New Arrival: Nonfiction: Marvel, The Avengers Vault, by Peter A. David et al

Marvel, The Avengers Vault
Peter A. David, designed by Katie Benezra
ISBN: 9781626862999
Hardcover pop-art history book with lots of lose-leaf inserts and reference materials.

This was a fun browse through Marvel history.  I loved the design of the cover and of the book, but the fun of finding the little pages inserted randomly into the book was sadly ruined because we're a library, so we have to keep them all accounted for and noted.  

The book itself has a fun flow, but it's organized in a way that makes it a little difficult to reference if you were looking up specific information.  (There is no index, for example, and it could really use one.)  First we get a brief tour through the history of the Avengers, then a chapter each on the current big four: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk, and then a final chapter about Avengers on TV or in movies.  There's even a roster of who was on the team when, and a breakdown of all the different major Avengers teams.

All of this of course in the current gaudy primary-color comics splash art style, with little sidenotes and bits of trivia sprinkled in.

New Arrivals: Picture Book: A Leaf Can Be... by Laura Purdie Salas & Violeta Dabija

A Leaf Can Be... ("sequel" to the beautiful A Rock Can Be... reviewed earlier in the year)
Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Violeta Dabija
ISBN: 9780761362036
Soft-edged watercolors with bright splashes of natural colors, and lots and lots of green.

I have to admit up front that I didn't like this one as much as I loved A Rock Can Be, but it's still a really lovely book.  I wish it had shown up a week earlier, as I would have used it in my most recent storytime.

Like the previous installment, we're looking at quirky (and rhyming!) uses of leaves, benefits of leaves, characteristics of leaves, and even emotional resonances of leaves.  It's quite lovely, and reminded me strongly of the simple feel of A Tree is Nice.

Fiction: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, Caroline Preston

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt
Caroline Preston
ISBN: 22960000470467
Actual vintage ads and articles and ephemera collected and scrapbooked into a fictional narrative.

This was an interesting book.  I wasn't so hot on the Grace Livingston Hill, modern girl finds a good man storyline (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a little schlocky) but it was pretty common for books set in the 1920s, and the main character does want to write, and her new husband seems ok with her doing so...

Anyway.  Frankie Pratt is a whip-smart 'modern' girl who wants to go to college, but can't afford it, even on a partial scholarship.  So she works as a home aide for a local retiree, until said retiree's rakish (and married) son becomes obsessed with her and starts an enthusiastically-encouraged romance.  Poor Frankie.  Her mom finds out, busts up the lovebirds by blackmailing the old lady, and Frankie is packed off to Vassar posthaste.

The whole story is basically all of the cliches of those early romances-disguised-as-morality tales, but every cliche is passed along in a fairly dry and somewhat winking manner, through ironic (and sometimes poignant) art and advertising clippings, bits of ephemera, and other assorted paper bits and drabs of a life lived interestingly.

Really a very fun concept, and while the story is a little meager - what can you expect from a scrapbook diary?  I loved every minute of it.

Romance: Better Homes and Hauntings, Molly Harper

Better Homes and Hauntings
Molly Harper
ISBN: 9781476706009
Modern day ghost-story/light-hearted paranormal with characters getting sucked into reliving a historic family tragedy.

LOVED this book.  So funny, so cute.  The characterization for our heroine was a little hit or miss to begin with, and something about the first chapter was really really rocky, but once it hit its stride, the characters were fun and interacted interestingly, the mystery was mysterious and somewhat twisty, and the creepy factor was just enough to add a fun little edge - nothing truly frightening or disturbing (other than murder and ghosts, I mean).

Super fun, and I would love to read another that was similar.  Made me think of Austenland with ghosties.

Romance: Lord of Fire and Ice, Connie Mason, with Mia Marlowe

Lord of Fire and Ice
Connie Mason, with Mia Marlowe
ISBN: 9781402261855
Read May 2015
Viking setting, enthralled noble with fire magic, and eldest sister running homestead.

Not the most polished writing, but enjoyable and the storyline was fun, the bad guys were appropriately bad, and there wasn't any nasty nonconsensual nonsense going on.  Liked the character touches with the various siblings, and the light touch with the history and inclusion of magic.  A fun summer read.

Juvenile Fiction: Short and Shivery, Robert D. San Souci & Katherine Coville

Short and Shivery
Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Katherine Coville
ISBN: 0440418046 (Yearling paperback)
Re-Read August 2, 2015

I had this book as a child, so when I saw it in the "freebies" bin at a local used book store, I couldn't help but snatch it back up and re-read the stories.  I was especially interested in revisiting this now that I've been working on my own storytelling.  I seem to be edging towards southern versions of tales, and there were three in particular that were very interesting: Tailypo (of course), The Witch Cat, and Scared to Death.

Short summary and thoughts on each "shivery" in the collection:

1) The Robber Bridegroom, from the Brothers Grimm.
A classic fairy tale set-up with a greedy merchant and a lovely, clever, and resourceful daughter who rescues herself and an old crone from being sold into marriage slavery to a sadistic robber.

Some interesting modern parallels here with the recent high-profile long-term kidnapping cases, and to the Boko Haram / ISIS focus on terrorism through sexual slavery.  Some nasty things in the world, but they aren't new things.

2) Jack Frost, from the Russian folklore tradition.
Another classic fairy tale.  A mother with a daughter and step-daughter, of course the step-child is the good one who is despised and ill-treated.  Mother sends her out into the harsh Russian winter to freeze, but the girl is so good and sweet that even cold-hearted Jack Frost is touched, and gifts her with furs and diamonds.  Mom sends the sulky real daughter out to get her own share, but the girl can't resist being a snot, and is frozen to death by morning.

Love the parallels here with Diamonds and Toads, and the faint feel of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga stories.  There are some interesting links possible with this story.

3) The Waterfall of Ghosts, from a Japanese folktale.
This one was interesting, because it was mainly women characters.  A group of weavers in a town below a haunted waterfall sit up late one night talking boasts, and one girl gets carried away, boasting that she'll travel to the shrine at the base of the waterfall and back that very night, and bring the donation box back with her as proof.  The other girls all pledge their day's weaving if she does.  She travels out, but is overcome by greed and steals the coins from the box, bringing a nearly-empty box back to the others and bemoaning the sad state of charity in the world.  Later that night, she's hunted down by the ghosts of the waterfall, and returns the money to the shrine, along with all her winnings from her boast.

I was mainly interested that this story has the boastful claims entirely among women.  Usually it's a group of men who are trying to one-up each other.  This made for a nice change.

4) The Ghost's Cap, from a Russian ghost story.
Another boaster, but this one is a girl who is trying to show off for the boy she's after.  She brags that she'll go to a haunted graveyard and return with the name of the ghost that people have seen there.  She goes and scoffs at the ghost (believing it to be her boy) and snatches the cap from his head to take back as proof she went.  She gathers her winnings, and tosses the nasty cap into the river.  That night, she's visited by a presence wanting the cap back, but she hasn't got it.  A sad ending for her, as the priest tries an exorcism, and the vengeful ghost takes the girl back with him, leaving nothing but her hair and jacket behind.

This one has fun shades of Tailypo there, and that Lovecraft story about the gem from the Dutch grave - in that losing the item the ghost wants dooms the person.

5) The Witch Cat, from Virginia, USA.
A widower and his young daughter go against local advice and settle in an abandoned farmstead next to a pond.  The widower is soon courted by a willowy young lady from the plot next door, with bright green eyes and long sharp nails.  His daughter is afraid of the lady, but the father is smitten, until the girl begins to take ill and complain of something stealing her breath at night.  The farmer sits up one night to trap the intruder, and is shocked to chop the arm off of an enormous black cat creature.  The next morning, the lady is also missing an arm, and the farmer finally figures it out.  Too late for him, as the confrontation kills both him and the lady, leaving the daughter an orphan.

This one is great fun.  The nice touch for me is the townspeople warning them away from the suspiciously empty homestead, without ever coming out and accusing anyone of anything.

6) The Green Mist, from Lincolnshire, England.
This is one of the only fae tales in the collection.  I also know it as Crown of Cowslips.  A village girl is very ill one winter, and is about to die, but she declares that if she could live "just one summer like the cowslips, she'd be content."  Her mother hushes her quickly, but that night the healing spring "green mist" flows over the land and the girl recovers.  That spring she is lively and happy, and falls in love as spring begins to mature into summer.  Her lover spots the stand of cowslips beside the door and plucks them to make a summer crown for his love, but when she sees the cut flowers she shrieks and bars the door, leaving him alone and confused.  She dies that night during the Summer festival.

There are a lot of things going on with this one.  Firstly, the fae influence is slight but present.  Her declaration is understood to be heard by a bogie and granted as an evil mischief.  I'm also interested in the specificity that she's only to live as long as those specific cowslips (and why, if the mother was so worried about anyone messing with them, she didn't just put a sign up beside them).  I also feel really bad for our unnamed suitor, who did everything right, and got shut out and abandoned at the end with no explanation.  If I were telling, I think that would be the main thing that got changed, or I'd use it to start some sort of Orpheo & Eurycide sort of quest.

7) The Cegua, from Costa Rica.
A traveler-beware tale; a version of the nasty hitch-hiker.  A young man is traveling late at night and sees a beautiful maiden by the side of the road.  He offers her a ride, and she slowly morphs into a nightmare being with a skeletal horse's head and long talons.  He's saved by arriving at the busy hacienda he was traveling to.

I always get a little grumpy about these - when the mysterious old man tells you at the cafe before your trip that seductive strangers are actually demon creatures, why would you then immediately let the sweet seductive girl onto your horse with you?

8) The Ghostly Little Girl, from gold-rush California.
A group of girls makes a new friend: a girl from the settlement of fishing shacks along the ocean.  The girl is excited to be going to school with her new friends, but makes one last trip out with her father - and that night is a terrific storm, and they never come back.  The girls worry about their new friend, and head down to the now-abandoned shack to see if they can find her - but find her waterlogged ghost instead.

Extra creepy because of the inclusion of grade-school kids for the cast-members.  Love the morbid descriptions of the moldy old fishing shack and the wet slap of the ocean waves.

9) The Midnight Mass of the Dead, Norse folktale.
A very pious elderly lady attends mass every day, and is excited to attend the very first early Christmas mass, so she sets out her best clothes, and says a prayer for her best friend, who died earlier in the year.  Awakened by a strange light, she fears she's late for church, and hurries to the chapel, where a strange priest and oddly-familiar parishioners fill the building.  She's even more upset when the sermon and verses are all about death and punishment and hatred of the living.  When she realizes that the only sound coming from the pews is from her, she realizes her mistake.  Her newly-dead friend warns her to run before the service is over, but she is too slow, and loses her coat to the vengeful dead old neighbors as she flees.  Returning to church the next morning, the shreds of her coat are too much to bear, and she flees once more.

The sweet dead friend giving her a warning was a nice touch, but I wanted to know why the dead are so unhappy on Christmas particularly, and why they were so evil and confrontational to begin with.  There's also a sloppy bit at the ending where the wording is contradictory and confusing.

10) Tailypo, rural USA.
An old man lives in the woods with his hunting dogs, but he's been on lean times - nothing to hunt or fish for weeks.  So when he spies a strange critter in his cabin and evicts it by hacking off it's long luxurious tale, he isn't too proud to stew that tail right up and eat it for dinner.  That night he hears a whisper "where's my tailypo?" and he sends a dog out after it.  The dog doesn't return, but the voice does.  Next dog goes and fails to return, and the voice is soon back.  Last dog is now in bed with him, but he sends it out and it's gone with a horrible yelp - and the voice is now inside, and now on the bed.  He finally claims "I don't have your tailypo!"  and the voice rejoins "Oh yes you have!" and eats him right up.

This one has been around for ages. It would be interesting to see if it could be linked up with some other tales and made longer or more elaborate without ruining the arc of the horror about the thing creeping up to exact revenge.

11)  Lady Eleanor's Mantle, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This one claims to be based on a true story.  Lady Eleanor is from England, so she's miles better than any of the hick rube Americans in this stupid Boston town.  She insists on wearing her fancy mantle from the continent, and likewise insists on scorning a young suitor who had followed her across the ocean.  A ball was held in the Lady's honor to welcome her, and all noted her reserve and weary aspect, but also noted the beauty of the English mantle.  Halfway through, the ball was cancelled abruptly, when the Lady's absence was noted.  That next morning, the fearsome warning ran through the city - a smallpox outbreak, and the Lady's house was quarantined.  The stinger has the young man braving disease to race to his Lady's side, where he finds a hideous pocked figure in her bed, and goes quite mad.

A very strange early entry in the world of medical suspense thrillers.

12) The Soldier and the Vampire, a folktale from Russia
Another traveler-beware tale like The Cegua, and a Clever-Jack sort of story.  A Russian soldier is on leave to attend his sister's wedding, when he's warned about a wizard who recently died in a nearby village.  He travels home without seeing anything amiss, until he reaches the house and discovers his sister, anemic and near death.  The soldier, being a man of the world, knows that the wizard is using vampirism to steal the life from his sister and return from the dead.  That just can't be allowed, so he races off in the night to find the wizard's grave and kill it for good.  Along the road, he is joined by a silent figure, who he realizes is the evil one himself, and the soldier passes himself off as an apprentice wizard.  They then walk and camp in companionable nature, until the wizard reveals that he was not taken in by the soldier's ruse, and they fight until dawn, when the evil one collapses, then morphs into a writhing mass of insects and grubs that the soldier has to individually exterminate to truly kill the monster.

Nice touch with the bugs at the end.  Would have liked to get more than one sentence about the sister recovering.

13) The Skeleton's Dance, from Japan.
Two friends head off to the big city to make their fortunes.  One works hard and becomes wealthy, while the other falls in with gamblers and druggies.  They both decide to travel back to their hometown to get Mr Bad Life Choices away from his temptations, but BLC realizes he has a chance at a new life, and kills his friend in a mountain pass, then claims his friend's life as his own.  After running through all his friend's money and accrued goodwill, he heads back to the city, and is accosted by his friend's bones laying in the path where he was killed so many months before.  The bones rise up and offer to provide a means of easy employment - the bones will dance for free (needing no food or support) and the friend can collect easy money from people gawping at the spectacle.  This works great for Mr BLC until he's famous enough to be hosted by the local lord, whereupon the skeleton fails to act, is abused, and finally calls BLC out on his treachery and murder.
A really nice and satisfactory delayed-justice story.  Loved the way that BLC just walked right into his own doom and didn't see it coming, because he was too wrapped up in his own selfishness and feeling like everyone owed him.

14) Scared to Death, from Charleston, USA.
Another braggart tale.  This one has a young debutante trying to steal a beau away from his current girlfriend, a shy and mousey girl.  In an attempt to impress the young man, the young lady swears she'll go to a haunted grave in the nearby graveyard, and snatches the gentleman's walking stick to leave at the grave as proof.  She heads out alone, makes it over to the grave, and slams the walking stick into the soft ground, but she's nervous and jittery in the spooky darkness.  Her fears are realized when she tries to leave and she's held back by a mysterious unseen force.  She freaks out, falls down, and is found dead the next morning, her cloak pinned to the ground by the walking stick she slammed down her own self.

This one also is nicely karmic - if you're going to be a snotty braggart, don't be stupid about it.  It also has a nice common-sense touch to it.  Everyone's had a not-so-proud moment when you worked yourself up or scared yourself about something that turned out to be completely harmless or normal.

15) Swallowed Alive, a British folktale.
A sneaky washerwoman is always around when things go missing, and she' accused by her neighbors of being a thief.  She calls upon God and the Earth as her witnesses that she's an honest woman, even when she's pretty much caught in the act.  The earth opens up like a whirlpool and sucks her in up to her waist, and the priest begs her to repent and be saved, but she insists that she's not a thief, whereupon the whirlpool sucks her entirely in, and subsequently spits back out the stolen items.

This one reads like the awful heavy-handed morality tales I got fed as a child from the Uncle Arthur books.  Yikes.

16) The Deacon's Ghost, an Icelandic folktale.
A Deacon lived on one side of a fjord, and his love on the other.  They fell in love one winter, and he promised to come back and fetch her for a wedding the next winter as soon as the fjord ices over again.  Sadly, he's killed on his way back in a freak accident, and she doesn't know it.  When he returns to fetch her, he acts strangely, but she's simply glad to see him again.  They get to the church, but it's late at night, and he's not headed towards the church itself, but to the churchyard, where there's a single disturbed and empty grave!  She fights free, and is guarded by the villagers every night from the undead lovesick deacon, until a priest from the closest city arrives to put him down for good.

This one was very sad.  I felt sorry for the poor deacon and the poor girl who was left alone, and then frightened out of her wits afterwards.  Sad ghost stories are harder, because they really drive home the utter unfairness of life and death.

17) Nuckelavee, from the Orkney Islands.
Short and shivery indeed.  Nuckelavee is a weird cross between a kelpie and a demon, and it terrorizes the islanders, but is easily avoided by crossing fresh running water.  This short bit tells of a local man's bad night when he found Nuckelavee coming towards him on a long empty road, with no running water nearby.  A brazen approach, a quick sprint, and a tiny rivulet defeats the monster.

Not much too this one, but it's a fun little story that I can totally see a grizzled old man telling in a pub as a sort of "big fish" story.

18) Adventure of the German Student, Washington Irving.
Our German student has arrived in Paris to rid himself of a gloomy obsession; a demon is after his soul.  Unfortunately, his timing isn't so hot, as he arrives just as Revolutionary fervor is hitting it's peak, and the smell of blood from the guillotines hangs heavy in the air.  Understandably, his morbid fancies aren't much improved, and he hides out in his garret trying to avoid the masses of frenzied Parisians.  He does have to head out for groceries, and tries to do so in the early mornings or late evenings when the streets are less crowded.  One night walking home he spies a weeping lady on the steps of the guillotine.  He rescues her and takes her home, and over the night falls in love with the wild young mourner.  They pledge their hearts and souls, and he heads off the next morning without disturbing her to look for a bigger apartment.  On his return, he finds her beheaded, and the officers confirm his worst fears - the lady was a victim of the guillotine the day before, and he's now pledged his everlasting soul to a dead woman walking.

This one needs a better name, to be honest.  The French Lover would be at least slightly more descriptive.  I love the association with a specific place and specific events, and the descriptions of the poor lady and the besotted (although not so bright) student are lively and morbid all at the same time.  One of my favorites from the book.

19) Billy Moseby's Night Ride, from New England, USA.
Billy lives with his grandparents out on their rural farmstead, and everyone keeps clear of old Francis Woolcott - rumor is that he's a wizard.  Billy is overcome with curiosity, and spies on the neighbor's bonfire one night, and is kidnapped on a wild ride through the countryside as the man releases spirits and hexes to torment his neighbors.  When the night is over, Billy is encouraged to leave well enough alone, but now he's really inspired - he wants power like that himself.  When he finally gets his courage up to go apprentice himself, he's too late.  Woolcott is lying near death, and Billy watches helplessly as the demons that Woolcott worked with return in force to fetch his unwilling pitiful soul off to hell.

Another of the morality tale sort, but at least it has a younger protagonist, and an interesting look at the predjudices of old farm people.  This one might be an interesting pairing with the Witch Cat - Woolcott and the cat lady would be an interesting pair.

20) The Hunter in the Haunted Forest, compiled from three Teton Sioux tales.
A brave hunter must venture into the haunted forest to feed his starving family, even though he knows that powerful spirits run rampant there, and have no love for the living.  First he is overtaken by a powerful storm, and tries to shelter in a clearing, in a convenient teepee, but he overhears voices inside planning dark plots, and races away from them.  When he camps deeper in the woods, and old man comes to his campfire, and reveals himself to be a ghost.  The ghost offers a wager - if they wrestle and the hunter wins, he'll find plentiful game and a peaceful forest, but if the ghost wins, the hunter will be haunted and his whole family will die from hunger.  The hunter wins (with a nice trick) and turns the ghostly old haunt into ashes, and then is delighted to find that the pact holds true, and the game is plentiful thereafter.

It's easy to tell that these are disconnected snippets, but I think that they all flow together decently well - they're more of a sequential narrative than a single arc, but they all hang together well, and give a nice picture of how frightening it must have been to be a hunter alone in the fall woods, knowing your skill is all that keeps your family alive.

21) Brother and Sister, a folktale found in Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi.
Another nasty-bridegroom story.  A sister is promised in marriage to a man claiming to be from a rich neighboring tribe, but her brother is supicious of the strangely-acting man.  He follows the wedded couple to the man's home, and quickly realizes it's a den of hyena demons.  While the demon family is outside changing form, the boy races into the hut to warn his sister.  They block the entrance to the enclosed yard with thorns, and barricade themselves in the hut, then as the demons continue to advance, escape out a window and into the nearby trees, where they flee frantically as the hyenas pursue them (destroying the trees as they go) until they reach a wide river.  The bridegroom hyena continues to swim after them, even after the sun rises and he changes shape back to a man, but the siblings pelt him with rocks until he turns back.

A nice sibling story, but a little frustrating that all of the escape ideas are from the brother.  Ah well.

22) The Lovers of Dismal Swamp, from Virginia, USA
A young pair of lovers lived on the edge of a swamp, until one day the young lady took sick and died.  Her lover was utterly distraught, and refused to believe she was dead.  As time went on, he began to obsess that she was alive, out in the swamp, and needed him to rescue her.  He rushed out into the swamp one day, convinced that he saw her in the mist, with a lantern in her hand.  He built a homemade raft and poled out towards her, and that was the last anyone saw him alive.  Now hunters and fishers in that swamp claim you can see the duo poling a rickety raft along the waterways at dusk.

Short and shivery indeed - just over two pages long!  The tone of this one is interesting, because there's no malice or evil ascribed to the boy or girl, even as ghosts.

23) Boneless, Shetland Isles.
Villagers were terrorized by a creature they called "Boneless" or simply "It" because no one could agree on what it looked like, or even what sort of thing it was.  It gave off an aura of evil and terrorized households and farm animals simply by it's presence.  One Christmas night, a farmer had enough.  After a night of It bumping against his doors and scaring his cattle, he resolved to kill it for good.  He raced out into the night and hurled an axe at it, killing it near the sea-cliff edge, and then burying it for good measure.  That spring, a folklorist was curious about the legend, and learned where the burial spot was.  He began to dig it up, until he noticed the "curdled light" and the milky fog seeping out of the hole. He ran for his life, and watched as It seeped out of the hole and headed towards the ocean.  Two nights later, as he was wandering the cliff edges, he saw It in the water, long and stretched out, and formless.  He turned to run, but it overtook him in an instant, and wrapped misty tentacles around him, dragging him over the edge of the cliff.  He prayed desperately aloud, and the thing recoiled, took fire, released him, fell, and sizzled on the surface of the water below.

This sounds like a folktale that might have influenced Lovecraft back in the day.  The insistence on the thing being unformed and indescribable, of strange oil-shimmer colors on white fish-belly hue, and the affinity to water - sounds like a baby shoggoth to me.  The fact that a folklorist is the one to poke at it and get punished for his temerity is also very Lovecraftian.

24) The Death Waltz, New Mexico
Elizabeth was newly come to Fort Union, and she was a beauty from back East.  Everyone adored her, and all the soldiers and ranchers courted her, but she was too good for any of them, and laughed at them.  The handsomest and best social match was Frank Sutter, who was smitten with him.  She was perfectly happy to be courted by such a fine officer, and when they had to leave on a raid and he asked her hand, she agreed - and upped the deal by promising that even if he died, she'd never wed another.  Of course, the obvious happens.  During the raid, someone saw him go down, but his body was never recovered.  The fort gossips noted that Elizabeth didn't seem too perturbed by the death of her forever love, and tongues wagged even more harshly when she became engaged to a man from back East, who was leaving the fort to return there.  At the wedding reception, the night turned stormy and wild, and the doors slammed open to reveal Sutter, muddy and corpselike, with terrible wounds all over his body.  He grabbed the new bride from her husband, motioned to the band, and began a terrible waltz with her - by the end of it she was dead.  

This was another of the ones I remembered from childhood, because I always thought the "bride" was a silly heartless thing to take advantage of someone and make stupid promises, especially to a soldier in wartime.  Serves her right.

25) The Ghost of Misery Hill, California, USA.
Old Tom Bowers worked the mine on Misery Hill, until he passed away.  He was an ornery and private man, and even after he passed, no one could bring themselves to jump his claim - even after death.  That is, until Jim Brandon's debts got so bad he had no other choice.  It started calmly enough, with him noticing that his tools and equipment were misplaced every morning.  Then he started noticing someone using his sluice to pan gold.  If that wasn't bad enough, then the notices started going up, claiming the mine in Tom Bower's name.  Then he saw the ghost and his nerves vanished, and he shot it - which of course made Old Tom mighty unhappy, and the now-vengeful ghost came after Jim with his pickaxe.  No one ever saw Jim again, but they did find his gun - pinned to the ground by a faintly-glowing pick driven straight through the barrel.

A good old wild-west gold-mining ghost story is such fun.

26) The Loup-Garou, a French-Canadian folktale.
Another short one, of the evil-thing-chasing-you-in-the-woods category.  Pierre lives in a lovely cabin in the woods, and he and his wife are very happy there, until she gets sick and he has to ride through the woods after dark to fetch a doctor for her.  He sets off, and while they're making good time at first, suddenly the horse slows down as if he's pulling a heavy load.  Pierre looks behind him - straight into the eyes of an enormous wolf.  Pierre freaks out, and he and the horse begin the run for their lives, but it's no use - the thing catches them.  Pierre draws his knife and manages to draw blood before the wolf eviscerates him, and the loup-garou (as tradition dictates) is forced to change back into human form and flee.  Pierre gets while the getting is good, and he and the doctor make sure to bring crosses with them as they pass through the woods on the return trip.

This one really isn't much, but the requirement to change to human and flee if blood is drawn is an interestingly specific limitation.  I am very curious about that part.

27) The Golem, an original tale based on Jewish folklore.
A merchant learned of the mysteries of the golem, and hired a rabbi to create one for him.  He immediately began abusing this perfect servant, treating it like the dirt it came from.  But the golem kept growing, and it slowly got less obedient, and even began to act sullen and unhappy.  The merchant refused to admit that he had a problem, and kept on abusing his magical servant, until one day he woke to find the golem systematically dismantling his house.  He flees to the rabbi who teaches him how to destroy the golem, but when the merchant manages to do so, the golem collapses into a mass of inanimate clay that falls onto the merchant, crushing him to death.

LOVED this story, and the just desserts of the pompous asshole merchant who thought he had the perfect slave to abuse.

28) Lavender, raodsides, USA. (see also Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road's base ghost story)
Two guys were headed to the dance, and they see a pretty girl by the side of the road, dressed in a lavender party dress.  They stop and pick her up, and one of the boys lends her his jacket.  They have a great time at the dance, but when it's time to leave, the girl is distraught and demands to be let out on the side of the road, close to where they found her originally.  The boys are convinced she was just "letting them down easy" because she didn't want to go steady with either of them, and they head down the dirt driveway to visit her the next day.  The door is opened by an ancient woman, who weeps when she hears their story.  Her little girl's favorite color was lavender, and she's been dead for nearly 50 years now - every spring she goes out to dance with the boys, and every time she almost gets back home before she fades away.  The boys think this is a set-up or a trick and leave affronted, until they see the graveyard next door, with Lavender's gravestone draped with the letter jacket from last night draped over it.

Sweet and sad, and one of my favorite ghost stories. Love how it's so universally USA - it doesn't need a time or a place or any identifying details to be haunting and mystical.

29) The Goblin Spider, a legend from Japan.
Raiko, the famous samurai, is sent by the lord to kill a ferocious goblin that is shaped like a giant spider, and is terrorizing the countryside.  On the way there, he is directed by the floating skull of a former victim of the spider.  They find a deserted palace, inhabited by a creepy bug like ancient crone.  She warns them away, then shifts into a mist and sinks through the floor as a legion of demons attack the samurai and his companion. They fight for hours, until the sun begins to rise, and the demons vanish.  Then a beautiful pale maiden appears, but blinds them with unwholesome light, and shapeshifts into a creepy elongated monstrosity that oozes sticky white threads.  She also changes to mist and seeps into the floor, and the samurai realize that she bleeds white sticky blood.  The sun has fully risen, and now the samurai realize that there is a cavern or hollow beneath the flagstones.  They pull them up, angering the mighty spider (who was the hag, and then the fair maiden) who attacks them brutally.  The samurai fight valiantly, and finally slay the hellish spider beast, and take it's head back to court for their rewards.

Ew.  Spiders.

30) The Halloween Pony, a folktale from France.
Grandmother warned the boys to stay inside on Halloween night, but the lively lads are determined to have some fun.  They run out and find a neighbor's pony has gotten loose from it's pen.  They all pile on, and strangely, even 4, 5, 6 and more boys seem to fit comfortably on the small pony.  The pony doesn't even seem to mind the weight, and frolics and cavorts around, until he reaches the seaside, and the boys try to slow it down.  It refuses, and they then try to dismount, but they're stuck.  The boys can do nothing but watch in terror as the pony descends into the sea, and none of the village boys who were out that night were ever found.

So, the French version of kelpies, essentially.  Plus a little morality guilt laid in on top.

I would have preferred this collection to stop at 28, and just skipped the spider and the silly morals, and ended on a high note with Lavender.  Ahh well.

Nonfiction: Write Your Legal Will in 3 Easy Steps, Robert C. Waters

Write Your Legal Will in 3 Easy Steps (Complete Kit)
Robert C. Waters
ISBN: 9781770400962  (3rd edition)
Read July 2015

This short and sweet book explains what all the terms mean, what the purpose of a will is, and how to create a simple one that still covers the legal bases, and explains at every step of the way WHY something needs to be done a certain way, and when different approaches might be useful for different life circumstances or goals for asset protection or asset dispersal.

Really useful, and was the clearest presentation of the concept of wills and probate that I've ever seen.

Nonfiction, Unbored Games, Joshua Glenn & Elizabeth Foy Larsen

Unbored Games: Serious Fun for Everyone
Joshua Glenn & Elizabeth Foy Larsen
ISBN: 9781620407066
A fairly-comprehensive guide to various childhood games and activities.

This is a great little compendium of childhood games.  The chapters are divided up into styles of game, and each presents a whole slew of various games and activities - many of which you'll probably remember from car trips, bored summers, and college orientation.

Lots of fun, and lots of info, all in a funny, cartoonish style.

Nonfiction: How to Raise a Wild Child, by Scott D. Sampson

How to Raise a Wild Child
Scott D. Sampson
ISBN: 9780544279322
Read June, 2015
Discusses the importance of the natural world to child development and personal happiness.

I think I was expecting this to be a bit more about child development, and less of a personal journey, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless, and Sampson's voice was clear and passionate all through the book.  The science was a bit slim, but there were copious references to other books (some of which I'd actually already read) to handle that angle.

Basically this is one guy's love letter to nature, and why he feels like it has made him a better person, and why he feels like it will help to make every person better and happier.  His enthusiasm and passion are hard to argue with, but he does make some assumptions about people being outdoors that I think are based on his own personal interests and aren't quite as universal as he would like to believe they are.

Still, the overall points are well-meant and much needed - even if you don't totally fall in love with bird-watching in your backyard, or don't end up taking camping trips to celebrate milestones with California hippies, it's important to have a deeper and more positive relationship with our world.

Biography: You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), by Felicia Day

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) 
Felicia Day
ISBN: 9781476785653
Read August 10, 2015

Missed the hold-til notice on this one, and got it at the library a day early.  Whoops!

Felicia is one of the pillars of the geek community.  She's clever, self-deprecating, snarky, funny, and deeply honest, even about herself and her failings.  All of this makes for a great memoir.

I especially enjoyed reading about her upbringing, which matched my own in a lot of ways.  She perfectly describes the strangeness of college and socialization after being isolated and having to fly solo for so long as a child.  I also was touched by her honesty about her depression and her self-medicating with WoW while trying to "make it" as a hollywood actress.  Her blunt honesty about her unfortunate choices also sadly resonated with me.  It's easy to get caught up in doing something that feels good, even after it doesn't feel good any longer, because it's better than the fear of everything else.

I was glad that the memoir ended on a relatively high point, and wish her all the success (and more importantly, all the happiness) in the world.

Juvenile Nonfiction: ... If you lived at the Time of the American Revolution, Kay Moore & Daniel O'Leary

... If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution
Kay Moore, illustrated by Daniel O'Leary
ISBN: 0590674447 (Scholastic paperback)
Well-constructed sociology report on Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution

This came through delivery, and it's an excellent resource for American history.  Simple language, focuses on both the Patriots and the Loyalists, keeps things factual and answers "curiosity" questions about home-life, schooling, or joining the armies.

Really impressed by this, and it looks like it's part of a nonfiction series by Scholastic - I'm going to have to check out the others to see if they're as good as this one is.

Tuesday Storytime: Growing Green

A fun trio of books today - all about green growing things.

Weeds Find a Way
Cindy Jenson-Elliott, illustrated by Carolyn Fisher
ISBN: 9781442412606
Mixed-media digital collage, very busy, very organic.  Lilting poetic wording.

This is a lovely poem to weeds; how their seeds and roots and flowers are tenacious and enduring and persistent and deep-rooted, and also beautiful and practical and natural and free.  This is another serendipitous delivery-discovery, and I'm glad to add it to my repertoire.  It will probably come up in garden or green-thumb storytimes with On Meadowview Street or The Curious Garden or Sarah Stewart's The Gardener.

Green
Laura Vaccaro Seeger
ISBN: 9781596433977
Beautiful messy splotchy painterly spread-page scenes with cute little cut-outs revealing snatches of upcoming and previous pages.

This is a lovely book.  It technically only very loosely fits the theme, but most of the scenes are natural ones, and several others are of fruits or vegetables, so it totally fits.  Very little wording, but the word "green" is on every page, surrounded by all the different shades of greens that can be found.  Lovely concept book, and very beautifully done.

A Tree is Nice
Janice May Udry, illustrated by Marc Simont
ISBN: 0060261560
Early propaganda, illustrated in classic "Dick and Jane" style, half b&w and half in color.  Caldecott.

Trees are nice, and this sweet simple Arbor-day-ish book illustrates a variety of reasons in sweet and simple language, and in ways that appeal to kids.  Trees are nice because of leaves rustling in the wind, and shade that the baby sleeps under, and tall trunks and limbs to play pirate ship on, and apples to eat and shelter for the house.  All of this and more, in simple persuasive speech, surrounded by simple, old-fashioned, nostalgic illustrations.  A solid read, and a bit longer in the telling than I expected, but still well within the age-range for me.  I think this might be the first time I've actually used it in storytime, and I'm glad I took the chance.

Nonfiction: Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Edited by Laurie Lamson

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Speculative Genre Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers
Edited by Laurie Lamson
ISBN: 9780399165559
Read June 2015

Collects exercises and encouragement from:
Steven Saus
Jule Selbo
Glenn M. Benest
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Kate Bernheimer
Vincent M. Wales
Lisa Renee Jones
Piers Anthony
Aimee Bender
Kim Dower
Brian James Freeman
Brittany Winner
Vonda N. McIntyre
Kealan Patrick Burke
Sabrina Benulis
Elliot Laurence
Steven Barnes
Diego Valenzuela
Danika Dinsmore
Xaque Gruber
Sequoia Hamilton
James Wanless
Michael Reaves
Raymond Obstfeld
Lois Gresh
Michael Dillon Scott
William E. Nolan
Christine Conradt
Derrick D. Pete
Todd Klick
Sara B. Cooper
Ben Thompson
Edward DeGeorge
Lisa Morton
Jan Kozlowski
E.E. King
David Anthony Durham
Mark Sebanc
Melissa Scott
L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Janice Hardy
Kij Johnson
Chris Howard
Nancy Kress
Harlan Ellison
Pen Densham
Douglas Mcgowan
Marc Scott Zicree
Richard Bleiler
Brianna Winner
Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein
Wendy Mewes
Eric Stener Carlson
Diana Peterfreund
Karen McCoy
Eric Edson
Bruce McAllister
Jeffrey A. Carver
Derek Taylor Kent
Jessica Page Morrell
Stacey Graham
Mark Sevi
Brad Schreiber
Reggie Oliver
James G. Anderson
Gabrielle Moss
Vanessa Vaughn
Maria Acevedo
Jack Ketchum
Rainbow Reed
J. Michelle Newman
Lillian Stewart Carl
Jody Lynn Nye
Scott Rubenstein
Lance Mazmanian
Simon Clark
John Skipp
Ramsey Campbell
David Brin
John Shirley
Jay Lake
Nicholas Royle
Jeremy Wagner
Dana Fredsti
Peter Briggs
Sharon Scott
Joe R. Lansdale

Whew!

All of those lovely authors and writers and industry-persons took time from their schedules to offer advice and exercises and encouragement.  Lots of them didn't mesh with my writing style, some of them were weird, some of them were self-congratulatory (very few of those) and some of them were like little golden nuts to squirrel away into my writer's file to pull out when I need a boost.

A fun resource, and a great summer read.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Winnie, Sally M. Walker & Jonathan D. Voss

Winnie: the True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh
Sally M. Walker, illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss
ISBN: 9780805097153
Sepia-shaded Rockwellian illustrations.

This was such a sweet story.  I knew that Winnie had belonged to Harry Colebourn and then to the London Zoo, but not the details.  This was the sweetest story, and I'm glad beyond measure that Winnie was a sweet-tempered bear, and that she was moved to a zoo before there were any unfortunate incidents.  Colebourn bought (rescued) the cub from an old hunter at a train station, and Winnie (for Winnipeg) became the heart of the regiment.  When the troops mustered to England for WWI nothing would do but for Winnie to come along, but when they were called to the front in France, they realized Winnie needed to be in a better place.  The London Zoo had just finished a new naturalistic enclosure, and Winnie became the star resident, even getting fed and ridden by small children.  This new home was where young Christopher Robin met Winnie, and history was sparked by a tiny frightened bear cub alone in a train station.

Nonfiction (biography) Picture Book: Gingerbread for Liberty! Mara Rockliff & Vincent X. Kirsch

Gingerbread for Liberty! How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution
Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch
ISBN: 9780544130012
Gingerbread-iced cut-out illustrations liven up this adorable story of a very generous baker.

This is an adorable biographical story of Christopher Ludwick, who immigrated to America in the early days of the colonies, and baked for the armies, and persuaded the invading German Hessian troops that they really ought to be on the American side of the conflict.

Fascinating history, and a truly well-told tale of a wonderful life of service to his adopted country.

Picture Book: Is This a House for Hermit Crab? by Megan McDonald, & S.D. Schindler

Is This a House for Hermit Crab?
Megan McDonald, illustrated by S. D. Schindler
ISBN: 0531084558 (library bound)
Lovely colored-pencil naturalist drawings of hermit crab in beautiful environments.

Hermit crab has outgrown his current house - he can't tuck himself all the way inside any more, and the fishes and the seabirds are going to get him if he doesn't move into a roomier shell soon.  This story gently follows along as the dauntless crab searches for just the right place to move into, rejecting smooth stones, driftwood, cab pits, and nets before finding just the right shell to scramble into.

This one would go well with The Hermit Crab from our summer reading program.

Picture Book: King Jack and the Dragon, Peter Bently & Helen Oxenbury

King Jack and the Dragon
Peter Bently, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
ISBN: 9780803736986
Soft-edged drawings in watercolors show the power of friendship and imaginative play.

A trio of very young friends has medieval adventures in their great fort (made of sheets and a cardboard box).  Jack is king, Zack was a knight, and little Caspar was a page-boy.  They had great adventures fighting dragons and monsters and feasting in their fort.  Until the sun began to set, and Sir Zack was dragged off by a giant, and Caspar got snagged by another giant, and King Jack was left all alone in his fort at night.  Of course, all of the giants are parents, and the brave trio does have to go to bed after all.

Too adorable for words, and ABOUT TIME there was another good knights and kingdoms book to match up with Mercer Mayer's The Bravest Knight.

Picture Book: Silent Music, James Rumford

This one was so beautiful I had to share it.

Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad
James Rumford
ISBN: 9781596432765
A fictional calligraphy-loving boy reflects on his country and the history of Yakut, the master calligrapher.

Ali is from modern Baghdad, and he loves lots of standard boy activities: soccer, loud music.  But the love of Ali's life is calligraphy, and he practices the beautiful Arabic script to get the letters and the forms absolutely perfect.

The story is short and beautiful, with collage and imprinted and patterned figures and shapes and calligraphic letters across the backgrounds and hiding in the shadows.  It's a sweet tale, surrounded by a beautifully created book.

 

Picture Book/Graphic Novel: The Yellow Jar, vol. 1, Patrick Atangan

This was an odd little book, so I snagged it as it came through delivery.

The Yellow Jar, vol. 1: Two Tales from Japanese Tradition
Patrick Atangan
ISBN: 1561633313
Ukiyo-e comic presentation of The Yellow Jar and Two Chrysanthemum Maidens.

I enjoyed these, but I felt that the presentation and the tales were rather flat.  I have felt this before about Japanese folktales, so I am absolutely sure that is an artifact of the traditional narrative telling of these stories, but it has to be said.  They're just not paced in a way that my western educated mind appreciates.  It's odd, because the stories are full of wild and crazy events, just like folktales and myths from everywhere, but the telling is distancing and depersonalizing.

The Yellow Jar takes up the majority of the book.  A fisherman finds an enormous beautiful jar with a sleeping woman inside.  He takes her home and buries the jar, and when she wakes, she reveals that she's a fae being who was tasked with marrying either the elephant, the ox, or the man (as a species).  She tried both the animals, but they were mean to her in different ways, and she doesn't want to even try with man, because she's seen them from afar and knows they're lying and horrible.  She can't go home without her jar, so she swears to marry whoever is kind and honest.  The fisherman pledges to be honest, and immediately lies about where her jar is and where he found her.  (Of course he does.) She finds out (of course she does) and flees, and is captured by a terrible demon lord.  He comes home to find her gone, and realizes it's his own stupid fault, and goes after her.  Because the plot demands it, true love (and the elephant and the ox, back for a cameo) win over the terrible demon.

The Two Chrysanthemum Maidens is short and sweet, but odd.  A monk tends to his rock garden, until two raggedy-ass weeds invade.  For some reason, he can't quite bring himself to root them up, and that fall they blossom into two beautiful flowers - well, one really beautiful yellow flower, and one pale and sickly white one.  The monk uproots the yellow one and takes it to a special place in the garden and tends it, while the abandoned white one droops and mourns and slowly dies - until a passing nobleman sees her beauty, uproots her, and uses her image for his family crest.  The odd thing is that the flowers are presented in the text straightforwardly as little miniature women, but no one actually in the story treats them as anything but flowers.  There is probably some meta-commentary there to be made, but I can't be bothered today.

As a note on the artwork, it was overall very beautiful and inviting to see, but the hands of all of the people are quite peculiar - almost like tentacles or like they're all out of joint.  Once I noticed that, it was hard to see anything else for a good long while.

I don't know if I'll bother to hunt down the second volume.

Tuesday Storytime: Busy Machines

This theme was mainly an excuse to use Digger Dog, so I could have fun with the big fold-out pages.

Digger Dog

William Bee, illustrated by Cecilia Johansson

ISBN: 9780763661625

Bright cartoony colors and lots of action in a repeating-framework storyline.

Digger Dog sniffs out a bone, and wants it.  So he starts digging, but he's going to need a little help.  Repeated story framings intro bigger and bigger diggers (love the language here) until finally he's able to dig out what must be the biggest bone in the world, right?  The last (4-page double-open spread) reveals something to the readers that Digger doesn't know, and makes for a great reveal.

Easy Street

Rita Gray, illustrated by Mary Bono

ISBN: 0525476571

Clay figures and cut-layered landscapes anchor a repetitive rhyming song of roadbuilding.

This has been a favorite for a while, but I purposefully try not to use my favorites more than once every couple of years or so, because there are so many other great books that I feel like I have a responsibility to introduce and showcase.  Easy Street has a road-construction crew of diverse (ethnically and gender) working on a road from start to finish, with an easy-flowing rhyming couplet on each spread, neatly and succinctly narrating the action.  This book also rewards a close look at the illustrations, which are stylized and brightly colored, but the street and background are made of actual sand and rocks (or their visual simulacrums - I think the background cuts are made from sandpapers) and are extremely detailed and visually impart the same concepts as the narration.  A really clever book, with a really easy vocabulary and very easy on the eyes, and extremely short and direct.

Go! Go! Go! Stop!

Charise Mericle Harper

ISBN: 9780375869242

Anthropomorphized trucks and work vehicles are directed by "Little Green" who is soon joined by "Little Red."

This one was a delivery discovery - part of the reason I like working the front lines is that I get to see the materials flow through the library and make serendipitous discoveries of things - either stuff that I like personally, or things that are helpful for programming or for adding to the collection.  I feel like there's a "caught by chance" element that isn't really able to be duplicated by any actual process of selecting or searching.  But back to the story.  Little Green only knows one word, and he uses it to great impact helping the vehicles build the great bridge.  Until there is just too much GO and things get a little crazy.  Just in time, in rolls a newcomer, Little Red.  Guess what HIS word is?  Once order is restored, the two colors begin to work together, and the bridge is completed, just in time for a third color to roll on in.  Little Yellow appears right at the end to keep the speed on the new bridge down to a safe level.  Cute and sweet, and lots of yelling Go! and Stop! from both me and the audience.  

   

Graphic Novel: The Homeland Directive, Robert Venditti & Mike Huddleston

The Homeland Directive
author Robert Venditti
artist Mike Huddleston
ISBN: 9781603090247
Multiple styles of illustration are all flawlessly executed in a spy-thriller story with serviceable fill-in-the-numbers characters.
Graphic Novel Club book for August

I really like Venditti's writing, and this single-arc story was great fun.  Paired with Huddleston's impresario showcase of art styles, it was a delight to read and to browse through afterwards.  The basic premise is pretty simple, and familiar to anyone who has ever watched a Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible movie: an insider from government complex has some nasty ideas, and a plucky gang of archtypes are gathered to oppose the insidious plan.

I really can't talk about the story without ruining it, and it really is a fun story to experience, so I'm limited to gushing about the artwork, and praising the effortless easy pacing and energy that kept everything to a snappy tempo all the way to the very last page.  

Check it out - it's well worth the time, and a nice little filmic stand-alone spy story.

Graphic Novel: The Invincible Iron Man, Vol 1 The Five Nightmares, Matt Fraction, Salvador Larocca

The Invincible Iron Man, vol 1. The Five Nightmares (2009's issues 1-7)
Matt Fraction
Salvadore Larocca
ISBN: 9780785134121
Tony Stark's technologies and companies are threatened by Obadiah Stane's oldest son, Ezekiel, who is becoming an Extremis-fueled nightmare.
Comic Book Club read for July 2015.

Despite the fact that this won an Eisner, I have to say I was a lot less impressed with this than with Fraction's Hawkeye run.  For some reason, he just didn't seem to nail the biting commentary Stark is known for, and the threat from the younger Stane never felt personal - never felt real.  Stark was always in control, and even during this break from Civil War, I didn't get the feeling that Stane was actually occupying much of Stark's attention.

The artwork was also a little iffy for me.  Larocca's compositions and figures seemed oddly distorted much of the time, and the coloring was inconsistent and distracting.  I was constantly pulled out of the storyline by a strangely drawn figure or an oddly framed scene.

Lots of people enjoyed the arc, and the overall run, so I am probably just a strange picky minority, but it really didn't make a very good impression on me.

Juvenile Fiction/Graphic Novel: Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde, Robert Venditti & Rusty Higgins

Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde
Robert Venditti, illustrated by Rusty Higgins
ISBN: 9781481405423
Interesting format choice: a prose novel when Miles is himself, and a graphic novel when he's posing as a superhero.
Read June 2015

I'm a little grumpy about the unweildy title (especially when the language and names inside are so clever and punny), but that's literally the only thing wrong with this fun foray into superherohood.  Miles has moved to Atlanta with his dad after his mom divorces them, and he's trying to be a good kid and to keep from getting beaten up too badly at school.  That is until the day the Atlanta superhero Gilded falls to his death inches from Miles, during a brutal battle with a nasty alien monster.  Gilded bequeaths the cape to Miles, reveals himself as an ancient old man, and expires.  Now MILES is the Hero of Atlanta, and he's got to learn on the job, because natural disasters, accidents, and of course impending alien invasion aren't going to wait for him to get a training montage.

The shift between Miles' prose life as himself and the graphic punch of his experiences wearing the cape is beautiful, and a great choice for this story.  I love the contrast, and the ability of that simple format shift to make everything more impactful and immediate.

Love this start, and can't wait for the next one to show up!

Manga: Emma, Jane Austen, Crystal S. Chan, Po Tse

Emma (Manga Classics)
Jane Austen, adapted by Crystal S. Chan, art by Po Tse
ISBN: 9781927925355
Saccharine and overdramatic in a way that Emma herself would have loved.
Read July 2015

This book is a PERFECT fit for a manga.  Emma is a total dream ingenue, her meddling matchmaking is a delightful device in a visual format, and the characters are so perfect in their charming English politeness and absolutely beautiful clothes.  All of the focus of the plotting; beauty, charm, polite society, the issue of social class and of appearances, the virtue of character, all of that are enhanced by the trimming of the story into a laser-focus on Emma, Harriet, and Jane, and their fortunes and misfortunes in love.

If you've read Emma before and enjoyed it, you should also enjoy this delightful dessert of a rendition.  If you have NOT read Emma, this might be a fun way to introduce yourself to the characters and plotlines before diving into the real thing.

Graphic Novel: Nimona, Noelle Stevenson

Nimona
Noelle Stevenson
ISBN: 9780062278234
Stylized people in a techno-mystic empire are faced with an enigmatic shapeshifter with awesome power.
Read June 2015

Love everything about this book.  The art is a little weird, and once you hear her admit that she does "dot eyes" because she doesn't do eyes well, you just can't not notice it, but the movement and shading and emotion are all simply brilliant.

Nimona is our title character, but in a very real way, our viewpoint character is the "supervillain" Lord Blackheart.  He's not really a very good villain tho, and a lot about the set-up made me think fondly of Megamind.

Nimona herself tho - she's an interesting little enigma.  The repressive kingdom that Blackheart faces off against wants to catch her and use her as a weapon, and she's got some deep psychic scars regarding that sort of idea.  She's also sweet, helpful, insightful, hostile, brittle, a-moral, and nearly entirely undamageable.  LOVE.

My final joy with this lovely quirky book was the relationship between Blackheart and his moral enemy and sworn foe, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (LOVE THESE NAMES) who works for the kingdom's military complex.  The two of them make a lovely throughline through the story, and I was quite happy with where they ended up.

  

Graphic Novel: Ms Marvel Generation Why, G. Willow Wilson et al

Ms Marvel comics, Generation Why trade (collecting 2014's Ms Marvel, issues 6-11)
author G. Willow Wilson
artist Jacob Wyatt (#6-7)
artist Adrian Alphona (#8-11)
color artist Ian Herring
letters VC's Joe Caramagna
ISBN: 9780785190226
Ms Marvel has decided to fight crime, but she needs to figure out exactly HOW she'd do it.
Read June 2015.

Ms Marvel comes more fully into her powers in this arc, fights the evil Inventor with the help of a grumpy and not-currently-regenerating ally, and is discovered by the other Inhumans (leading to an extended set of scenes with the always lovely Lockjaw).

Excellent arc, and I love the balance between the mundane and the fantastic that is struck here.  The lack of earth-shattering consequences generally feels perfect for this debut superhero and her developing sense of morality.  I love that she has the opportunity to have mentors now, and people to bounce ideas off of and to have minor conflicts with.  I also love that she's an unapologetic fangirl and acts out like a pretty typical teenage girl, even in bizarro circumstances.

Still a pleasure to read, and I would LOVE to see this as a TV series.  Just saying.

Graphic Novel: Cat Burglar Black, Richard Sala

Cat Burglar Black
Richard Sala
ISBN: 9781596431447
A Lemony Snicketish/Edward Goreyesque graphic novel pits our cat burglar against a shadowy crime organization.
Read July 2015.

I am not a huge fan of this style of artwork, but in a short set-up like this, it wasn't off my taste enough to prevent me from enjoying the story.  Think old fashioned derring do like Enid Blyton set inside the casual depression of Snicket and the overpowering gloom of Gorey.  It was enjoyable, but with a slight edge of just weird moodiness.

K is an orphan, in her teens, and has been raised by an evil crone who raised her foster children to become burglars and larcenists.  Finally rescued, she thinks she's on her way to a new life at her great-aunt's boarding school, but once there discovers a shadowy organization (claiming to be compatriots of her great-aunt and of her deceased parents) who wish her to use her fantastic cat burglar skills to steal pieces of an ancient puzzle that hides away her aunt's great wealth.

K is suspicious - wouldn't her aunt simply share that info with her colleagues?  But she's hesitant to cross the intimidating crew.  The rest of the story is like the Scooby Doo gang tried a set of spy-movie incursions - each new location to pilfer results in a member of the all-girl team mysteriously vanishing.  The remaining team-members assure themselves that the others just saw an opportunity to escape their evil overlords undetected, but the undercurrent indicates that these girls are perhaps left in dire straits.

The story ends well for our protagonist, and the tag has her musing on the fates of her very briefly known young friends.  Perhaps we'll all find out what happened to them, and perhaps we'll simply have to imagine the story ourselves.

Tuesday Storytime: You Can Do It!

The exclamation mark from the title is actually a part of the theme today.  I ended up with a generic "reading" coloring sheet, because it's very difficult to get a visual representation of excited achievement.  The struggles I face at work, I tell you.  :)


Katy Did It!
Lorianne Siomades
ISBN: 9781590786024
Patterned-paper collages of bugs and plants and surfaces against a stark white background.

Katy and her little brother Lou, are out of the house for some hopping, but no trouble, as Mama firmly instructs.  Katy does her best, but she keeps causing problems, even though she doesn't mean to!  What's worse, is that little Lou keeps TATTLING on her, calling out "Katy Did It!" every time she puts a foot wrong.  She's glum and dispirited, with no bounce left in her, until she find a group of people who really need her, and she is rewarded by having people celebrate that she "Did" a good thing too.


Hi
Ann Herbert Scott, illustrated by Glo Coalson
ISBN: 0399219641
Sweet watercolors and a simple story of encouragement and connection between people.  Beautifully diverse.

Margarita's mom has taken her to the Post Office, and she tries repeatedly to strike up a conversation with the people in line, but they're all too wrapped up in their own lives and worlds to even notice her.  Sweet perky Margarita's initial "Hi!" gets less and less chirpy (and attentive viewers will notice the sweet Post Office lady is taking note of this as well) until Margarita gets to the front of the line, but her overture is reduced to a whisper by the prior constant rejections.  A sweet happy ending (very quickly) wraps things up, and our toddler is back to her ebullient self again.


Exclamation Mark
Amy Krause Rosenthal, Tom Lichtenheld
ISBN: 9780545436793
Anthropomorphized punctuation marks live in a world of wide-ruled classroom paper.

Our hero starts off sad.  He isn't like the other periods, he stands out - literally!  He tries to fit in, but can't force himself into that shape.  He's sad and confused until he meets an inquisitive mark that also stands out, but she's perfectly happy with her questioning nature, which eventually causes him to explode!  Oh!  Well!  Look at that!  Finally figuring out what he's for is a miracle!  So our hero returns to the other marks in a beautiful state of excitement, showing off the sort of phrases and comments he's good for, and is (of course) accepted for his stand-out abilities!  (just hush and go read it - it's adorable.)

Tuesday Storytime: Teddy Bear Friends

And I forgot entirely to post last week's Storytime!

I love teddy bears.  So many stories, so many possibilities.  This time around we focused on friendship.

The Sniffles for Bear (A Library Book for Bear)
Bonny Becker, Kady MacDonald Denton
ISBN: 9780763647568
Previously reviewed here.

Still adorable, and lots of opportunities for overacting, which is generally a big hit with the little ones.



Where's My Teddy
Jez Alborough
ISBN: 9781442006027
An oversized picture book with faux-naive art centered in a looming (yet unscary) forest.

I have used this book, and it's partner My Friend Bear many times before, but not since I've been reviewing.  They're both adorable rhyming patter books that tell a sweet story of a pair of children (human and bear) losing their teddies in the woods, and what happens when there's a bit of a mix-up.  Super sweet, super gentle, and a blast to read.  Very quick story that feels solid and full, despite the short duration.


A Splendid Friend Indeed
Suzanne Bloom
ISBN: 9781590782866
Thick crayonish lines and bright primary colors make this a visual treat.

This book would be perfect for demonstrating body language.  Bear never says a word (Duck has that market cornered) but it's beautifully obvious how he feels about the neverending attentions of his excitable friend.  However, by the end, the irrepressible Duck has managed to break through Bear's shell, and the two friends hug it out.  So adorable.