Graphic novel spotlight - Things in the Basement

 

Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke

If you are looking for artistic, adventurous graphic novels Ben Hatke is a solid, consistent choice. You can count on his books for odd adventures that explore a child's emotional development, that look at what it means to be brave, to be a hero. This book is in many ways typical of Hatke's work as seen in Zita the Spacegirl or Mighty Jack. This book is a little more sparse in the text, a little less action oriented. It's a simple quest but highly atmospheric. And it makes careful use of color and facial features. And each panel is so packed with details that you could leaf through the book a dozen times and not see everything.

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Book review - The Story of Gumluck the Wizard

 

Title: The Story of Gumluck the Wizard

Author: Adam Rex

Genre: fantasy

Similar books: Gnome and Rat by Lauren Stohler

                      The Famously Funny Parrott by Eric Daniel Weiner

Rating:

 

sweet without becoming saccharine

Summary (provided by publisher): Meet Gumluck the Wizard, the star of a new chapter book series by the inimitable Adam Rex!
This is a story about magic, if you like that kind of thing. It is also a story about a ghost with amnesia, an unpopular fairy, an ungrateful little town, and an extremely wise and helpful raven (who happens to be a pretty talented storyteller). But mostly, it is about a friendly little wizard who lives inside a big hill and really, really, really wants to be a hero. His name is Gumluck, and he is a bumbling noodlehead.
In this tall tale about a short wizard, celebrated author Adam Rex proves once and for all that the biggest heroes often come in the smallest nightgowns.

My opinion: This is, undeniably, a somewhat silly story. Young readers (or listeners - this is a book well suited to being read aloud) will giggle over misunderstandings and Gumluck's bumbling attempts at being helpful. Meanwhile, they will be absorbing messaging about honesty, kindness, and the harm in changing yourself in an effort to please others. The text is well supported by the occasional detailed illustration that makes this a solid choice for independent readers as well.

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Pick 6: new in town

 Moving to a new town or a new school is a classic set-up for a youth novel, and with good reason. Finding yourself in a new situation, adjusting to new schedules and a new peer group; these are a solid framework for addressing personal and family issues. Here are six books published in the last six months that feature kids who recently moved to new town, neighborhoods, or schools as a primary character.

 6 New books with characters new to town:

1. Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards by Susan Tan
2. Peculiar Woods by Andrea Cohmes
3. The Do-Over by Rodrigo Vergera
4. The Gray by Chris Baron
5. We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado
6. Lo and Behold by Wendy Mass

Graphic novel spotlight - The Bodyguard Unit

 

The Bodyguard Unit by Clement Xavier

Most of us know next to nothing about Jujitsu as a discipline. Or about the history of martial arts in the West. Or about the suffrage movement apart from the little we are taught in school. Those ideas combine in this book. Here we learn about a couple that started out simply wanting to teach Jujitsu, especially wanting to teach women a few basic skills to protect themselves. They became enmeshed in the suffrage movement at a time in Britain where the conflict was becoming especially violent. The nature of the plot, being driven by fight scenes, lends itself well to the graphic novel format. It does not shy away from stark images and neither side of the conflict is painted in an especially positive light. This is a solid choice for supplementing an existing history lesson plan about the suffrage movement.

 

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Book review - All You Have to Do

 

Title: All You Have to Do

Author: Autumn Allen

Genre: historical fiction

Similar books: Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R Lee

                     Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

Rating:

 

thought provoking

Summary (provided by publisher): In ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, two Black young men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, and yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism.
In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus...
In September 1995, amidst controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the “See No Color” hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school...
As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.

My opinion: I like the way this book blends two tough political and racial climates. We see how these two young men struggle to be accepted at their schools, to prove to their white peers that admission is not the same thing as belonging. Their is a lot of discussion of being seen, heard, acknowledged. The writing moves quickly and keeps us engaged and eagerly advancing through the plot. Which is almost a shame, because these are concepts that are worthy of thought, of lingering and contemplating. I could easily see using this book with a group of modern teens to spark discussion of the current approaches to race and how events in the news (MLK's death, the Million Man March, BLM protests) affect how we approach questions of racial inequality.

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Non-fiction book review - An Atlas of Afterlives

 

An Atlas of Afterlives by Emily Hawkins

It can be hard to discuss what a group thinks happens after we die without getting too deep into tenets of faith and deities but Hawkins handles this well. For each belief system we get a little about the people who follow(ed) that belief, what their afterlife looked like, and who would end up there. It is perhaps a niche area of interest but understanding a people's views on death tell us a lot about how they live. Additionally, the sections are well illustrated and artistic, making this a book worth reading and simply leafing through. 

More information: An Atlas of Afterlives releases September 26

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Book review - Grave Mistakes

 

Title: Grave Mistakes

Author: Kitty Curran

Genre: mystery

Similar books: What Stays Buried by Suzanne Young

                      Brick Dust and Bones by M R F

Rating:

 

a decent start to a series

Summary (provided by publisher): Molly Dade has big problems. She’s got an important violin audition coming up, she’s been paired with her nemesis for a group project, and she’s struggling to hide a life-or-death secret from…well, from everyone. It wasn’t long ago that the Dades were just a regular Maine family living in their reportedly haunted house in the local cemetery. But then Molly’s mom and twin brother Marty were killed in a freak accident. And Molly, her older brother Timothy, and her father became the town’s newest bereaved family.
Except Mom and Marty are still very much present. No one knows why, but Mom is now a ghost and Marty is a poltergeist. Oh, and there’s also Molly’s younger sister Dyandra, who is a zombie.
Keeping all this supernatural stuff a secret from everyone is hard work, especially when the dead (undead?) members of the family still want to participate in things like the Parent Teacher Association meetings or come to the (very public, very potentially embarrassing) school concert.
When Dad’s new cemetery assistant seems to know the Dade family secret, Molly and Marty worry about the future of their family. And when Marty begins to regain his memories of the explosion that killed him and Mom, the twins realize that the situation might be even more grave than they thought. Someone might be after the Dade family—but who? And why?

My opinion: For a book that starts with a family that is half dead, this book is surprisingly silly. It doesn't take itself overly seriously. There is a mystery, sure, but the bulk of the plot is more about rivalries with school peers and the fear of being an outsider than it is about mysterious deaths. The primary plot is fairly straightforward and doesn't dig too deeply into characters. There is certainly a sense that something larger is going on in the town so there's room for this to grow into a more complex series.

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