It's a Book by Lane Smith

Smith, L.  (2010).  It’s a Book.  New York City, NY: Roaring Book Press.  ISBN: 978-1-59643-606-0.

Annotation

In this digital age, a Monkey, Jackass, and a mouse make a bold message about technology and books.

My thoughts

I thought that this book would be too simplistic, but after reading it I’ve decided that it is a good way to promote books to younger tech happy generations. This story pokes fun at the tragic outcome of the technological era as the jackass is unable to grasp the simplistic beauty of books. This book, however, might not be appropriate for classroom settings since ‘jackass’ might be offensive to some people. This would be a good book for library displays for Banned Books Month or humorous picture books.

Literary devices

Use of Repetition: “It’s a book.” Is repeated numerous times.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Ages 6-10 (older readers will find this story humorous).

Reviews and Awards

IRA Children’s Choices, 2011

NY Times Notable Children’s Books, 2010

Goodreads Choice Award for Picture Book, 2010

Author website: http://www.lanesmithbooks.com

Media: Oil paint and ink

Genre: Juvenile picture book

Set to Sea by Drew Weing

Drew Weing - author. Set to sea. Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-60699-368-2

Author website: http://www.drewweing.com/

Media: pen and ink

Genre: graphic novel, adventure, comic

Annotation: A portly potbellied landlubbing poet, who finds himself in a slump while writing about life at sea, gets shanghaied aboard a ship and gets an inside view on the trials and tribulations of sailor life.

My thoughts:

This is Drew Weing’s debut 2010 graphic novel, though the crosshatched full-page black and white panels could have been published in bygone eras. Sailors, pirates, and the high seas set this comic adventure book. The style and characters are very reminiscent of the classic Popeye comic strip. Only these characters definitely cast in Popeye-like story. These are characters that do not get lots of spinach. They don’t swim with mermaids (unless tossed to sea by pirates). And, these sailors don’t have time to tan on their backs. (Popeye song) These sailors toast “long hours, short rations, and not even a stone to mark your grave!” Though the giant hero is able to steal away brief moments for his poetry and is able to find wordlessly communicate the solace he finds as the sunrises in the artic.

There is very little dialogue throughout the book. So, the images provide the narrative. And, they do so very effectively. The transition of our fat hero poet starts from when he is depicted more as a vagrant poet wandering local pubs (and getting the boot) to an honorable sailor who protects his mates and publishes legitimate stories about life at sea. In the end, the patched up barely held together coat is replaced and his is adorned in the garb of a fine gentlemen. He even has a nice eye patch to cover his eyeball-less eye that was shot out by a pirate. He can sit in the “Angry Kitten” (the same bar where he was given the boot) write leisurely while snoozing and is waited upon by said owner/ boot possessor.

It’s nice to see a protagonist grow not only materially but also in maturity. This is also depicted through the tribulations at sea when the whalelike character befriends his fellow crewmen, fights pirates, muscles the steer during a storm, has a moby dick moment, gives his mates advice, works the directional cross, saves a mate during a storm, etc. He no longer sulks around making up stories. He lived it.

The visual storytelling really stands out for me. This is not the common current style. It is unique. Every page holds a carefully crafted illustration that probably can be discussed in terms of historical cartoon/ illustration devices.

Literary devices:

Use of onomatopoeia: tok, whuf, oooaaa,urk,whok, krak, urrgh, zzz

Use of rhyme:

“If I even survive the trip

I set to sea on a clipper ship

But work and woe is what I found

A thousand leagues till I touch ground

I survive this –something- trip / endless? trackless?”

“All hands on deck’ and ‘mainsail-haul’

The timbers groan, the sailors curse

The only fate that would be worse…”

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grades 8-12 (Warning: The poet graphically gets his eye shot out and encounters with pirates include violence, retaliation, and lots of black and white blood. This makes the recommended age group understandable.)

Reviews and Awards

Booklist starred review

“With hints of The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Popeye and Treasure Island, Weing has created a modern classic in the pirate genre.” (School Library Journal )

“Set to Sea's one-panel-per-page layout lets Weing's visual storytelling shine, but only if you resist the urge to tear through the pages quickly. Go too fast, and you'll miss the touching, wordless way Weing communicates the death of a supporting character. Or, worse, you'll skim over a gorgeous arctic sunset clearly inspired by the Gustave Dore engravings for Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Glen Weldon, NPR

Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein and Ed Young

Mark Reibstein – author. Ed Young - illustrator. Wabi Sabi. New York: Little, Brown, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-316-118257

Author website: No author website found.

Ilustrator website: http://edyoungart.com/

Media: Mixed media collage.

Genres: Fictional picture book, haiku, bilingual, Japanese philosophy, Japanese poets, Zen, Taoist philosophy, identity, cultural identity

Annotation
 Japanese cat, Wabi Sabi, wanders across Japan in a search for what her name means. Through haiku, she finds real beauty in unexpected places and discovers the meaning of her name and philosophy.

My thoughts
This Zen Buddhism/Taoism philosophy is effectively broken down into its most simple elements and illustrated beautifully by award winning illustrator Ed Young. For a book, that intends to take this highly unexplainable Zen/ Taoist concept, a way of seeing beauty in life and simply see things, it does a nice job.

The cat’s journey starts by receiving an unsatisfactory answer from her owner. She asked her owner “what is the meaning of my name.” The owner replied, “That's hard to explain.” And that is all she says. She continues to question other animals until she is led to a wise old monkey who teaches her the meaning. This journey in addition to teaching the philosophy also teaches empirical research. This is the idea of questioning multiple people to find an answer and to gain a full understanding of an idea.

The reader also experiences a physical journey and can partly experience part of Japanese culture through this book. The book has the unusual way of turning the pages upward vertically and is read top to bottom similar to classical Chinese and Japanese traditional scroll paintings/ calligraphy/ texts. The haiku is also traditional.

I have had the opportunity to travel to Ginkakuji (the “Silver Temple”) and I loved reading the poetic descriptions and linking it to Wabi Sabi. “Yellow bamboo stalks bow by teahouse doors so low emperors must kneel. Dark building, floating, sit on white sand seas. A stream sweeps small stones, chanting.”

Literary Devices
Use of Personification: Wabi Sabi the cat represents Wabi Sabi the Zen Buddhism and Taoist philosophies.

Use of Simile: "He moved things as if they were gold, although they were wooden or clay."/ “As simple as a brown leaf. So ordinary!”/

Use of oxymoron: "She saw that everything was alive and dying too."

Reading level/ Interest Age
 K- grade 3. (Arguably, all ages). The simply complex philosophy and beautiful collages also can be used for older readers. This book can be used by teachers when introducing Japanese Zen or Taoist philosophies, or for learning about the haiku as a poetry structure, or for art teachers (the collages are really visually interesting and are good inspiration for class projects).

Reviews and Awards

ALA Notable Book (2008)

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book for 2008
Booklist starred review

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

 

Anya’s Ghost.

Vera Brosgol – author and illustrator. (2011). Publisher: First Second(:01): New York. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-1596437135.

Author website: http://verabee.com/index.html

Media: Watercolor, pen and ink.

Genre: Graphic novel, multicultural, horror

Annotation

A lonely teenage girl struggling with everyday problems encounters and befriends a ghost. Only there is a problem, what happens if this ghost is less Casper and more poltergeist?

Plot Summary

Anya, an angst ridden teenage girl who is an imigrant from Russia going to a Catholic school in suburban Massachusetts, wants to fit into mainstream teenage culture and wants to be popular. She tries to assimilate and blend in with her peers. For example, she went to speech therapy to lose her accent, dresses like the other girls, she eats American foods, and she rejects the Russian food (Cblphnkh) that her mother cooks because it is Russian and weight self-consciousness.

Anya is leaving high school one day when she trips and falls down a well in a park.  Terrified that she is doomed to perish in the well, Anya discovers that she is not alone. There is a ghost girl and skeleton from 1918 with her. When she is finally rescued, she discovers that the ghost had an ulterior motive. The ghost, Emily, has followed her home. At first, the ghost is helpful. The ghost assists with course work, gives her intel about a boy she has a crush on, boosts her confidence, provides style advice, and so on. The ghost seems like a supportive friend that teenagers often want.

But, as the story progresses, Anya starts to realize that the ghost’s story isn’t quite right. As the ghost becomes more co-dependent, demanding, erratic, and scheming Anya begins to suspect that the ghost is leaving out information and decides to investigate the said story. She discovers that there is more to the ghost and the story and that her family might be in danger.

My thoughts

This is a good young adult graphic novel for teens and is popular for many reasons. Social anxiety, body image, friendship, health, peer pressure, family difficulties, and assimilation are issues that are effectively addressed in this graphic novel. 

Anya, as a character, is so relatable for many teenage girls. She is a combination of social outcast rebellion and intelligent but insecure wallflower. The character progresses through the story and in the end she realizes that the popular kids have issues below the surface. Anya ultimately becomes more secure with her own being and confident that she doesn’t have to fit in with the popular kids.

The illustrations are monochromatic done in black and white with a touch of purple toned grey. The lines are thick and smoothly in a typical graphic style. Anya is drawn as a curvy girl with dark hair and freckles.

A couple of red flags: One personal concern that I have is that the character does smoke cigarettes (and cut classes) through the first part of the book. This characterization of the rebel smoker is cliché and perhaps causes teenage girls to smoke. The characterization adds to the problem even though the character confronts the habit in the final pages of the book. In addition, there is underage drinking at the party that changes her views about popularity. Overall, the spooky supernatural themes are mild and there is no overt violence.

Curricular connections

Popular for teenage girls.

Literary Devices:
Use of onomatopoeia: beep! Beeeep!, Clap!, pant pant, gasp, tweet tweet, briiiing, whip, duck, rrrring, sizzle, krak, thump, tug, and THUD.

Use of Simile: “You may look normal like everyone else, but you're not. Not on the inside.”

Reading level/ Interest Age

 Younger high school.

Reviews and Awards

Cybils awards 2011 in the Graphic Novel category

Booklist starred review

Kirkus starred review

School Library Journal starred review

“Anya’s Ghost is a masterpiece, of YA literature and of comics.”—Neil Gaiman

"Remarkable. . . . with an attitude and aptitude reminiscent of Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) who likewise conveyed the particulars of an immigrant adolescence, Brosgol has created a smart, funny and compassionate portrait of someone who, for all her sulking and sneering, is the kind of daughter many parents would like to have. And the kind of girl many of us maybe once were.” -- The New York Times

Cinderella Skeleton by Robert Souci and David Catrow

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Tan, Shaun. Tales from Outer Suburbia. 2008, 94 pg, New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, 9780545055871.

Annotation

A collection of short stories, poetry, and accompanied by Shaun Tan’s stunning, pleasantly strange thought provoking artwork.

My thoughts

These modern stories completely captivated me with their stunning illustrations, strangely quirky characters and mysticism that left my imagination wanting more. Suburban life is typical portrayed as a white picket fenced middle class lifestyle of normalcy. These stories, however, are ideal for anyone wanting to escape the normalcy of daily life in or out of the suburbs. Strange situations like the enigmatic nut-sized foreign exchange student, a sea creature on someone’s front lawn, a new room discovered in a family home, a sinister machine installed in a park, a wise buffalo that lives in a vacant lot, and 10 other extraordinary stories.

Artwork

The art is rich and surreal. In his website, Shaun Tan discusses his art for this book. Tan states that to “treat each story individually, as a separate little universe (which is how they were more or less conceived)” he used different media to suit the “atmosphere of each tale.” The range of media is impressive as is the skill evidenced in the illustrations. This is a collection for artists and dreamers, and for anyone in need of a jolt of inspiration.

Literary devices

Use of Sophisticated Language: incomprehensible, frayed, perilous, melancholy, etc.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grades 7-12

Reviews and Awards

Awards: CBCA Book of the Year, 2009, Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009, New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books, 2009, BCCB Blue Ribbon Book 2009, Washington Post Best Kids' Books of the Year, Booklist Editors’ Choices for 2009, A YALSA Best Book for Young Adults-2010, An ALA Notable Book for Children-2010, USBBY Outstanding International Book-2010, LA Times Book Prize-Finalist

Author website: http://www.shauntan.net/

Media: Pencil/ oil on canvas/ acrylic and oils on paper/graphite and coloured pencil on paper/ gesso, acrylic and oils on paper/ paper collage and other people’s handwriting/ oil on wood/ ink watercolor and ball-point pen/ digital/ scraperboard/ gouache/ photocopied text/ pastel crayon

Genre: Graphic novel

The Wall Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

Peter Sís – Author and illustrator. The wall: growing up behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-374-34701-7

Author website: http://www.petersis.com/noflash.html

Media: Multi-media, pencil, marker, crayon, colored pencil, pen and ink

Genre: biography, memoir, nonfiction, history, Juvenile literature, graphic novel, picture book

Annotation

Visual award-winning personal memoir of artist Peter Sís growing up on the oppressed Russian Communist totalitarian dictatorship side of the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War and his desire for freedom.

My thoughts

This is an award-winning book, Peter Sís brings the reader to his past in Communist controlled Prague during the Cold War. The information brought by the illustrations and prose brings this period vibrantly alive describing the struggles for freedom and expression under the harsh control of a totalitarian regime. For the beginning, Sís uses bright color and different symbols to show the contrast between his natural childhood desire to express his imagination against the repetitive and monotony of the symbols and colors associated with the Soviet Red Army.

His personal story is juxtaposed with a timeline of historical events. Sís adds first personal journal entries from his journal at that time and the reader can understand his perspective and move with him from the tacit acceptance during his childhood to his shift of awareness as he grows up and is exposed to the world.

The colors reflect the personal reactions to the time. During the most oppressive and difficult times, Sís restricts his color choice to black white and red. When he begins to express himself there are bursts of color. “Slowly he started to question. He painted what he wanted to- in secret.” A two page full-color vibrant spread shows the revolution of the 60’s leaking into Sís awareness. It concludes with the fall of the wall on November 9, 1989. This book contains lots of talking points.

Peter Sís provides an introduction, his chronological timeline journal entries, and an afterward to provide additional information to the already expressive illustrations.

Curricular connections

In classrooms, the rise and fall of Communism focuses on the political shifts and oppression in an impersonal manner. This book provides a very personal account that makes the effects of Communist very real and clear. It’s told in a way that is relatable.

Literary devices

Use of repetition: The word “COMPULSORY” is used like an unspoken brand after each description of Communist mandates or suggested activities. (Example: “Joining the Young Pioneers, the Communist youth movement- COMPULSORY. Collecting scrap metal- COMPULSORY. First of May parade celebrating the workers of the world- COMPULSORY. Public displays of loyalty- COMPULSORY. The practice of religion- DISCOURAGED.” This really hammers home the point.


Use of Symbol: Communist ideology and symbols are also repeated throughout the book. The hammer and sickle. 

Reading level/ Interest Age

Age 8 and up/ Grade 3 and up

Reviews and Awards

Caldecott Honor Book

Sibert Medal

Booklist Starred Review

School Library Journel Starred Review

Kirkus Starred Review

Horn Book Starred Review

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER

Publishers Weekly Starred Review

And, many other positive reviews…

The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howlitt and Tony DiTerlizzi

Howitt, M. and T. DiTerlizzi, illustrator (2002).  The Spider and the Fly.  New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  ISBN: 0-689-85289-4

Annotation

This picturebook combines illustrations based on classic Hollywood horror movies of the 1920s and 1930s with a Victorian cautionary poem written by Mary Howitt in 1829.

My thoughts

This Caldecott Honors book is a hauntingly beautiful tale. A sinister looking spider tries to convince an innocent looking fly to enter his parlor.  In one of the earlier publications of the original poem, William Bennett wrote, “Unfortunately, as long as there’s dishonesty in the world, there will be people ready to lay trap for us. We must learn to recognize them and guard against their wiles. Not everyone who talk sweetly offers sweets.” The book explains the consequences for believing flattering words of strangers. Knowing to be skeptical is a difficult issue to approach with young children. This book makes this complicated conversion easier with the personified Spider and Fly. I enjoyed this book.  I loved how it has recycled a classic piece of literature and I especially love the illustrations.

Focus on artwork:

The illustrations are fantastic. Inspired by 1920s and 1930 dark Hollywood, the cinematic effect that accentuate the details of the story. In the author’s information he credits his inspiration to come from Hollywood film noir as well as illustrations from Edward Gorey, Chaz Addams, and Arthur Rackham. The influence of these artists is evident and this book is recommended for fans of these classic illustrators.

There were many things that I liked about the illustrations. One is the way that DiTerlizzi illustrates the spider and fly. Another nice detail is the spider’s web. Throughout the story, the spider’s web is included from a few strands in the beginning to the final web. The web is finished with the story making it a nice marker. The ghosts that are seen as cautionary figures throughout the story also stand out. For the ghosts, Tony DiTerlizzi used Adobe Photoshop to add the graphic drawn ghosts as a transparent layer which gives them a luminous effect.

Lesson Plan

See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Rhyme: “So he wove a subtle web in a little corner sly,/ And set his table ready, to dine upon the fly.”

Use of Rhythm: “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly. “to ask me is in vain,/ For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.” There is a sense of rhythm and beats in the couplets of this poem.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Age 6-10

Reviews and Awards

Caldecott Honors, 2003

ALA Notable Children’s Books, 2003

Author website: No author website.

Illustrator website: http://diterlizzi.com

Media: Lamp Black and Titanium White Holbein Acryla Gouache and Berol Prismacolor Pencil on Thrathmore 5-Ply, Plate Bristol board and reproduced in silver and black duotone.  Ghosts were created using graphite and then added as a transparent layer using Adobe Photoshop.   (Information retrieved from the copyright page.)

Genre: Juvenile picture book