Posted on September 10, 2020 at 12:21 pm by Gene Ambaum
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 detective investigates a murder at the school for magic where her sister works. I’ve read everything they’ve written and I want more.
I handed this over to my daughter immediately after finishing it — selected reading from the opening chapter made us both laugh.
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Posted on September 8, 2020 at 10:53 am by Gene Ambaum
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, including the green onion salad that’s usually served with it. There are also soups, stews, porridges, and snacks like the easy to make brown sugar pancakes (hotteok) and even kimchi pancakes (don’t put syrup on these).
The cookbook hints at her relationship with her mother and her childhood, which is why it was great to read her new book:
Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha. Balzer + Bray, 2020. 233pp including a glossary and great acknowledgements pages, especially when she talks about her mom. 9780062685094. 240pp.
During a middle school vacation in 1995, Ha and her mother took a trip to Alabama to visit her mother’s friend Mr. Kim. After a few weeks in his house she told her daughter that they were staying, and that she and Mr. Kim were getting married. Alone, unable to speak English, and an outsider in a family with other kids her age, Ha had none of the comics she loved (they were all still back in South Korea) and no chance to stay goodbye to her friends. Her journey to becoming Korean American included a lot of abuse at the hands of racist school bullies. (Minor spoiler: she does eventually stand up for herself and find a teacher who cares.) At first Ha sees her mom as a bit of a tyrant who makes all of the decisions, but as she gets older her view changes. Raising a child born out of wedlock in Korea wasn’t easy, and her mom became a very successful businesswoman despite the obstacles she faced. Ha eventually looks back on her life in Korea and realizes it wasn’t perfect — she had to hide the fact that she had no father, and her family situation led to at least one teacher abusing her.
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This is a very balanced story of two strong women that reminds me a lot of the difficulties my wife had to navigate in South Korea as a strong willed, take-no-bullshit woman. And comics are at the center of it all for Ha! It’s got everything I could ask for, including references to old 90s K-Pop. This book belongs in all middle and high school libraries.
You can find other recipes and art by Robin Ha by going back a bit in her blog, Banchan in Two Pages (“banchan” means side dishes)
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Posted on September 3, 2020 at 9:33 am by Gene Ambaum
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 or library school student, but this adaptation is incredibly readable and I’m sure it will be a hit.
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Posted on September 1, 2020 at 10:16 am by Gene Ambaum
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 sounds good to you. If it doesn’t I suggest you go watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan again — you’ve missed something.
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Posted on August 27, 2020 at 9:42 am by Gene Ambaum
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 needed.
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Posted on August 25, 2020 at 10:26 am by Gene Ambaum
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. Penguin, 2019. 9780142422939. 256pp.
This book has been on my shelf for far too long. When I finally picked it up the other day I could not put it down. I’ve never loved a book this infused with sadness, and I can’t imagine I’ll read a better YA novel this year. (If it looks familiar, it may be because it came out in 2017 and won the Printz.) The less you know about the book the better, I think, but below is a summary that’s as un-spoilery as I can make it.
Marin fled across the country from the Bay Area where something terrible happened. It’s clear it probably had something to do with her grandfather. She moved in with him after her mother died and they lived at the beach where her mom had loved to surf. Her and her grandfather’s lives were strangely and kind of amazingly separate in some ways — he was a poetic guy who spent lots of time alone and exchanged love letters with his Birdie. But Marin had a best friend, Mabel, and life with her grandfather seemed normal. But then whatever happened happened, and Marin ran off to her university, abandoning Mabel and whatever was developing between them. Now Mabel is coming to visit her in her university dorm where, over Christmas break, she’s the only person in residence. Marin is nervous and excited and not sure what she’s going to say. (Minor spoiler: What happened and why she fled comes out, because how could it not.)
Poetic, precise, and oh so well constructed, this is a book my wife, my daughter, and I will talk about for months, and one that I’m going to be recommending for far longer.
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Posted on August 20, 2020 at 11:39 am by Gene Ambaum
Kerry and the Knight of the Forest by Andi Watson. Random House Graphic, 2020. 9781984893291. 288pp.
Kerry is rushing home to Meadowsweet when he’s tricked into taking a path through a cursed forest and gets lost. He saves a snail’s life, but then has to convince it to help him find his way home. It tells Kerry to find the Old Knight of the Road. But the knight isn’t the hero in armor Kerry was hoping for — it’s a waystone, whose duty is to guide travelers. And Kerry is going to need help as to get past the will-o-wisps, the seedlings, and the other agents of the malevolent spirit that has taken over the forest. Kerry’s chief attribute is his kindness. The knight thinks this is going to cause Kerry nothing but trouble. (Of course he’s wrong).
After the story, there are D&D-ish character sheets for everyone and everything in the story that include scores for Empathy and Moxie, plus instructions for readers to create their own characters. There are also a few pages from an early draft of the story plus thumbnails, including 43 simple sketches that show how Watson (with help from the book’s designer) figured out the cover design. It should all be inspiring to young comic creators.
I’m a huge fan of Andi Watson’s comics. His most famous graphic novels for kids are Glister and Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula, but if you live in the UK (or just shop there online occasionally), try to pick up his Gum Girl books if you can find them — they’re great, too.
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Posted on August 18, 2020 at 10:38 am by Gene Ambaum
The Detection Club Volume 1 by Jean Harambat. Europe Comics, 2020. Available in electronic editions only. 86pp.
The Detection Club Volume 2 by Jean Harambat. Europe Comics, 2020. Available in electronic editions only. 44pp.
In the opening pages of this graphic novel, G.K. Chesterton is administering the Detection Club’s oath to its first American member, John Dickson Carr. Dorothy Sayers fires a gun to celebrate, while Agatha Christie, Major A.E.W. Mason, Baroness Emma Orczy, and Monsignor Ronald Knox have more calm reactions. (Yes, the Detection Club was real — it formed in the 1930s and included many of the top British mystery writers.) Over dinner they discuss the Ten Commandments for classic detective stories. And then things get fun — a robot bird drops off an invitation to visit billionaire Roderick Ghyll’s mansion on his island in Cornwall. There he introduces a suspicious cast of characters to the writers, plus an automaton that unravels mysteries even better than the authors who wrote them. During the night there is, of course, a murder, or is it a suicide? The robot has a strange answer for who did the killing. Naturally, the members of the Detection Club are on the case.
It’s all a great, lighthearted bit of fun. I have a sense there were many in-jokes I missed as I’m not familiar with the work of all of the authors, but it was very enjoyable anyway.
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Posted on August 13, 2020 at 9:35 am by Gene Ambaum
Lost Soul Be At Peace by Maggie Thrash. Candlewick, 2020. 9781536213157. 189pp with a short afterward addressing the truth of the book.
Maggie leads a privileged life. Her brother has left for college and her parents don’t seem to be paying much attention to her. After her cat goes missing, she searches her entire house, discovering a note she wrote about her cat way back when she was seven and a hallway she’s never seen before. In the messy, dilapidated room at the end of it she meets the ghost of a boy who has a gun just like hers. Maggie dances, studies Hamlet, goes with her father to court (he’s a judge) and may be on the verge of finding a girlfriend. As she and the ghost become closer, she learns about his crappy life and tries to figure out why he’s in their house. (The reveal at the end of the story was great.) Throughout Maggie also comes to understand how easy her life is.
This a new paperback edition of a graphic novel originally published in hardcover in 2018.
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Posted on August 11, 2020 at 10:07 am by Gene Ambaum
The Runaway Princess by Johan Troïanowski. Translated by Anne and Owen Smith. RH Graphic, 2020. 9780593124161.
Princess Robin has run away to the woods, and she needs your help to escape the wolf that’s chasing her. (After shaking the book as directed, you can then turn the page and see how you helped her escape. It’s pretty fun, and there are more interactive moments throughout the book.) She finds three kids abandoned in the woods and takes them with her to the Aquatic Carnival in Noor (after helping them escape the ogre, who doesn’t really want to eat them). The carnival itself is fish-in-the-sky amazing with tons of colors and none of the scariness that some of the earlier pages have, even when Robin loses her new friends.
The first adventure ends with everyone home again. In the second, Robin runs away again, this time through a secret passage, down a well, and into a giant pumpkin. In the third she doesn’t run away, but she isn’t able to stay at home, either. (This book was originally published as three separate volumes in France.)
The first adventure is by far my favorite. Troïanowski evokes both fear and wonder, and some of the drawings reminded me of Clive Barker’s illustrations for Abarat. (I don’t think I ever read the last book in that series — need to go do that now.)
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