The Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast

I was super-impressed and loved The Cardboard Kingdom, which I feel is a watershed book in the world of graphic novels for younger readers. This sequel, Roar of the Beast maybe lacks the varied emotional impact of that book, but it offers a more unified and complex narrative. Both books are superlative, and arguing which is better is sort of like arguing whether The Godfather or The Godfather II is better, which is to say that you cannot go wrong with either.

The main plot in this book is that there is great unrest in the neighborhood. Some of the kids are doubting/rethinking their characters, some bullied by older teens, and there seems to be a great beast roaming around at night wreaking havoc and spreading fear.

Overall, I think it is a great exploration of emotional issues that young people may experience, and how messy friendships and navigating the many changes of growing up and dealing with relationships can be. It does not downplay the complexity of what people do or feel, and not everyone makes the best choices for themselves, which I think reflects reality. It was a very moving book, and one I think that will resonate with a great many readers, both young and old. This is a graphic novel that I feel belongs in every upper elementary/middle school library.

This book was drawn by Chad Sell, and co-written with nine other authors, Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, David DeMeo, Jay Fuller-Ng, Cloud Jacobs, Barbara Perez Marquez, Molly Muldoon, and Katie Schenkel.

All of the reviews I have read of this book comment on its excellence. Charles Hatfield called it "that rare sequel that outshines its original." Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Continuing his collaboration with a group of different writers, Sell weaves together an engaging, endearing ensemble cast with a diverse range of gender identities and gender presentations, races, ethnicities, and body shapes." Juanita Giles wrote about how well this books captures the sensations and uncertainties of growing up and opined that it "not only reminds us of what it was like to go through that transition, but just how real even imagined problems can be at that age."

The Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast was published by Random House Graphic, and they offer a preview and more info about it here.

Doodleville

In part, Doodleville is a book about creativity and how it relates to people's emotions. Its protagonist is Drew, a young girl who loves to draw. What is more, her doodles literally pop off of the page and alter their surroundings. 

When she brings her notebook to the Art Institute of Chicago, her doodles run wild through the museum's various masterpieces, which especially upsets one curator. Also, one of her doodles steals a hat from a classical painting. 

 

Another problem arises when Drew feels a sense of competition with the cool creations of her friends in the art club, and she tries to remedy the situation by drawing Levi, a leviathan creature she hopes will amaze them. When they don't quite get what she's trying to do with her creation, Levi manifests off the page in a disastrous way. 

The various members of the art club all have their own characters, including superheroes, fantastical creatures, and animals, which unfortunately fall in Levi's path. A large part of the book is them planning ways to deal with the leviathan, which includes attacking it, trying to befriend it, and trapping it. But Levi proves almost impossible to deal with or contain. So in a manner, this book is also about how people learn how to relate to each other, which can be a messy and volatile endeavor.

I know that there are lots of cliches about the mental instability of artists, as it they need some sort of madness to fire their art, but this book does not really perpetuate that myth. Instead, the role of art here is to reflect people's emotional lives, and those of young people trying to find their way in the world can be tumultuous. Experimenting with identities and trying to fit in with friends can be frustrating, and that is part of what manifests in the children's drawings. I think this book is a highly respectful one, that takes children's mental states seriously and communicates just how complex they can be.

I appreciated how the artwork reflects these various struggles in interesting ways, and I also appreciated how these events are not tidily resolved at the end of the book. Also, on a positive note, the lack of resolution means that there will be a sequel set in this same beautifully rendered world.

Doodleville is the creation of Chad Sell, the artist who collaborated with a number of authors on one of my favorite graphic novels of recent years, The Cardboard Kingdom. This book continues in its vein of respectfully representing the diverse, complicated lives of children. Sell provides lots of insight into his work on Doodleville in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews summed up that this book "will draw readers in and inspire doodles galore." Publishers Weekly wrote, "Sell’s caricatured illustrations provide strong action, and single-hue overlays (purples, greens) highlight emotionally charged moments for the friend group, which includes kids of various ethnicities and gender identities." Charles Hartford wrote that it has "the perfect balance of seriousness and fun."

Doodleville was published by Random House Graphic, and they offer a preview and more here.

The Cardboard Kingdom

This is the final book I am writing about this month that I reviewed for the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards presented at the Denver Pop Culture Con earlier in June. It really took me by surprise just how moving and heartfelt this book was. It is about a neighborhood that is full of imaginative children who like to engage in pretend-play. They build lots of structures and costumes from cardboard, with each chapter being focused on an individual child. At first, I thought this was just going to be a light look at a bunch of kids playing together, and I have to admit that, art aside, I thought it was going to be pretty forgettable. But after a couple of tales, I was struck by a few things.

First, all of the characters are memorable and nuanced. They come from different family configurations and backgrounds. They are racially diverse. Some may seem like types initially, but getting to see them and their lives quickly disabused me of the notion that they were simple caricatures. They have different interests and distinct personalities. Some want to play out fantasies, while others want to be business people. Some want to be superheroes to help others; some want to be monsters or villains to exercise their power. By the end of the book, I felt like I had known some of these children during my own life.

Second, the issues that they have to deal with are realistic and contemporary. Some come from multi-parent homes, others from same-sex families, or single-parent households. Some deal with abusive or harsh relationships. Some are trying on different gender identities. I feel that the cast of characters is aptly diverse and reflective of modern life in the US. Although it comes from the viewpoints of children, this book grapples with issues of identity, family, and finding one's place in the world.

Third, this book is deceptively complex and engrossing. Later in the story when there are some older kids who come in as bullies and wreck a lot of their work, I was genuinely concerned for the young kids and horrified by what I was reading. This book is gripping, and it sheds an intimate light into the inner lives that children have to life, warts and all. Not all of the stories here resolve well, but they all show what can happen when you have genuinely good friends. I found myself in love with these characters, and it's a book I will read again and again.

The book cover says that the author is Chad Sell, who illustrated the whole thing, but there are different writers (including Jay Fuller, David Derek, Katie Schenkel, Kris Moore, Manuel Betancourt, Molly Muldoon, Vid Alliger, Cloud Jacobs, Michael Cole, Barbara Perez Marquez, Vid Alliger, David Demeo, and Chad Sell) penning individual chapters. In a helpful move, all contributors have a short bio in the end papers. Sell has a very strong, colorful art style that I found very attractive and inviting. I very much liked his technique where he switched back and forth visually from the reality of what the kids made and the fantasy play they were engaged in.

Sell speaks about his life and work in comics in this interview. Or if you prefer to listen to a podcast interview, here is a good one at Comics Syllabus (Hi, Paul!). This interview with many of the book's creators offers multiple insights about the stories. This interview touches on the logistics of tackling this project with so many contributors.

This book has been met with much praise and award nominations. It has received multiple starred reviews, such as the one from Publishers Weekly that concluded, "Imagination, these kids prove, can erase what seem like unbridgeable differences." In their starred review, Kirkus Reviews called it "a breath of fresh air," and added that " this tender and dynamic collection is a must-have for any graphic-novel collection." Esther Keller called it "a lovely book with bold artwork." Elizabeth Bird raved, "Chad Sell and his cadre of clever writers are here and they might just be the wave of the future we’ve been waiting for."

The Cardboard Kingdom was published by Random House Graphic, and they offer a preview and more here.

The publisher provided a review copy.