Graphic Novel, Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh

Hyperbole and a Half

Allie Brosh

ISBN: 9781451666175

Collected from her online comic and blog @ http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Read June 2015

I have been following Brosh online at Hyperbole and a Half from about the time of "Simple Dog," and had gone back and binged on past posts, and regularly check for life insights and an ironic chuckle (much like the emotional equivalent of xkcd), but I had never had a chance to sit down and read her work on paper.  Somehow the gut-wrenching emotional honesty of her postings is even more brutal when committed to paper, and I wanted to tear out her depression series and staple it to the heads of everyone who knows me.  

Her art style is idiosyncratic and bizarre - the type of thing where you have to wonder if she is just putting people on and literally can't draw for crap, or that she's SO GOOD at drawing that she can make "fake crap" drawings that actually convey deep emotional truths.  I honestly don't know.

She's fun, she's real, she's got an amazing way of explaining things that will either make perfect sense to you, or leave you whining on the floor like Helper Dog.  It's a good wavelength tho, if you can figure out how to surf it.

Graphic Novel, Tomboy, Liz Prince

Tomboy
Liz Prince
ISBN: 9781936976553
Scribbly black and white panels enliven a "preach it" style bio-narrative about school years and growing up.
Read July 28, 2015

I identify a lot with the feelings of "non-girliness" that Prince talks about, and cleverly illustrates, in her graphic novel biography.

This was about halfway between Persepolis and El Deafo in the unvarnished, unflinching presentation of growing up different - either because of personal or ideological differences to one's societal expectations.  I really enjoyed it, and hope that a lot of other people who don't quite fit into the gender stereotype (or really, any sort of expectations) will find this and realize there are lots of people who don't fit into boxes.

Graphic Novel, Here, by Richard McGuire

Here
Richard McGuire
ISBN: 978037540650
Graphic novelization of a light-on-narrative comic strip based in a specific place; a corner of a room.
Read July 28, 2015
(Fair warning, I'm reviewing my summer reads WAY out of order.  I have a stack nearly a yard high, and I WILL get to them all, but it's going to be in fits and spurts, and not anywhere near the order I read them in.)

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this one.

First, a description of what you're in for.  So, you know, SPOILERS.





The reader is essentially a voyeur in a specific place, throughout time.  We get flashes of this place from millions of years in the past, up through history and the present time, to dozens, then hundreds, then even tens of thousands of years into the future.  The majority of the "story" takes place between roughly 1600 and 2500, with a rotating cast of Native Americans, American colonists (perhaps Ben Franklin?), pioneers and homesteaders (where our viewpoint location is still outside) through to the early 1900s when the house is constructed around us, into the twentieth century where we see a generation of a family age and move on, and new residents sequentially come into the house, and finally the house itself eventually succumbing to global warming-induced drowning, and the land reverting back to a future paradise-warm wilderness.

The kick is that none of this is actually happening in chronological order.  That's not entirely true - there are sequences of perhaps six or a dozen pages where events in a particular time are sequential from spread to spread for the purposes of establishing a smidgen of narrative flow.  The weird part for me is that most of those sequential passages are inside windows "out of time" and the background view of the location is a totally neutral time period, and there are quite often many other "windows" into different times that may or may not be sequential (but usually are at least thematically related).  Often a story will pop into being at a narratively-interesting juncture, but not actually finish out a scene to a complete logical end-point.    

The colors are muted - 4tone printing, and using a lot of dull washes makes it seem like a colorized sepia print most times.  I was hoping to use the color as a code for what time period was what, or at least what storyline was what, but either my attention was defective or the association wasn't actually there, because that didn't work out at all.

It was an interesting read, and reminded me quite a lot of Last Days of an Immortal in the sense of not ever feeling entirely sure I knew what exactly was going on, but still involved and interested in the story.

Summer Reading Program: Animal Heroes

Last Program!

Between the summer activities, and me missing so many of these programs this year, it just seems like the summer has flown by.  Unreal that it's the last program already.


Two Bobbies
Kirby Larson & Mary Nethery, illustrated by Jean Cassels
ISBN: 9780802797544
Vaguely sepia-toned illustrations are gritty and lifelike, often with a distancing view.

Another true story, this time about a pair of bob-tailed friends (one cat and one dog) who were left behind in the evacuation of post-Katrina flooded New Orleans.  The story takes a biographical tone, and covers the pair from the hypothetical conjecture (their life before, their journeys before they were rescued) to their rescue, rehabilitation, move to a Utah rescue facility, and their re-homing with a dedicated lady who learned about them via a television broadcast.  A twist halfway through made some of the kids actually gasp when I read it, which I think is a first for me.

Next up we did Bertie Was a Watchdog again, because I might never again get the chance to bark for 45 seconds straight inside a library without getting hospitalized.

The Hermit Crab
Carter Goodrich
ISBN: 9781416938927
A shy hermit crab finds a strange shell, and unwittingly becomes a community hero.

This is an odd but cute little story.  Our hero is so shy and retiring that he doesn't even participate in community events, but prefers to watch them quietly and contentedly from the sidelines.  One day, he discovers a strange segmented "shell" (the top half of a superhero figure) that he loves, so he puts it on immediately.  Unknown to him, while he was happily re-shelling, a lobster-trap has descended from the surface and trapped the flounder.  He returns after the rest of the community retreats in terror, and they watch in awe as this heroic figure wanders around the terrifying trap for a few scant moments before banishing it back to the surface, with the flounder safely left behind.  The resulting parade and accolades scares the hermit so much that he hides deep inside the new shell, and escapes as soon as possible.  Really cute, and an interesting complement to another story I read recently: Robert Venditti's newest juvenile fiction / graphic novel crossover Miles Taylor and The Golden Cape.

And that's all she wrote for Heroes this year - we are DONE.  We'll be back next year with the next batch of books on whatever topic comes around next.

Tuesday Storytime, Summer Reading: Animal Heroes

This was our last program, and I finally got to be the one to give it!  YAY!

After this, we're back into the random free-association themes that I come up with on my own.


Hero Cat
Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Jo Ellen McAllister Stammen
ISBN: 9780761452232
Mama Cat saves her five kittens from a burning building - true story!

A fictionalized story of a Mama Cat who nested down in an abandoned city building to have her kittens, and when she finds the building on fire, runs into it 5 times (burning herself badly in the process) to save each of her kittens.  The last page has a quick info page with a picture of Hero Cat and her babies.


Bertie Was a Watchdog
Rick Walton, illustrated by Arthur Robins
ISBN: 0763613851
Bertie the tiny dog uses brains, not brawn, to trick a burglar into betraying himself.

Bertie was a watchdog, not because he was big or scary or fierce, but because he was the SIZE of a watch.  As in tiny.  Really tiny.  So when a burglar comes by, he nearly dies laughing at this little dog.  But Bertie challenges the burglar to a series of contests, and the burglar keeps winning.  Could it be that Bertie wants to lose?  I normally don't like illustrations that are loose and chaotic and wildly colored, but this book is perfect for it, and I love it.  As a performance note, it does require the reader to bark for a good long while (which the kids are super thrilled about).


Francis the Scaredy Cat
Ed Boxall
ISBN: 0763617679
Francis is scared of the dark, and of the monster in the tree, but he's got to go look for his missing friend, right?

I think this is the sweetest, most understated story I tell.  Francis is a big orange cat who has a lovely human friend named Ben, and a big secret: he's afraid of the dark, and of the monster that lives in the scary tree outside.  One stormy night Ben is late, and Francis braves the dark and the tree and the monster to find and rescue him.  Of course, the monster turns out to be a new friend, and Ben was never lost at all, but still - I love to read to kids how scared Francis is, and how being brave doesn't mean being unafraid.  The subtext of being afraid of the unknown is handled very nicely also, with the dark scary stranger turning out to be a sweet black cat who helps Francis.

Summer Reading Program: Fairytale Heroes

Penultimate Program!

Started with Sam and the Tigers again, (because seriously, so amazing)

Skippyjon Jones Snow What

Judy Chachner

ISBN: 9780803737891

Skippy dreams the story of Snow White (and other classic fairy tales) in "fractured fairy tale" fashion.

I'll be totally honest, when I realized I wasn't going to be able to give the program this time, I was relieved that I didn't have to do the Skippyjon Jones book.  They're great for kids, everyone loves them, they're silly and fun and just subversive enough to be enjoyable for parents and kids, but I just don't like them that much myself.  So it was nice to have at least one book this time around that I wasn't saddened to be missing.

Skippy's sisters are on a princess kick, but Skippy knows that the real story is about the hero.  And who is that hero?  Skippy himself, in a dream sequence that includes the seven Chihuahuas.  

 The Frog Prince Continued

Jon Scieszka, painted by Steve Johnson

ISBN: 0670834211

What happens AFTER the princess kisses the frog?

Scieszka is a crazy person, and all of his stories are looney tunes in the very best ways.  Here we start off with the Frog Prince, who isn't too happy as a Prince, to be totally honest, and sets off into the Forest to figure out how to become Happily Ever After.  Along the way he runs across as many different fairy-tale personages as can be squeezed into the plotline, and the ending has a twist ending that anyone over 12 will see a mile away.  

Tuesday Storytime, Summer Reading: Nursery School Heroes

Another one I didn't get to give, but some really classic books.

Sam and the Tigers
Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
ISBN: 0803720289
A delightful and joyful all-are-welcome rendition of the fraught Little Black Sambo by two of America's best.

I can't believe I have not reviewed this book here before.  Little Black Sambo has a great story, but also has some - issues.  Lots of issues.  There is really no reason to show little kids that sort of racist representation (and please note I'm talking about as a storybook, for entertainment, for very young children).  I had resigned myself to just never sharing that particular story, until I came across this joyful retaking of the heart of the story.

Sam lives in Sam-sam-sa-mara, and everyone human is named Sam, and all the animals (of which there are many, and they are a full part of the ecosystem and society) are all named Mr or Mrs Animal-Name (so, Mr Tiger and Mrs Ostrich).  Sam is off to buy his new school wardrobe, and his dad Sam and his mother Sam are in agony over his - let's go with unconventional - choices of clothing.  But Sam (the child - try and keep it straight!) is delighted, and heads off to school the next morning with stars in his eyes and a skip in his step.  Until the tigers show up, of course.  The rest of the tale is totally familiar, but seamlessly stripped of nastyness and stereotype, until all that is left is a beautiful trickster tale of the triumph of the weak but witty over the strong and bullying.  I use it as often as I can.


The Little Engine that Could
Originally by Watty Piper, illustrated by Cristina Ong, and heavily abridged for board-book format.
ISBN: 0448401010
Short and sweet, this abridged version is shaped like a train, and keeps the flavor of the original well.

Nine times out of ten, I'd tell parents and teachers and storytimers to avoid abridged versions.  I don't think it's fair to the original, I think often the ideas are better suited to the longer original format (and therefore to an older age that can sit through the length) and personally, it feels like cheating.

However, I love the story of the Little Engine that Could, and the original is hellacious long, and in my normal set-up of three books, I could never present it.  This tiny little board book is a perfect little summary of the story, and serves as a lovely short introduction to kids who may not be familiar with the original.  The board book is 5 spreads long, with 2 full spreads and the others as page-panels, and the story is condensed greatly: train is full of toys and dolls, train breaks down, little blue engine is the only other train in the book, and no failures occur on the way up the mountain.  Still, the idea of the story holds up, and the inclusion of the original illustrations do much to paper over the missing narrative.

Don't Touch My Hat
James Rumford
ISBN: 9780375837821
Originally reviewed here.

I had the hardest time finding a final "nursery tale" style hero story, but I was pretty happy with this one.  The pay-off at the end with the hat reveal is great fun, and little kids always like cowboys.

Summer Reading Program: Villains

I didn't give the program again today (I hate missing so many of these this summer!) but we had a repeat of Mustache! and then two more, and made silly mustaches!

Mustache!
Reviewed this morning.


School for Bandits
Hannah Shaw
ISBN: 9780375967689
Ralph Raccoon is not very good at being bad, but he finds success in his own way.

Ralph was a nice raccoon: he had manners, brushed his teeth, and generally was good.  His parents sent him off to the School for Bandits to learn how to be bad, but he failed all his classes.  His only hope is to get a giant bag of loot for the end-of-year Bandit Contest, but how is he going to manage that with no badness at all?  Clever lesson, and cute enough to be funny.



Mustache Baby
Bridget Heos, illustrated by Joy Ang
ISBN: 9780547773575
Baby born with mustache becomes whatever stereotype matches his mustache shape.

Billy was born with a mustache, but that wasn't the weird part.  The weird part was that he took on the qualities of the mustache as it grew and changed, becoming everything from a cowboy to a spanish painter to a sword-fighter to a policeman.  Until... the mustache became a Bad Guy Mustache.  Billy starts down a bad path that very day, and ends up in jail (his crib).  Second chances are for everyone, and he finally gets released, just in time for a playdate with another baby; this one with a hipster mountain-man beard!

Tuesday Storytime, Summer Reading: Villains

Three more really good ones today for our younger kids.

Mustache!
Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kevin Cornell
ISBN: 9781423116714
"Medieval" style meets caricature art.

A vain king doesn't do anything for his subjects other than inflict them with representational art of himself.  The populace begs for basic support (roads and playgrounds) but only get a giant tapestry of the king's face.  Which gets vandalized with a mustache.  So the king posts reward posters (also with his face, because of course he does) all over the countryside, which ALSO get mustached.  He keeps thinking that it's a single vandal, but it's actually everyone in the entire country.  So he puts them all in a new jail he's built, with new roads and playgrounds, and big high safe walls, and is really shocked to hear them enjoying themselves in jail, while he's all alone in his castle.  Cute pictures and fun wordplay keep the littles entertained, while the big people can enjoy the political and social critiques.


The Boss Baby
Marla Frazee
ISBN: 9781442401679
Delightful pop-deco 50s-era illustrations with plenty of expression, especially by the tiny tyrant.

A fun sly interpretation of the realities of a new baby has the infant as the driven and incomprehensible boss of a modern company, driving his staff to distraction with endless demands, meetings full of gibberish, working all-nighters.  The flip side hits on the perks of infancy, comparing them to the insane bonuses and material benefits of being a CEO: lounges, spas, handmade artisan drinks, a private jet (the bouncy seat!).  At the end, the overworked staff (parents) are exhausted and unresponsive, so our devious boss baby tries a new tactic: "Mama?  Dada?"  pour encourager les autres.  


Big Bad Bunny
Franny Billingsley, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
ISBN: 9781416906018
Split-narrative of a sweet mama mouse and a terrifying sharp-toothed bad bunny.

We start our tale with the Big Bad Bunny, crashing through the woods with sharp claws and yellow teeth and a scary growl (compared to ever-increasing numbers of "hungry hyenas" each time), but quickly switch back to a much more pastoral tale of Mama Mouse kissing her babies goodnight.  When she gets to the end of the row of beds, she discovers that Baby Boo-Boo is missing!  Now Mama Mouse is off in the same woods as the Big Bad Bunny!  Whatever will happen to her?  On the other side of the narrative, our Big Bad Bunny is not happy to hear someone calling out the name "Baby" at her, but she's also a bit scared of the giant hill she's found.  She is now a lost Big Bad Bunny, and Mama Mouse is kind and tactful about her offspring's acquired fierce identity, even when scared and sniffling.


 

Summer Reading Program: Sidekicks

It feels like summer has been going on forever, but this is my first actual program.  All of June was guest performers (thank God for guest performers) and last week was a holiday break.  It's a weird thrill to feel like you're halfway done before you even start out!

Sidekicks day continues with a repeat of Officer Buckle and Gloria, and the addition of two new titles, both of which are great fun.

The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man (with Moskowitz the Awesome Dog)

Michael Chabon, illustrated by Jake Parker

ISBN: 9780061914621

This 50's pulp style book is sassy and vivid, with *bad* words and a super conceited hero who reminds me of Metro Man from Megamind.   Anyway, enough about other heroes.  Awesome Man is here to tell you all about his awesomeness, and his powers, and his fights against evil, and.. oh dear, Awesome Man is having trouble with his temper, and with his blood-sugar levels.  A quick self-care check, a quick snack, and he's back in form - but what we really want to know - did we really learn his super-duper-secret identity?  

Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom

John Rocco

ISBN: 9781423121893

Adorable.  Our hero (and his posse) have super-powers based on their awesome hair, until a treacherous betrayal leaves them all shorn of their abilities - literally.  It takes a fellow hero in need of an assist for them to realize that their powers come from within, not from their gnarly locks.  Super short, but the most adorable story ever.    

Tuesday Storytime: Summer Reading, Sidekicks

Back into the Summer Reading Program!

Today is Sidekicks, and I was really happy with the trio of books for our Storytime this morning.

Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy
David Soman and Jacky Davis
ISBN: 9780803733398
Previously reviewed here.  Excellent "sidekick" story, with great problem-solving.

Anna and the Little Green Dragon
Kalus Baumgart
ISBN: 1562821660
Short but sweet - Anna is at breakfast one morning when a tiny green dragon appears and causes messes and mayhem.  Anna's mom blames her for the mess, until tiny dragon's mommy appears at the front door, politely looking for her missing son.  Cute and lots of page-turn anticipation.


Officer Buckle and Gloria
Peggy Rathman
ISBN: 0399226168
I know I've read this before, but it isn't coming up in a search, so here goes.

Officer Buckle gives lots of safety lectures at Napville School, but the kids always fall asleep and never learn a thing - that is, until new Police Dog Gloria accompanies him.  Even though every time he checks, she's sitting obediently by his side, the kids are mesmerized by his talks now, and he takes all the credit - until a TV crew spills the beans.  A grumpy Buckle refuses to give the next safety talk, Gloria (being a dog) is useless on her own, and the Napville School is poised to suffer the biggest accident ever.  A great book about partnership and about understanding your strengths and not being jealous of others.