Boy vs. Shark

You know what is still awesome? Libraries! I recently borrowed and read the e-comic version of Boy vs. Shark through Libby, because the physical copy from my local branch was already checked out. I don't regularly read comics on my laptop, but the interface was intuitive and I enjoyed the reading experience. Logistically, it also made it super easy for me to take a screen capture and provide this short excerpt:

This graphic novel, set in 1975, was totally up my alley, not just for the pop culture references of the times (there is a handy glossary for those references in the end matter, for you whippersnappers) but also for its good senses of characters and humor. The story here is one of transitions, as young Paul is 10-years-old and feeling threatened for a couple reasons. First, he feels like he is losing touch with his best friend David, who he has known forever, because he has started hanging around with some older kids. Second, everyone seems obsessed with the new movie Jaws, a huge summer blockbuster that he is probably too young to watch but he feels compelled to in order to keep up appearances. Also, the older kids seem OK with initiating these younger ones into their club, but it involves some questionable activities like throwing apples at people's windows and shoplifting.

Paul is caught up in many emotions: he wants to act grown-up, to keep his friendships stable, and does not want to disappoint his parents. I should also add that he thinks that his father has the "Irish eye," which is an ability to see what he is doing at all times. He and his dad do not always see eye to eye, and a large part of this book is a look at their realistic, imperfect, and loving relationship.

Of course, things go wrong and there is trouble with the law, store owners, and the next-door neighbor. And people get hurt, both literally and figuratively. I do not want to spoil much, but I was impressed with how Paul deals with things and also how he relates to his friends and family. Bravery can take different forms, and he certainly shows ways to face responsibility and find an alternative to toxic masculinity. This graphic novel tells a coming-of-age tale in excellent fashion.

The deceptively simple artwork and moving story were done by Paul Gilligan, who is known for his comic strip Pooch Cafe. He has been twice nominated by the National Cartoonist Society for best strip, and he also has a couple of other books series, Pluto Rocket and King of the Mole People. He speaks about his work on Boy vs. Shark in this article.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been glowing. In a starred entry Kirkus Reviews called it "an authentic and funny look at masculinity and growing pains that resonates across the decades." Kasey summed up, "Gilligan creates a compelling balance of humor and heart in his exploration of masculine values and growing up." Allison Giggey wrote that it "never feels preachy or overly sentimental" and added, "it’s funny, upbeat, and overall a great read."

Boy vs. Shark was published by Tundra Books, and they have a preview and more available here. 

Clementine, Book One

Tillie Walden is one of my favorite comics artists, a multiple Eisner Award winning talent and current cartoonist laureate of Vermont. I loved her books Spinning and On a Sunbeam, and I also had the pleasure of interviewing her a few years back as part of The Comics Alternative podcast. I was very surprised to see that she was going to be working on a book based in The Walking Dead franchise, and I bought it a few years ago but only got to actually reading it now. Clementine is based on a character from the franchise's video game series. She is a young woman/teenager who is living in a world over-run by zombies. When this book begins, she is a loner, and she wears a prosthetic leg in place of the limb she lost.  And, as you can see in the except below, she is used to taking care of herself.

Her isolated demeanor gets seriously challenged when she happens up some Amish folk on a trail, and she ends up partnering up with a young man named Amos who is on his way to Vermont as part of his  rumspringa. It turns out it is easier to ride in a wagon than walk all that way, but when they get there, things are not what they expected. I don't want to spoil much, but they end up trying to make the best of things in the cold, harsh winter conditions, and there are many complications and obstacles.

What I think this book does best is use the backdrop of the zombie apocalypse to explore human beings, how they act, and what they are capable of. This is a book with lots of moral and ethical dilemmas that also explores people's relationships to each other and why they may or may not trust them. Clementine and the others are all complex, compelling characters, and watching how they relate, strive to survive, and potentially look out for each other is very engaging. All of this is further enhanced by the expert storytelling and character depictions. This book is a definite page-turner that is tough to put down. Good thing this is the first book of  a trilogy, so I will need to track down the rest of her story.

It can be tough to please the audience of an existing character, especially one that belongs to as large and passionate a fanbase as The Walking Dead. I have no experience with the video game version, and I very much enjoyed this book. Furthermore, all of the full reviews I have read about this book have been positive. In a starred review for Library Journal, Tom Batten summed up, "Walden’s knack for character development and unique perspective result in a tale perfect for diehard fans of The Walking Dead, as well as newcomers." David Harper wrote that the book "finds a singular talent threading a needle, making this graphic novel feel like a Walden original and a natural continuation of this character’s journey."

Clementine, Book One was published by Image Comics, and they offer a preview and more here.

Very Bad at Math

First off, this book is another I checked out from my local library. Local libraries rule! Very Bad at Math is about Verity "Very" Nelson, who is a real go-getter. She is a three-term class president, excellent English and social studies student, top debater, first-chair clarinetist, and can do more push-ups than anyone in gym class. 

See?

On the surface, it looks like there is nothing she can't do, but secretly she is failing math. She is ashamed of it and hides this fact from everyone, including her friends and parents. When she learns that failing a class would disqualify her from student government, she is offered the chance to participate in a "math pod" with a doctoral student who is working at the school where eventually she learns that she has dyscalculia.

Before this revelation, however, all of the secrecy does some damage. Her miscalculations seem to ruin a fundraiser for a class trip that was her main campaign promise. Even worse, her friends do not know what is going on with her and jump to some conclusions that she is being aloof, snobby, and/or uncaring. It also does not help that a middle school podcaster is snooping, secretly recording her, and creating misinformation. In the end, I found this a very compelling and realistic book in how it dealt with the current realities with social media, friendships, and learning disabilities. Also, the characters are also well defined and interesting. I like how they are drawn, how they interact, and how surprising some turn out to be.

This book's author, multiple Eisner Award winner Hope Larson is very good at comics. She practically invented YA graphic novels with her book Chiggers, adapted the graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time, wrote the Four Points series and Salt Magic drawn by Rebecca Mock, and created a trilogy of books starting with All Summer Long. She speaks about her work on Very Bad at Math in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. In a starred review from School Library Journal, Amy Ribakove wrote, "With captivating characters and a thoughtful exploration of dyscalculia, this book is a wonderful addition to any library." Kirkus Reviews summed it up as "a buoyant misadventure with some lessons along the way." Crystal Wilder concluded, "This graphic novel does a beautiful job of portraying the anxieties that may surround learning disabilities and the many ways family, friends, and learning professionals can be supportive."

Very Bad at Math was published by HarperAlley, and they have a preview and more available here. 

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

Hockey/romance books seem to be all the rage right now, and I just borrowed this one, published a couple of years ago, from my local library. Have I mentioned before that libraries rule!? I have not read a book by Faith Erin Hicks in a while, and with Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy she is hitting on all cylinders. This books has strong, fully realized characters, interesting personal dynamics and relationships, and a plot that left me wanting more. 

It is about Alix, a star hockey player on a team where her teammate and captain Lindsay constantly berates her in the locker room and on the ice. 

One day she snaps and attacks Lindsay, which shocks everyone and herself. In order to help herself and also convince her coach to approve her invitation to the Canada National Women’s U18 Team’s summer camp, she decides to ask Ezra for help managing her anger. Ezra is a drama kid who presents as gay and deals with a lot of antagonism from a couple of bullies because of that. Alix admires how Ezra can diffuse the hostility directed against him and redirect it through cleverness and humor. The two strike up a friendship and get to know each other. It turns out that Ezra is more gender fluid than gay, and they end up in a relationship.

The artwork and how it conveys emotional scenes and facial expressions is one big reason this book works so well. The characters come to life in their reactions and in actions, but the hockey and drama scenes work just as well as the interpersonal ones. Hicks is magical with her line-work, an alchemist who makes the flat images breathe and emote. 

I also loved how this book contained so many nuanced, complex, and realistic relations. Alix and Ezra's relationship is a focal point of the book, but there are also a few forays into their family lives, including how they deal with their parents and their own relationship issues. None of the love stories here are idealistic or perfect, but they all feel real. In addition, Alix and Ezra have to navigate how some of their friends take these new developments, and they find out about some other unresolved feelings related to bullying from the past. Ironically, it does not look so much in depth at the hockey team dynamics, other than to point out that no on in that locker room ever had Alix's back. The way the book ends is very open-ended, and I hope that it gets a sequel because I would love to spend more time with these characters. They were very easy to fall in love with.

As I mentioned above, this book was written and drawn by Eisner Award winning artist Faith Erin Hicks. She has created some of my favorite books over the past decades, including The Nameless City trilogy, The Adventures of Superhero Girl, Pumpkinheads, and Friends with Boys. She talks about her work on this book as well as her own hockey skills in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews wrote that "the ending feels a bit abrupt, but readers will forgive that thanks to the overall incredible storytelling and character building." Ian Keogh concluded, "The general path is predictable, but handled with such delicacy and sympathy that Alix and Ezra carry readers through with the smoothness of skates on ice." Amanda Melilli called it "a feel good romance that doesn’t shy away from the painful side of life."

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more here.

Science Comics: Frogs: Awesome Amphibians

You know what is awesome? Libraries! Recently, I realized I was the only one in my family without a library card. So I rectified that matter and checked out a couple of graphic novels. This one, Frogs, was the first one I read, because I have really enjoyed the Science Comics series and Liz Prince is one of my favorite comics artists. I have read and reviewed many of her books, about relationships, bands, and growing up, and I was eager to see her take on nonfiction comics.

This book stars Fran, a "city kid" whose parents have taken new jobs and moved to the country. She is not thrilled about this situation, and when she goes out to explore the local neighborhood she finds a pond and what she thinks is a fish. It is actually a tadpole, and it can talk(!). In short fashion, Fran finds herself enrolled in Amphibian Academy where she (and by extension, the reader) learns all sorts of things about these animals. For instance, it has lots about how they breathe, grow up, survive over winters. I also learned that they include more than frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders but also the limbless caecilians. 

There is also a good amount of info about environmental factors, diseases, and parasites that affect amphibians. One of the biggest revelations for me here was the existence of Big Night, a multi-community response to the transition from winter to spring when amphibians face danger getting to their habitats. There are lots of calls for action in the book, and that one in particular is very accessible for anyone. Altogether, this book is a fantastic resource for any readers eager to learn about frogs and other amphibians. 

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been superlative. In a starred review for School Library Journal, Emilia Packard summed up, "Prince’s devoted investigation of frogs and toads offers effortless education for readers of all ages and levels of interest, poised to make an Anura aficionado of every reader." Johanna Draper Carlson called it "the best kind of educational comic, one that teaches the reader while keeping their interest so much they might not realize how much they’re learning, on an unusual subject with plenty of awesome facts." Jaime Herndon wrote that "readers of any age will find this volume filled with fun facts."

Frogs: Awesome Amphibians was published by First Second, and they provide a preview and more information here.

Run, Book One

The March trilogy of graphic novels is a modern classic, a multi-award-winning set of books that chronicle the life of John Lewis during the first part of his life. This book, Run, was proposed as the first in another series, but Lewis died just as the final edits were made to it, and it is up in the air if it will ever continue. Still, it is a worthy and fascinating book well worth reading and revisiting.

This volume takes place after the first push of civil rights victories, and it shows how even that segregation was legal and voting rights cleared that equality was far from the norm. This book opens with a white congregation refusing to allow blacks to enter their church and worship, and shows more examples of how entrenched power structures made it difficult for true justice to be practiced. I think it is important to see just how much struggle existed and continues to exist, even after "progress" was made. We are still fighting some of these same battles now, sadly.

This book also features much detail about the workings and politics of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that Lewis headed, and how it morphed into a different sort of movement that eventually gave rise to the Black Panther Party. 

It also chronicles several contemporary events, such as the Vietnam War and Watts riots, and how they all contributed to the political atmosphere of the times. This book ends with Lewis deciding to run for office, and even if it ends in an open-ended manner that may never be resolved, readers would know that Lewis was elected and served for decades as a US Representative. And I feel that what makes this book relevant and moving is how it shows the friction and effort necessary with any political action. 

Like the March trilogy, this book was written by Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with art by L. Fury, in her graphic novel debut, with some assists by Nate Powell. Fury has been at work on her own graphic novel project, Condemned, and Powell has a long list of credits, including the March books, an adaptation of Lies My Teacher Told Me, and his own works like Fall Through.

This book has received many accolades and glowing reviews. Publishers Weekly concluded their starred review, "Lewis’s stunning American story and legacy lives on in these pages." In another starred entry, Kirkus Reviews called it "an intimate, powerfully revealing look at a crucial, complex time, through the eyes of a true American hero." In a third starred review, Eric Carpenter wrote that it was "as informative and essential an addition to the nonfiction comic canon as its much-lauded predecessors."

Run, Book One was published by Abrams ComicArts, and they offer a preview, a teaching guide, and more information about it here.

History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes

I have to admit I went into reading this book, Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes, with a bit of trepidation, because I know that Parks's story is often-told and also incorrectly, as if she was just some tired woman who happened into the situation, which could not be further from the truth. However, there was so much in this book that I either did not know or appreciate, and it was truly eye-opening. If I have a quibble with it, it would be that the title should be reversed, because its narrator and main focal point is Claudette Colvin, who just died this year and should be known by many more people. She was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks was, also for not giving up her seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. The difference was that Colvin made for a poorer test case for litigation, as she was younger, unmarried, and pregnant at the time of the proceedings. It was not until later that Parks became the subject of that test case to argue against and finally end segregation (legally, at least). 

What this book does an excellent job of is telling things like it was, not sugar-coating language, events, or how some people ended up getting more credit than others for the civil rights work. It shows the long, laborious process it took to get justice, from the arrest to trial and later appeals. It shows how these events affected both women and their families, highlighting how they lost friends and jobs and also feared for their lives because of the stands they took. This book also situates these events with other contemporary happenings, like the murder of Emmett Till, to give a clear context of the times. It makes these people real, not just grand figures from history to be studied.

Reading this book the same day that I learned the Reverend Jesse Jackson died, and revisiting the 1984 skit "The Question is Moot" from Saturday Night Live, it strikes me that even after decades we are still dealing with the same issues of disparity, violent authorities, hateful legislation, and misinformation. It's shameful that some of us have hoodwinked by illusions of progress, when the same old things just happen under different guises. Having access to stories like these is vital for people to realize that these struggles are ongoing, difficult, and necessary.

Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin was written by Tracey Baptiste and drawn by Shauna J. Grant. Baptiste has many books to her credit, including Kid X and Super Goat Girl. Grant has created her own series of Mimi graphic novels as well as a couple of entries in the Baby-Sitter Little Sister series.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews called it "a valuable addition to the growing swath of graphic novels drawing attention to civil rights history." Johanna Draper Carlson wrote, "The narrator and the open, friendly art style make History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin an enlightening read with something new to say."

Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more information about it here. This book is suggested for readers age 8 and up, and it features some hateful language and references to sexual violence.