• Designer Carlos Arturos Torres partnered with the LEGO Future Lab to make his customizable prosthetic compatible with LEGO bricks. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/jul/22/lego-prosthetic-arm-that-kids-can-hack-themselves
• Artist Jan Vormann uses LEGO bricks to fill in holes in bricks and mortar around the world. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/jan-vormann-colors-crumbling-buildings-with-legos/
• And then there’s Rita Ebel, who creates colorful wheelchair ramps using LEGO bricks. https://abilitymagazine.com/lego-oma-german-grandma-builds-lego-ramps/

Four Eyes by Rex Ogle & Dave Valeza. Scholastic Graphix, 2023. 9781338574968. 220pp. Rex just started middle school, but there’s a lack of familiar faces there because school district boundaries have just been redrawn. He and his friend Drew aren’t as close as they were in grade school, and Drew’s friends all seem to be jerks. Rex has problems at school as he and his family figure out that he can’t see well and that he needs glasses. These problems are exacerbated by the fact this his mom and stepfather don’t have much money, and he has to settle for glasses that are less than stylish. Cue Rex becoming the center of attention for all of the jerks at school. Though his family is supportive (except for his birth father, who seems like a real bastard), it takes Rex a while to appreciate them. And (minor spoiler) of course he becomes friends with the comic book-reading kid who the jerks at school also make fun of. I loved this book far more than I expected to based on the back cover blurb (heading: “What A Spectacle”) and I highly recommend it for children’s library collections. The art is great and works together perfectly with the words in a balance that’s hard to achieve. This is an example of the best of the Scholastic Graphix style of storytelling — there’s a problem at the center, some realistic complications, and the story feels personal.

Harvey Knight’s Odyssey by Nick Maandag. Drawn & Quarterly, 2023. 9781770466326. 168pp. This graphic novel contains three separate strange, deadpan stories. Two of them star author and artist Nick Maandag himself. In “The Plunge” Maandag decides to start making his own coffee at work with a French press, and the process becomes something of an event for everyone there. “Full Day” starts with a trash machine sucking the hat right off Maandag’s head as he goes to work in the morning. Thus begins a day that includes a meeting that’s difficult to interpret and a random efficiency check of his work, among other bits of weirdness. Toward the end there’s a lewd act (or brilliant piece of performance art, you be the judge) on a subway. (It’s my favorite story and reminds me of my strangest day working at a public library.) “Harvey Knight’s Odyssey” is the longest story. It involves the religion Solarism, whose members believe humans are products of both light and dark, and that over time, through exposure to light, they can become pure beings. (They use high-powered tanning beds.) The story contains corruption, nudity, cavity searches, sunburns, spiders, and owl-eating. Worth noting: The endpapers contain ten comic strips. And, despite the cover image, I don’t remember a shark or a bird with human feet anywhere in the book, though it’s full of so many odd moments that I feel like I may have overlooked both.

Raowl Volume 1: Beauty and the Creep by Tebo. Europe Comics, 2019. 72pp. Available in electronic format only in English. https://www.europecomics.com/album/1-beauty-creep/ Raowl is a beast who wants to rescue a princess. Unfortunately he has a weakness; when he sneezes he turns into Herbert, a handsome prince. In beast-mode he’s more than a match for hordes of monsters, soldiers, dragons, sea creatures, and even immortal cannibals. He chops them all up! And entrails fly! (The princesses, in general, are not impressed.) This is the fun sort of fairtytale-ish story that I’d have loved as a kid, and that I find amusing as an adult. It’s lighthearted, cartoonishly gory, and more than a little weird. (I read it after reading pages by and featuring Tebo in L’Atelier Mastodonte, a series written and created by a number of France’s top cartoonists.) To my knowledge this is the only book of Tebo’s available in English.)

Asylum by Greg Means and Kazimir Lee. Tugboat Press, 2022. 9798218032357. 126pp. https://tugboatpress.com/ This is my favorite graphic novel that I bought at Seattle’s Short Run comics festival last fall. And that shouldn’t be a surprise as Greg Means (The Cute Girl Network, Penny Nichols) wrote it. If you’ve never read any of the Papercutter series, which he edited and published (I think), I highly recommend any issue you come across. I’m not as familiar with Lee’s work but after reading this book I’m going to be on the lookout for more of their work, too — it’s fabulous. This is a platonic love story between Allen Rheem and his friend Zekia Miller. They travel together promoting an overly complicated strategy card game, Asylum, that has a worldwide following. And as they do they try to push each other into romantic pursuits. They’re awkward. They’re super close friends. They even babysit their friends’ kids together, and set up two gamers who of course fall in love. But in the end the question is is platonic love enough for both of them? Just one of them? Neither of them?

Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang. Scholastic Graphix, 2023. 9781338832693. 282pp. plus an author’s note at the end. Parachute kids are “children from Asia who have been ‘dropped off’ with friends or relatives in foreign countries while their parents [stay] behind.” Tang’s parents sent her and her siblings to live in the US in 1979. This a fictionalized version of their experiences (and others in the same situation). In 1981 Feng Li, her older brother and sister, and their parents visit the US for the first time. She’s super excited about visiting Disneyland and other tourist attractions, but then her parents break the news that the family is staying in the US to have better lives and opportunities. Their mom stays with them for a few months until she has to leave to renew her visa (which does not go smoothly or quickly), leaving the high school-age sister in charge. As they try to adapt and study, there are bullies, misunderstandings, and Feng Li is even shunned by the only other kid in her class who speaks Chinese. They’re also scammed, Feng Li’s brother falls in with a bad crowd (he’s dealing with his own issues), and there’s a particularly funny incident that involves shopping and cooking. Ultimately this is an endearing story about siblings who eventually pull together to help each other as they try to live without their parents, but it takes a while (and a near tragedy) for them to figure that out. Like the best of the graphic novels Graphix publishes its well-structured narrative is brought to life by great art that makes the story easy to follow.

Grace Needs Space by Benjamin A. Wilgus and Rii Abrego (illustrations). RH Graphic, 2023. 9780593182390. Grace lives on Genova Station with her mom, Evelyn, an engineer who seems to get how to keep Grace involved and interested in making their house a home. Grace is excited because she’s soon going to Titan with her Ba, Kendra, on a two-week trip in her cargo ship Sadie Goat. But her Ba is late. And when the trip is finally underway her Ba doesn’t want her touching anything on the ship (she’s particular, and it’s all delicate). On Titan when Grace wants to see the sights (trees, plants, the largest lake in the solar system that’s not on Earth) her Ba has no time because she’s dealing with work. Grace meets some local kids and stows away on their field trip to Kraken Mare, where she touches the surface of Titan, but the trip nearly ends in disaster and then she’s grounded. (There’s more drama between the two and when the Sadie Goat is on its way back to Genova.) I’ve never seen a graphic novel, much less a science fiction graphic novel, show how hard it can be for a kid to make sense of the way things work when they’re with each of their separated parents. This reminds me of when I was a kid and went to my dad’s place every other weekend, both the good and the bad of it. (I wish hanging out with him had involved a spacecraft.)

Fox Point’s Own Gemma Hopper by Brie Spangler. Alfred A. Knopf / RH Graphic, 2023. 9780593428498. 263pp. Gemma is a six-foot-tall thirteen-year-old who lives in the shadow of her brother, fourteen-year-old Teddy, a baseball star who everyone believes is destined for the major leagues. Since her mother left she’s also the one taking care of the house and her younger twin brothers while their father works two jobs. She regularly pitches to Teddy, too, so he can get in extra batting practice before leaving to play with the prestigious All-Atlantic team. But one day Gemma has had it, and instead of throwing easy pitches across home plate, she strikes Teddy out. He’s horrified because he feels like he’s never allowed to fail. But as video of the strikeout goes viral Teddy offers to help her practice pitching in hopes that if she’s amazing, they’ll have a unique appeal to baseball scouts together. Along with some friend drama at school and homework drama of her own creation, Gemma seems to have been pushed beyond caring about anything — and that’s the moment she may have a giant opportunity, baseball-wise, if she chooses to pursue it. Spangler’s art and writing are both equally great and (minor spoiler) I love the way her brother and father support Gemma in the end.