Graphic novel spotlight - The Secret Science Alliance

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis

The Secret Science Alliance starts out in pretty familiar territory: a kid, new to town, is looking for a way to fit in with his peers and trying to hide his true interests which have made him an outsider in the past. He's fascinated by science in general and invention in particular. When his efforts fail, he's resigned to loneliness. Then he happens upon two vastly different kids who share his interests. Together they work on inventions and discover a conspiracy of scientific theft. The plot moves in relatively expected directions, though the final act goes pretty far afield. The multiple messages of self-acceptance and expression are important once but the real appeal, so far as I'm concerned, is in the illustrations. There's a magnificent level of detail, lots of extras packed into most pages. And the splash pages - friends you could spend an hour exploring the details in a single spread.

Book review - Spell and Spindle

Title: Spell & Spindle
Author: Michelle Schusterman
Genre: fantasy
Similar books: Flower Moon by Gina Linko
                      Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin
Rating:

not as creepy as I'd have liked, more complex than I'd hoped

Summary (provided by publisher): The Museum of Peculiar Arts holds many oddities--a mechanical heart, a diary bound in its owner's skin . . . and Penny, a child-size marionette who almost looks alive. Fog clouds Penny's memories from before the museum, but she catches glimpses here and there: a stage, deep red curtains, long-fingered hands gripping her strings.
One day, a boy named Chance touches Penny's strings and hears her voice in his head. Penny can listen, and watch, and think?
Now someone else is watching Penny and Chance--a man with a sharp face, a puppeteer who has the tools to change things. A string through a needle. A twist of a spindle. And suddenly Chance is trapped in Penny's marionette body, while Penny is free to run and dance. She knows that finding a way to switch back is the right thing to do. But this body feels so wonderful, so full of life! How can Penny ever return to her puppet shell?

My opinion: The strongest endorsement I can give of this novel is that Schusterman sets up clear rules for the magic of this world and sticks to them. Now, the details of those rules are parceled out throughout the plot, as Penny and Chance discover what is going on, but they remain consistent. She also uses her setting and it's social context to great affect. By setting her story in the 50's she can explore gender roles, race relations, the growth of the suburb, and the post war era all in the context of a mild horror plot. Personally, I'd loved to have seen the creep factor ramped up a couple of degrees but that's more a matter of personal preference than any real censure of the writing style.

More information: Spell and Spindle releases July 31.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Mini clipboard

I found a few of these little notepad clipboards in the dollar bin at Meijer a while back.

I liked the idea of them but not the design. Repainting them seemed simple enough. Here's the first one.

 

Pick 6: early chapter books

To my mind, choosing the right book for a child who is just beginning to read independently can be vital. Luckily, there is a wide range of choices available for such children. This list includes series and standalone books. Here are six books for kids just beginning to read chapter books published in the last six months.

6 new early chapter books

1. Wolfie and Fly: Band on the Run by Cary Fagan 
2. Ellie Engineered by Jackson Pearce
3. Good Night Sleep Tight by Kristina Andres
4. Gracie Laroo by Marsha Qualey
5. The Bolds on Vacation by Julian Clary
6. Superhero Harry by Rachel Ruiz

Book review - The Future Will Be BS Free

Title: The Future Will Be BS Free
Author: Will McIntosh
Genre: dystopia
Similar books: Data Runner by Sam Patel
                      The Silence of Six by EC Myers
Rating:

could have been better

Summary (provided by publisher): In this terrifyingly timely tale for fans of The Eye of Minds, a teen and his group of friends find themselves on the run after using a genius lie-detector contraption to expose their corrupt government.
In a Putin-esque near-future America, the gifted and talented high school has just been eliminated, and Sam and his friends have been using their unexpected free time to work on a tiny, undetectable, utterly reliable lie detector. They're all in it for the money--except Theo, their visionary. For Theo, it's about creating a better world. A BS-free world, where no one can lie, and the honest will thrive.
Just when they finish the prototype and turn down an offer to sell their brainchild to a huge corporation, Theo is found dead. Greedy companies, corrupt privatized police, and even the president herself will stop at nothing to steal the Truth App. Sam sets his sights on exposing all lies and holding everyone accountable.
But he and his friends quickly realize the costs of a BS-free world: the lives of loved ones, and political and economic stability. They now face a difficult question: Is the world capable of operating without lies, or are lies what hold it together?

My opinion: I wanted this book to be political intrigue and technological advancement and fighting against big shadow government. That seems to be what McIntosh wants as well, but it doesn't really get there. Theo's death, the inciting incident, doens't have much emotional impact. We're TOLD that the group is devastated but we don't really see it. We don't experience that devastation with them. Really, Theo existed only to die and fulfill a sort of "too good for this world" role. He never feels like a real person, but rather an ideal. The lack of connection is the basis of most of my complaints. We see events but they never really matter to the reader. 
McIntosh does raise some interesting ideas. We've got a severely economically depressed future, funding cuts to vital services laws governing who can work, totalitarian govenrment. All of this is fairly standard. The more interesting part is the exploration of truth and lies, of kindness and cruelty, of honesty and etiquette. The idea of radical cultural change and how something meant to help can cause immeasurable harm. These ideas make it worth reading, especially in a group setting.

More information: The Future Will Be BS Free releases July 24.

Don't make her angry

My quest to make super hero peg dolls has served to reintroduce me to some more obscure female superheroes. This week I rediscovered She-hulk. She makes a great peg.

 

Picture books for everyone

A Place for Pluto by Stef Wade
Pluto is Peeved by Jacqueline Jules

Picture books can be a great way to introduce social and scientific concepts to young readers. They allow kids to engage with the text and concepts at their own level. These two picture books address the same topic: Pluto's demotion from planetary status. Pluto is Peeved takes more of a social angle. Jules's Pluto goes through a museum, comparing itself to other planets and feeling as if it no longer matters. A Place for Pluto is more scientific, examining how we define a planet, the ways in which Pluto fails that definition, and the other space objects that have a similar status in our solar system. 
 
More information: A Place for Pluto releases July 1.
Advanced Reader Copies provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - National Parks of the USA

National Parks of the U.S.A. by Kate Sider

I'd wager most of us can't name more than one or two national parks. This book is a nice introduction to a few of those parks. It's a curious selection, some well known some more obscure. The selected parks get a short overview, a brief description and a few animals, plants, and natural features one might see at the park. Parks are organized by region, allowing the reader to see the spread across the country, which may lead the curious to look into how each park was founded.

More information: National Parks of the U.S.A. releases July 3.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Kid Normal

Title: Kid Normal
Author: Greg James and Chris Smith
Genre: sci-fi
Similar books: School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough
                      Earthling by Mark Fearing
Rating:

superhero fun

Summary (provided by publisher): When Murph Cooper begins his new school several weeks into the year, he can't help but feel a bit out of his depth. And it's not because he's worried about where to sit, making friends, and fitting in. It's because his mom has accidentally enrolled him at a school for superheroes. And unlike his fellow students, who can control the weather or fly or conjure tiny horses from thin air, Murph has no special abilities whatsoever.
But Murph's totally normal abilities might just be what the world needs. Because not far away is a great big bad guy who is half man and half wasp, and his mind is abuzz with evil plans . . . and when he comes after the best and the brightest, it's up to Murph to be the real hero.
With black-and-white illustrations throughout, this laugh-out-loud story proves that heroes come in all shapes and sizes.

My opinion: Exploring the realities of being a non-powered kid in a world of superheroes isn't an unheard of concept in kid's fiction. As is the idea of having limited or strange powers. Authors ask us to consider if having super powers automatically makes you better than others. James approaches the subject with a fair dose of humor, making this quite reeadable in spite of being ultimately predictable.

More information: Kid Normal releases June 19th.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Note cards

A few weeks ago I shared an image of some cards I'd drawn for a craft fair. Here's most of the rest of the cards I designed, with varying degrees of detail and quality of image.

That racoon looked really horrible in early stages but came together surprisingly well in the end

 

Books on Screen

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

I wasn't sure at first that this book would work as a movie, for a couple of reasons. 1) The book is largely focused on Jess's internal journey. It's a story of recognizing possibility, of embracing your creativity in a world that demands you become more practical. 2) It's a little dated. While the central barrier to Jess's dreams is poverty, we also see some political issues. There's mild racism and sexism, radical politics. In modernizing the story for the movie, they had to modernize Leslie's differences. She's more quirky than enlightened. The bigger difference is the portrayal of Terabithia. In the novel, we're mostly just told that Jess and Leslie imagine an involved world out in the woods. The movie presents us with several scenes in which this imagined world is almost real, to the point that it borders on delusion. Over all, the tweaks that modernize the story work well and make the movie accessible while remaining true to the intent of the original story.

Non fiction book review - Grandad Mandela

Grandad Mandela by Zazi, Ziwelene, and Zindzi Mandela

Nelson Mandela is one of those figures I grew up hearing about but I never really knew much about him, just that he was imprisoned for protesting apartheid. So I learned a lot from this book about his career. It might have been nice to see the book explain more about apartheid, especially regarding the role of colonialism, but a picture book has inherent limitations. What this becomes, then, is a great way to start a conversation about racism and justice with young readers.

More information: Grandad Mandela releases June 28.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Wild Blues

Title: Wild Blues
Author: Beth Kephart
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Chasing Helicity by Ginger Zee
                      The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers
Rating:

not exactly thrilling

Summary (provided by publisher): Thirteen-year-old Lizzie’s favorite place in the world is her uncle’s cabin. Uncle Davy’s renovated schoolhouse cabin, filled with antiques and on the edge of the Adirondacks, disconnected from the rest of the world, is like something out of a fairy tale. And an escape from reality is exactly what Lizzie needs. Life hasn’t been easy for Lizzie lately. Her father abandoned their family, leaving Lizzie with her oftentimes irresponsible mother. Now, her mom has cancer and being unable to care for Lizzie during her chemotherapy, Mom asks her where she’d like to spend the summer. The answer is simple: Uncle Davy’s cabin.
Lizzie loves her uncle’s home for many reasons, but the main one is Matias, Uncle Davy’s neighbor and Lizzie’s best friend. Matias has proportionate dwarfism, but that doesn’t stop him and Lizzie from wandering in the woods. Every day they go to their favorite nook where Matias paints with watercolors and Lizzie writes. Until one day when Matias never arrives.
When news breaks about two escaped convicts from the nearby prison, Lizzie fears the worst. And when Uncle Davy goes missing, too, Lizzie knows she’s the only one who knows this area of woods well enough to save them. Armed with her trusted Keppy survival book, Lizzie sets out into the wilds of the Adirondacks, proving just how far she’ll go to save the people she loves.

My opinion: This is not a traditional narrative. It's presented as the protagonist relaying a tale to some, initially unidentified, listener. Thus, she of ten speaks to the listener directly, telling the facts of events rather than putting the reader in the moment. The story unravels slowly, through somewhat dispassionately, and not in chronological order. We have escaped convicts and a child lost in the woods. It could be pulse pounding but instead its sort of quiet and contemplative.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Travel games

A while back a friend offered me a supply of empty Altoid tins. I knew they would be useful but never had a plan for them. Until this most recent craft fair when I turned them into some travel games.