Category: book review

657 results.

Easy Reader Review: If You Love (activity) You Could Be…

By Gene Ambaum on September 29, 2020 at 10:32 am

          If You Love Cooking You Could Be… (Ready To Read Level 2) by Elizabeth Dennis, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534454545. 32pp. If You Love Dolphins You Could Be… (Ready To Read Level 2) by May Nakamura, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534444690. 32pp. If You Love Video Games You Could Be… (Ready To Read Level 2) by Thea Feldman, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534443990. 32pp. If You Love Fashion You Could Be…. (Ready To Read Level 2) by May Nakamura, Illustrated by Natalie Kwee. Simon Spotlight, 2019. 9781534448773. 32pp. Each of these easy readers goes into a bit of detail about three careers, and has a list of more cool jobs at the back. The stars of each are Kwee’s happy, simple drawings. Everyone is smiling, and it feels like every little thing she draws is, too. The book full of dolphin love is probably my favorite […]

Graphic Novel Review: Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne

By Gene Ambaum on September 24, 2020 at 9:47 am

Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2020. 9781534441538. 256pp. Beetle loves hanging out at the mall with her friend Blob Ghost, which is good because BG can’t leave the mall. Beetle’s grandma keeps trying to teach her goblin magic, but Beetle doesn’t think potions are real magic. Her friend Kat has just come back to town to apprentice with her aunt, Marla Hollowbone. Kat’s having the kind of success with magic that Beetle believes she can only dream of, but it’s Kat’s life that’s the nightmare — Kat’s aunt is a seriously nasty piece of work, and that nastiness goes wide when she tries to force Beetle’s Gran out of her job and to destroy the mall where BG lives. Beetle has to save BG by finding a way for him to escape the mall before he’s buried in the rubble, and to save her friend Kat from her aunt, too. This is a […]

Graphic Novel Review: The Book Tour by Andi Watson

By Gene Ambaum on September 22, 2020 at 10:54 am

The Book Tour by Andi Watson. Top Shelf, 2020. 9781603094795. 270pp. British author G.H. Fretwell is on a tour to promote his new novel, Without K, and nothing is going right. Someone has stolen his suitcase, and no one is buying any of his books. After a night alone in his hotel room he’s questioned by two policemen about a missing bookstore clerk because he was the last person to see her. He find himself the center of a criminal investigation as his “book signings” get stranger and his accommodations seedier. What is the mystery’s relationship to the book Fretwell wrote? Why does everyone think he’s guilty? And why hasn’t a review of his book appeared in the newspaper? It is, as you may have suspected, very Kafkaesque. Watson is one of my favorite artists, and the way he uses a 12-panel grid for layout in this book is masterful. It’s clear he had as much fun drawing the bookshops […]

Graphic Novel Review: Undiscovered Country Volume 1: Destiny.

By Gene Ambaum on September 17, 2020 at 9:43 am

Undiscovered Country Volume 1: Destiny written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, layouts by Guiseppe Camuncoli, finishes by Daniele Orlandini and Leonardo Marcello Grassi, colored by Matt Wilson, lettered by Crank! Image, 2020. 9781534315990. Includes Undiscovered Country #1 – #6. Publisher’s Rating: M / Mature. Thirty years ago the United States walled itself off from the rest world. No one knows what’s happened within its borders. Outside the US, the world is a war-torn wreck in the midst of a global pandemic, and it has about six months left. But a message has come through from the US — there’s a cure for the sky virus, and they’re willing to negotiate its release. And they may even consider reopening the borders. On the team headed into the US are an epidemiologist, a wanted mercenary, a journalist, and a few diplomats. Each has their own agenda. And what they find, shortly after a very rough landing, is not at all what […]

Graphic Novel Review: Days by Simon Moreton

By Gene Ambaum on September 15, 2020 at 10:42 am

Days by Simon Moreton. Avery Hill, 2014. 9871910395004. 148pp. The minimalistic art in Days includes stories from Moreton’s autobiographical SMOO and anthology work. Style-wise it looks to have been drawn with pencils and most of the book falls somewhere between the work of John Porcellino (King-Cat, Thoreau at Walden) and Oliver East (Trains Are…Mint). The first story in the book astounded me — it’s about the town of Marlow, where Moreton moved when he was 11. Quick scribbles seem to capture the town mostly by noting its shadows. It ends with a meditation on aging and a drawing of an older guy in a pool that’s probably my favorite image in the book, though there’s a lot more to love: simple (but more detailed) drawings of houses, the birds of Falmouth, and simple drawings of people that capture so much of their character. I’m going to read every book and minicomic by Moreton that I can find. No idea how […]

Book Review: When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey

By Gene Ambaum on September 10, 2020 at 12:21 pm

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey. Simon Pulse, 2020. 9781534432871. 342pp plus acknowledgements. Here’s what you need to know to decide whether or not to try this book: in the opening pages, post-prom, Alexis just tried to lose her virginity to Josh in his bedroom. Things didn’t go as planned. His dick exploded when she was putting the condom on him, and Josh is dead. Josh was sweet and kind, but Alexis’ magic got out of control somehow. Now her five friends, who are also magic, are going to help her dispose of the body. Alexis is going to have to deal with who she is, what she did, and the cop who’s interviewing everyone in school. This is a YA novel about friendship and learning who you are (with a dash of romance). Gailey also wrote River of Teeth along with other stories featuring hippos in the 19th century U.S., and Magic for Liars, in which a mundane […]

Graphic Novel Review: Cook Korean! + All American Girl by Robin Ha

By Gene Ambaum on September 8, 2020 at 10:53 am

Cook Korean! A Comic Book With Recipes by Robin Ha. Ten Speed Press, 2016. 175pp including an index. 9781607748878. 176pp. The hanbok wearing Dengki teaches us how to cook (because Ha is busy drawing comics). There’s a guide to Korean ingredients and meals, including different kinds of rice and rice by-products — you’ll probably love nurungji — before Dengki shows us how to make rice perfectly, even in a nonstick pot on the stove. The chapter on kimchi includes easy and advanced recipes, not all of which are spicy and/or fishy. (I’m going to make the “square-cut kimchi gazpacho” (nabak kimchi) soon — it fits with my new heart healthy diet._ The section on vegetable side dishes includes one I love, acorn jelly, which is tasty but nearly impossible to describe. (Ha illustrates a mishap when making it, when she accidentally makes acorn rocks.) If veggies aren’t your thing there’s a huge section on making different kinds of Korean barbecue, […]

Graphic Novel Review: Animorphs Graphic Novel #1: The Invasion

By Gene Ambaum on September 3, 2020 at 9:33 am

Animorphs Graphic Novel #1: The Invasion by K.A. Applegate & Michael Grant, adapted by Chris Grine. Scholastic Graphix, 2020. 9781338538090. 240pp. Alien parasites, the Yeerks, are taking over the Earth. Our only hope: five kids given the power to change into animals by a dying Andalite (another alien species, this one friendly). The kids need to keep our planet safe until more Andalites arrive. One kid is freaked out, another is maybe too into his new power, and the Yeerks may have already taken over the brother of a third, turning him into a human Controller. It’s intense. Cartoonist Chris Grine (Chickenhare, Time Shifters) is the perfect artist to adapt this series — he’s known for drawing strange animal hybrids and weird creatures. His slug-like Taxxon Controllers are repulsive, the dinosaur-ish Hork-Bajir Controllers are scary, and their evil leader, an Andalite Controller named Visser Three, is monstrous. I don’t think I ever finished one of these books as a kid […]

Graphic Novel Review: Star Trek: Debt of Honor

By Gene Ambaum on September 1, 2020 at 10:16 am

Star Trek: Debt of Honor Facsimile Edition by Chris Claremont (writer), Adam T. Hughes and Karl C. Story (artists). IDW, 2020. 98pp. Digital only at http://www.idwpublishing.com/product/star-trek-debt-of-honor-facsimile-edition/ Originally published in 1992, so you may be able to find a print copy out there, too. If you’re a fan of a certain age, this may be the perfect escape for you, too. It’s a classic Star Trek tale starring Shatner’s Captain Kirk and crew, a follow-up to Star Trek IV (AKA the one with the whales) written by Claremont. (You may have also grown up reading his X-men comics.) It involves an incident from Kirk’s past, Alien-like alien invaders, a romance with a Romulan with 80s hair, and of course “borrowing” the newly redesigned Enterprise. Plus it features the classic Klingons instead of the ones who look like Worf, along with an explanation. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but the story is solid and it’s a fun, quick read if any of that […]

Graphic Novel Review: Attack of the Stuff: The Life and Times of Jim Waddler by Jim Benton

By Gene Ambaum on August 27, 2020 at 9:42 am

Attack of the Stuff: The Life and Times of Jim Waddler by Jim Benton. Papercutz, 2020. 9781545804995. 112pp. Stuff talks to Jim (a duck), and most of it is pretty rude. All his things ever do is mock him and make his life tough, including his salt and pepper shakers (they seem determined to make him feel useless), his peanut butter (it says it has a jelly allergy), and his toilet (it won’t let him use it because it has ambition). Business isn’t good at his hay store, and it’s hard for Jim to get the orange juice he wants at the orange juice shop. To get away from his things Jim goes to live in nature. But when the internet breaks and the everything is in chaos, the world needs Jim to talk to the electronics and figure out what’s going on. Benton’s graphic novel is perfectly ridiculous, enjoyable by readers of any age, and just the escape I […]