a lot of comics from my childhood. But – I don’t really love the Tiny Titans. I just can’t get into them. Then again, I’m not a middle grade graphic novel/comics person, am I? (This was not a Cybils shortlister – I reserved it after seeing it on the recently reviewed list on the library website)

I picked up The Hidden in a drive-by walkthrough of the new release books at the library. Really, it just jumped into my bag. Elly said it was creepy and weird – she was right. Frankenstein gone really really bad but in a good graphic novel sort of way. I loved it. Very creepy and not for little kids. This is an adult (or YA at the very least) graphic novel and not a Cybils shortlister.

Remember American Born Chinese? Well Level Up was written by the same dude – and I liked it. Not as much as American Born Chinese but I definitely liked it. The GI doctor story line was fabulous since we really appreciate good GI docs around here. The Cybils have this one as a YA graphic novel but I can see some middle schoolers getting into it, too.

Bad Island was another kind of creepy graphic novel. A whole lot of bad things can happen to a family that gets shipwrecked on a bad island – when the island isn’t so much an island as it is an alien with evil alien creatures living on it. The dead snake thing – lol – funny in a disgusting sort of way.  Another Cybils YA lister.

Page by Paige was my favorite of this bunch. A teenage girl moves to NYC and she’s dealing with figuring out who she is and what she wants and making friends and all sorts of nifty, frustrating things like that. And, she journals her way through. I loved the artwork. I think this was Elly’s favorite of the bunch, too.  And, yep, this one was on the YA Cybils list as well.

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Feynman

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

I was not cut out for Physics. I just wasn’t. And digging into the topic in graphic novel format and reading about an interesting guy like Feynman didn’t change that. Elly picked it up and said – this is science-y. Yes, yes it is. I’m sure there are teens who will like this book. I don’t know quite who they might be but I’m very sure they are out there.

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Two Cybils

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge /

My reserves are coming in oddly – I expected the children’s books to come in more quickly but I should have known better. Children’s books have a way of disappearing and being returned late. That means doubling up on reviews makes for a wee bit of oddness.

Me…Jane is a very pretty book. The paper feels nice. There’s some texture to it that gives the pictures that little something they need. I started out bored, a little girl and her stuffed animal. A little girl that we are obviously supposed to find fascinating and inspiring but it felt a little forced, to me. And when the little girl reads a book about a girl named Jane who lived with a monkey, I kind of rolled my eyes. Embarrassing since it turns out the book is about a young Jane Goodall. That made the book a whole lot better. Had I known that from the start, there would have been no eyerolling or forced feeling. It made sense once I got to the end. I read it again and smiled all the way through.

On the otherhand, Anya’s Ghost is not a children’s picture book. Anya smokes for goodness sakes! (lol) She’s also a very annoying teen girl who falls into a well and winds up with a ghost as a friend. A not very nice ghost. She’s also the daughter of a Russian immigrant who’s trying very hard to be American (and succeeding in all of the annoying ways.) Where is her father, I was fascinated by her mom telling her that she uses her child support to send her to this private school, (which isn’t a great private school but the best she could afford.) This is another book with great paper, (there’s nothing worse than bad paper), and a nice cover. The illustrations are all black and white and in a couple of cases, a little hard to read but not bad. The ending was a little forced, I think we needed another half dozen panels to wrap it up.

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2 Graphic Novels from the Cybils Shortlist

2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge /

So it begins, my quest to read all of the books on the shortlist and not surprisingly, I’ve got one I really liked and another that was ok but not my favorite.

The one I really liked was Hereville: How Marka Got Her Sword.  Great drawings. Good story. Knitting saves the day. How awesome is that?

The one I was disappointed and meh about was the one I thought I’d like the most: Nursery Rhyme Comics.  I think I expected the artists to take more liberties than they did – my fault since this is still a nursery rhyme book for kids. I did enjoy seeing Sarah Varon’s work and it was pretty much exactly right. There were some others that I liked but overall – it just fell flat for me. I suspect Elly felt the same way, though she didn’t say anything about it last weekend when she read it (which might also indicate that it fell flat for her, too.)

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The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction /

TW and I argued over who put this one in the library bag. I’m sure I did – she’s sure she did, even though she did not bother to read it and was going to return it to the library without reading it (or without giving me a chance to read it. I rescued it from the return bin and I’m darn glad I did.  The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt was the perfect late night read last night, after finishing John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.

The scrapbook images were fun. The scrapbook text was a lot like a diary, which made it an actual book to read. I liked it. I even liked the happily ever after ending for the Vassar feminist of the 40s.

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Night Owls

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

And with Night Owls, I’ve finished the Cybils Shortlist for 2011. Yay me!

I had to buy Night Owls for Elly for Christmas in order to finish the challenge because my library didn’t have it. Which is a shame, for library patrons – it’s a great graphic novel. Well drawn. Well written. Well worth buying for Elly (and for me.)

The Timony twins are talented. Very talented.

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Dear Creature

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels /

Dear Creature is one of those impulse reserves that happens because I log into my library website and see the recently reviewed book covers and decide THAT looks interesting. It did – a graphic novel with a weird sea creature and Shakespeare… interesting, right?

And it was – sort of. It got a little muddled for me right in the middle, (I think it was the octopus orgasm), but picked up again toward the end. Zola was a butt and she deserved to be left behind. Hmph.

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Happyface

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

A couple weeks ago, Elly asked me to reserve a book called Happyface… so I did. She read it and then she bugged me non-stop to finish whatever I was reading so I could read Happyface… so I did.

It’s a combination graphic novel/novel. It’s a bit about bullying. A bit about a dysfunctional family. It’s about alcoholism. Dating. Family relationships. Reinventing yourself only to find you’re still who you were, sort of, before the reinvention – because you haven’t dealt with who you were before the reinvention.

It’s a wee bit sad. It’s also funny in the right places. And thought-provoking in others, particularly if you’re a teenager who’s on the outside looking in. Or maybe on the inside wondering how to get out.  This could be a Cybils shortlister, I think.

I’m impressed that Elly liked this book so much.  Now I have to figure out when I can sit down and discuss it with her. We might have to video chat or something in order to have that conversation before I forget what the book was about. Heh.

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Three Graphic Novels – One Great, Two Not Horrible

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils short list middle grade graphic novels list, Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye: Hamster and Cheese was my least favorite. It was cute but I was annoyed by the pet store owner who knows nothing about animals. I don’t believe that was really necessary. I did, however, really like the part at the end with interesting information about animals. That was the best part of the book.

Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess was what you’d expect. The Fates spin us stories about Athena. I didn’t love the drawings but I didn’t hate them either. The stories were fine. Nothing to write home about, really.

My favorite of these will not surprise you. Mercury, written by the author of Chiggers. This one is better than Chiggers and as all good graphic novels should, it left me anxious to find out what happens next! (Which is good because at the beginning, I wasn’t sure I liked the jumping between times. It was jarring until I got comfortable with the characters.

I can’t wait til Elly gets home so she can read these three and tell me what she thinks.

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