Author: Gene Ambaum

641 results.

Graphic Novel Review: Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu

By Gene Ambaum on October 14, 2021 at 6:42 am

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu. First Second, 2021. 9781626723566. 368 pp. including a few early sketches and an author’s note at the end. Kumiko is an old woman living on her own. She seems content with a quiet life, salvaging what she can for her apartment. But her daughters are worried about her, and have been since she fled the care home where she was living. They go into overdrive when she doesn’t answer their email. It may have something to do with the fact that Kumiko hasn’t told them where she lives because she wants to live on her own terms, independently. And that’s where she is, in her apartment, in the bath, when death’s shadow comes fo her. She’s not ready to die yet, though, and so using salt and her vacuum cleaner, she traps the spirit. That seems to give her the ability to see ghosts both friendly and lost. Kumiko tries to soothe […]

Graphic Novel Review: Secrets off Camp Whatever Vol. 1 by Chris Grine

By Gene Ambaum on October 12, 2021 at 7:16 am

Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 1 by Chris Grine. Oni Press, 2021. 9781620108628. Willow is about to spend a week at the summer camp her dad attended as a kid. But the more he talks about it with folks in the diner in the town nearby, the weirder and more dangerous camp seems. And it turns out that the rumors might be true, that the island the camp iss on might be filled with ghosts and fog leeches and vampires and gnomes and witches and other magical, mythical creatures. The first hints things are going to get weird: the creepy clown at the dock where Willow boards the boat to head to camp, and the big hairy arm she sees poking out from under another camper’s bed. This is an entertaining tale of friendship and the supernatural in which sign language plays a role. The way Grine draws faces in particular helps set a tone that’s both kind and kinda […]

Graphic Novel Review: Ping Pong by Taiyou Matsumoto

By Gene Ambaum on October 7, 2021 at 6:11 am

Ping Pong Volume One by Taiyou Matsumoto. Translation & English Adaptation by Michael Arias. Viz Signature, 2020. Publisher’s Rating T / Teen “…and is recommended for ages 13 and up.” 9781974711659. Ping Pong Volume Two by Taiyou Matsumoto. Translation & English Adaptation by Michael Arias. Viz Signature, 2020. Publisher’s Rating T / Teen “…and is recommended for ages 13 and up.” 9781974711666. Makoto Tsukimoto is nicknamed Smile because he never does. He’s overly serious, but too empathetic to win ping pong matches. Yutaka Hoshino, nicknamed Peco, is the original big-talking, snot-nosed kid. He’s undisciplined but brings passion and a real desire to win his matches. This is the story of them both trying to improve and striving to win. Smile’s coach takes him under his wing and really makes him work, turning him into a deadly rival for other ranked opponents including a well-known Chinese exchange student. Peco’s passion backfires for a while, and sends him away from the game, […]

Graphic Novel Review: Incredible Doom Volume 1

By Gene Ambaum on October 5, 2021 at 7:02 am

Incredible Doom Volume 1 written and illustrated by Matthew Bogart, story by Matthew Bogart & Jesse Holden. Harper Alley, 2021. 9780063064935. “Are you, like me, an old nerd? Then this is the book for you.” — Librarian and book person extraordinaire Sarah Hunt, who used to collaborate with me on the Book Threat website, bookthreat.wordpress.com Sarah read this graphic novel and then called me to sing its praises. It looks like it’s being marketed as YA, and it will appeal to some teens, sure, but it’s aimed squarely at folks like use who lived through and participated in the pre-internet years of dial-up BBS’s. And at people who love great art — it’s beautifully told in black and white and blue. It is, as you might suspect, about disaffected youth. Sarah’s dad — this is a character in the book not the above-named librarian — is a magician and a controlling asshole who uses a magic trick to abuse her […]

Graphic Novel Review: IN. by Will McPhail

By Gene Ambaum on September 30, 2021 at 6:46 am

IN. by Will McPhail. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. 9780358345541. 268pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9780358345541?partnerid=34778&p_bt Cartoonist Will McPhail draws a lot of comics for the The New Yorker. In this, his first graphic, a combination of inks and maybe watercolors create a mostly black-and-white world (with bursts of color following revelatory moments, in fantastic sequences) in which his wide-eyed characters try there best to communicate with each another. Nick is an artist, and a bit of smart aleck. He’s kinda sad and wanders from cafes to bars, and in one of the latter (it’s name out front is written in Helvetica) he meets Wren, a doctor on a date with another dude. But then they meet up on the subway after Nick gets told off by another woman he was drawing, and they kind of hit it off. (There’s a two-page spread early in the book, a wordless summary of their first date, that is amazing.) But remember: Nick is sad, and he seems […]

Graphic Novel Review: The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

By Gene Ambaum on September 28, 2021 at 1:09 pm

The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. Translated by Janet Hong. Drawn & Quarterly, 2021. 9781770464575. 248pp.   The Waiting is the second of Gendry-Kim’s graphic novels to be translated into English. (If you haven’t read the first, Grass, which is the story of a Korean comfort woman, it, too!) This is the story of a woman separated from her husband and son as they flee the fighting in what is now North Korea, at the start of the Korean War. The woman finds safety and makes a new life in the South but, like many, continues to wait to be reunited with her lost loved ones. Part of the narrative takes place in the present, which involves the woman (now old) and one of her daughters, a writer, and part of it in the past to tell the story of the mother’s life. It’s based on the life of Gendry-Kim’s mother and the lives of others she interviewed.  As soon […]

Bookstabber Podcast Episode 8: All The Bird In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

By Gene Ambaum on September 24, 2021 at 8:54 am

In this episode of the Bookstabber podcast, Willow and I discuss All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. It’s an apocalyptic book that both defies and embraces the conventions of fantasy, science fiction, and coming of age novels. Gene loves it, and was sure Willow would, too. Wrong. You should be able to download the podcast via whatever service you use. But if not you can find all the episodes at bookstabber.podbean.com

Picture Book Reviews

By Gene Ambaum on September 23, 2021 at 6:41 am

Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020. 9781419746550. Kids and adults gather in a small kitchen to see what’s grown in the community center’s garden, what they’ve been given, and what they’ve bought, and then figure out how to turn that into a meal. The endpapers in this comic-y format picture book contain two recipes, and the inside overflows with joy despite all the hard work going on. In an author’s note in the back, Tamaki talks about volunteering at a community kitchen in Brooklyn for years, a place that served a meal on Wednesdays. This book will inspire readers of all ages to do the same.     Blancaflor: The Hero With Secret Powers: A Latin American Folktale by Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio Garcia Sánchez. Introduction by F. Isabel Campoy. TOON Books, 2021. 9781943145560. Blancaflor and her family live in the Castle of No Return. A handsome prince is about to come play a […]

Graphic Novel Review: A Map To The Sun by Sloane Leong

By Gene Ambaum on September 21, 2021 at 6:31 am

A Map To The Sun by Sloane Leong. First Second, 2020. 9781250146687. 364pp. including early character sketches at the back. One summer, while playing basketball at the beach, Ren meets Luna, a surfer from Hawaii, and they become inseparable friends. But that only lasts the summer. Luna disappears back to Hawaiia and stops answering texts. In fact Ren doesn’t hear from her until two years later, when she moves back to California and starts attending Ren’s high school. Luna expects them to be close again immediately, but Ren is more than reluctant. When a new teacher forms the school’s first girls basketball team, they both join with three other girls. All of them have issues, but they’re also not defined by them. As they practice, improve their skills, and even start winning some games, they all become closer, including Ren and Luna. But there’s a lot of f’d up stuff going on, least of which may be the coach of […]

Graphic Novel Review: The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

By Gene Ambaum on September 16, 2021 at 7:46 am

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor. Kokila (Penguin Random House), 2021. 9780525554882. 304pp. 1885. Mei helps her father feed the lumberjacks and the Chinese workers at a logging camp. She’s known for making delicious pies and telling stories, particularly those about Auntie Po, the gigantic mother of all loggers, and her loyal blue buffalo Pei Pei. As violence against Chinese workers closes in on the camp, Auntie Po visits Mei to warn her that things are about to get difficult. Soon one of the workers is beaten, and her father has to move to a nearby Chinatown for safety. (Mei stays with Mr. Anderson, who runs the camp, and her friend, his daughter Bee.) After the lumberjacks rebel against the crappy food they’re being served, Mr. Anderson brings Mei’s dad back, and even gives into his demands about treating the Chinese workers better. It’s a tale of paternal love and friendship and hardship — the dangers of […]