Maker Comics: Grow a Garden!

Happy 2021! It's a brand new year, and some people like to take this time to do something new with their lives. For instance, you might want to do something productive like take up gardening. Well, luckily for graphic novel fans, the Makers Comics series has got you covered. Grow a Garden! has all sorts of helpful insights on how to begin a garden, both inside and outside, with directions on how to plant specific crops, set-up an indoor lighting system to foster seedlings along during weather, and tips on how to compost and create your own rich soil. Overall, I think it's a handy introduction to the rudimentary aspects of gardening. I certainly learned a bunch from it, most notably the need to pay close attention to the specific needs of specific plants.

As you can see from the excerpt from the opening of the book, the artwork is clean and attractive, a style that is cartoonish and inviting to read. It also feels like a book aimed toward younger readers, as a sizable aspect of the book also focuses on setting up the book's premise, namely that there is a bunch of students learning about agriculture at Garden Gnome Academy. I think this premise is clever, but I also feel that it is overly developed for a book such as this. A lot of space goes toward crafting a narrative where the apparent nebbish, instructor Mr. Butternut, is in actuality a superhero named Captain Compost who eventually saves the school from the schemes of fellow teacher Mr. Thorn and his mad experiments with carnivorous plants. In (too?) clever fashion, the students spent a lot of the downtime waiting for plants to grow by reading Captain Compost comic books, so the reveal is a big surprise. 

I  enjoyed reading and learning from this book , and I don't want to poo-poo its whimsical narrative, but I also think it could have used some streamlining. There are a number of places where I think text dominates the narrative flow, and I can't help but wonder if some of the superhero/fantasy story could have been pruned in the interest of delineating more visual directions for gardening.  I have read many books in the various nonfiction series that First Second publishes, and this volume just seems to not maximize its potential for being informative. It is charming, but I also feel that its premise sometimes detracts from its content. The combination of fiction and nonfiction is not harmonious.

This book's creator Alexis Frederick-Frost is best known for his work on the Adventures in Cartooning series, and he's no stranger to fantasy comics aimed at younger readers.

The reviews I could locate about this book often express disappointment. Johanna Draper Carlson concluded, "All this background material means we don’t get to see the gnomes actually grow or harvest much of what they start. Just as the part I’m interested in is beginning, the book ends. Instead of seeing the outcome of a successful garden, we get a superhero battle out of nowhere. I also hoped that there would be more information on fixing or avoiding problems with plants, but there are only a couple of pages on how to recognize when something’s wrong." Melissa McCleary wrote, "Overall, this installment of the series fails to meet its basic goals of both educating readers and presenting an enticing story; the structure ultimately cancels both out."

Grow a Garden! was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more info about it here.

Science Comics: Trees: Kings of the Forest

It's been a while since I've read a volume of Science Comics, and this one, Trees: Kings of the Forest, does not disappoint. As you might tell from the title, it is a long survey into trees, and it is chock full of information. For example, I learned how they adapt to protect themselves from some animals (like insects who eat their leaves) while also becoming inviting for others (like raccoons) to dwell in and on them. I learned how fig trees reproduce (the flowers are IN the fruit). I learned how a variety of seeds and pods are spread. I learned that trees actually have systems for communicating with other trees as well as for adapting to  environmental changes. And I also learned why some trees flourish in specific climate zones but not others.

The guide on this educational journey is a delightfully designed acorn who meets a variety of forest animals along the way. Some, like the squirrel, have ulterior motives for the acorn, and others, like a friendly beetle, just want to gnaw on and eat wood. The artwork in this book does so much. In some places it operates like the diagrams in a biology textbook, in others it offers helpful looks into the various layers and parts of trees. It also tells a fun story about an acorn as it travels across the forest and decides whether or not to begin the long process to become a tree. Just check out this excerpt to see how multi-purpose this book is.

It is clear that much research went into this book, both in terms of references and information. Like many other books in this series, it is intended for an upper elementary/middle school audience but offers much for older readers. It certainly features a lot of technical vocabulary, which is reinforced by the handy glossary in the end-papers. This book is the best kind of educational graphic novel, casting new light on its subject while maintaining a sense of humor and joy. I highly recommend this book and the entire Science Comics series.

This volume of Science Comics was created by Andy Hirsch, who has published other books in the series about dogs and cats. He also has a number of comic book series, including The Baker Street Peculiars, as well as a couple of other graphic novels under his belt, including his own Varmints. And on a personal note, Hirsch drew a caricature of me for The Comics Alternative podcast. I really dig his work.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been glowing. In a starred review Sarah Hunter opined, "It’s hard not to see the wonder in this dense, pithy comic, and kids who are under the misapprehension that trees are boring will quickly learn otherwise." J. Caleb Mozzocco wrote, "There aren’t really any bad comics in this line of books, but Trees? It’s a particularly good one." Jody Kopple concurred in her starred review, calling it "another winner in the series."

Trees: Kings of the Forest was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more here.

Understanding Photosynthesis with Max Axiom

Part of Capstone Press's Graphic Library imprint, Understanding Photosynthesis is one of the series of Max Axiom books. Axiom is a "super-scientist" who has amazing powers to shrink down and explore things on the atomic level as well as travel anywhere through time and space. He hosts all of the 24 books in the Graphic Science series aimed at 3rd and 4th grade level readers.These books cover a lot of ground in terms of scientific disciplines.

In this book, Axiom explores photosynthesis from the surface level, talking about how plants make food, and then moving into more complex areas. He explains plant parts, how plants get the materials necessary for photosynthesis, plant cell processes, and he even discusses elementary chemistry concerning how water and glucose molecules behave. I was impressed by how readable, accurate, and detailed this book was concerning its science information (and even double checked facts with my colleague Barry Golden).

The book is not really strong on plot, but the explanations and images combine very effectively to educate and inform. The narrative shifts in the end to a discussion of the water cycle and moves into a simplistic environmental message, but otherwise I found it informative in the best kind of visual ways.

This book was put together by a cadre of work-for-hire creators. Author Liam O'Donnell is an elementary school teacher and author of a number of books, including several informational graphic novels and the YA mystery series Geeked Out. The art is by Richard Dominguez and Charles Barnett III.  Richard Dominguez is best known for his creation El Gato Negro. Barnett III is a veteran comics inker who has lots of credits at the major comics companies.

This book has won a few awards, including Learning Magazine's Teachers' Choice Award for Children's Books and being named a Pennsylvania School Librarians Association's Young Adult Top Forty Nonfiction Title. In terms of informational text, I felt it had much to offer elementary readers, and it might also be a good resource for teachers of older students looking for supplemental visuals or a simpler explanatory text for instructional purposes.

A preview, reviews, and much more are available here from the publisher.