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

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 Arrival by Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan- author and illustrator. The arrival. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-439-895293

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

Media: pencil on paper

Genre: graphic novel, steampunk, wordless graphic novel

Annotation

The Arrival, a wordless graphic novel, is the story of a man leaving his home and family to establish a new life in a new unseen land and the process of becoming familiarized with this strange and unfamiliar new land.

My thoughts

The Arrival is an award winning tale that provides an allegorical depiction of the emigrant experience. The protagonist of the story represents the universal emigrant travelling to a strange and unfamiliar land and experiencing new people, things, and places all at the same time. The man is willing to lose everything to move to a land far away to find a new life for his family.

By creating a fictional imaginary world, one that is unfamiliar with all readers of all different backgrounds, Shaun Tan lets the reader experience what it is like to travel to a new country. Even the most basic details are strange. The protagonist has to relearn and assimilate in order to make this his new home. Even the most basic aspects of his life seem confusing at first. He attempts to pour a glass of water from some odd highly complex mechanism and ends up squirting water all over. He goes to the market and discovers that none of the fruit is recognizable. These are all new species. The fruit sellers pantomime that the fruit tastes good. He is in a predicament where he must trust people. Light switches, running water, refrigeration, clothing, the weather, the creatures, pets and wildlife … everything is different.

The protagonist is wordless in this new world. He cannot speak because he doesn’t know the language. Shaun Tan decision to make this a wordless graphic novel heightens this experience of not being able to communicate. The reader is limited to looking and experiencing all of these strange beings, symbols, and invented alphabet with the same level of knowledge as the protagonist. The reader is required to really look at the images to see that there is a lot of communication happening without words. The lack of words really slows the reader down so that they have to focus on the visual details and think about each small object or action.

Gestures and facial expressions effectively carry communication. The emigrants are from all different lands but manage to communicate even through huge cultural and linguistic differences. The lack of words and dependence on the visual is mystifying experience and a very apt way to express this feeling of being in a new land. This really catapults the reader into the immigrant’s shoes.

In addition, because he uses images to tell the story it is interpreted differently depending on where each person is coming from. Some people might focus on the experience of the immigrant, while some people might focus more on the imaginative realm that Tan has created, and others might see it as a bizarre science fiction graphic novel. For me,  

About multiculturalism, this new land is full of people like the main character. The people are new and are also immigrants to this new land. They are all on the same journey and all are trying to find their bearings.

The society is built on ideas of pluralism with multiculturalism in its roots. There are so many different types of people in this society leaving harmoniously together. (They are recognizable by things like different hats). It is something that really can and should be appreciated.

This imaginative and magical realm is quite an experience and the illustrations are amazing and fantastical. The sepia-toned illustrations give the impression of an old photo album that can serve as reminders of the broader context of migration that many share in their family histories. It adds a bit of nostalgia.

At first, I paid more attention to the surreal illustrations and did not think about the book as an experience. Now, after living in Taiwan for a while, it is clear and the book has taken on new meaning for me. Shaun Tan definitely accomplished something very interesting and special with this book.

Curricular connections

Social Studies- Grade 7 and 8. Provides a good impetus for discussions about multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity in addition to developing interpretation skills. The text offers opportunities to apply multiple critical perspectives to a single text and engaging student discussions.

In addition, The Arrival can be used for high school creative writing and senior English classes.  The graphic novel can help teach students how to identify formal literary devices, perspectives (feminist, cultural, historical, Marxist, etc), analyzing themes, et cetera .

Simulates visual literacy. From Shaun Tan’s Essay “PICTURE BOOKS: Who Are They For?”- “This is perhaps what reading and visual literacy are all about - and what picture books are good for - continuing that playful inquiry we began in childhood, of using imagination to find significance and meaning in those ordinary, day-to-day experiences that might otherwise remain unnoticed. The lessons we learn from studying pictures and stories are best applied to a similar study of life in general - people, places, objects, emotions, ideas and the relationships between them all. At it’s most successful, fiction offers us devices for interpreting reality, and imagining how many such interpretations might be possible.”

Lesson Plan
See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Symbolism: Shaun Tan uses symbolism throughout the novel. Nonsensical symbols and an invented alphabet is used to represent a foreign language. Being unable to understand the meaning of these symbols, Tan places the reader in the same frustrating shoes as the emigrant.

Symbolism also includes all of the archetypal imagery of the universal migrants’ experience. Also the shadow of the dragon’s tail wrapping through the migrant’s original city is a symbol/metaphor for oppression of some sort. The impression is that the migrant is leaving a fascist or oppressed city to find a new land for his family.

Birds are also symbols used through the book. The migrant lifts his hat to show his family a paper origami crane on his head and then gives it to his daughter. When in the new magical land, birds are all around.

Use of Metaphor: provides readers an insightful metaphor for the immigrant experience.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 7 and up/ Ages 12 and up

(Some of the imagery might by too ‘scary’ or too abstract for younger ages.)

Reviews and Awards

Booklist Starred Review

School Library Journal Starred Review

2007 Parents’ Choice Gold Award

2007 Booklist Editor’s Choice

2007 School Library Journal Best Book Selection

2007 Amazon.com Best Teen Book

2008 ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults

2008 ALA Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens

2008 Boston Globe / Horn Book Award

Hugo Award, Nominated for Best Related Book for The Arrival

Hugo Award, Nominated for Best Professional Artist (also in 2009 and 2010)

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book for Là où vont nos pères, the French edition of The Arrival

World Fantasy Award for Best Artist

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award for The Arrival

The Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards: Picture Book of the Year for 'The Arrival'.2006

Premier's Prize and Children's Books category winner in the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for 'The Arrival'

Peter Pan Award 2011 for the Swedish translation of The Arrival

Many other positive reviews for The Arrival…

Shaun Tan also won the Swedish Astrid Lindgren prize in 2011 (The World's richest children's literature award), Academy awards Oscar for best animated short film for The Lost Thing.

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor

George, J. C., & Minor, W. (2010). The Buffalo Are Back. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN: 978-1430109785.

Annotation

Jean Craighead George’s picture book that details the almost eradication of the buffalo and how that effected the plains Indians and the near destruction of the Great Plains environment.

My thoughts

"In the mid-1800s seventy five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none." “What happened? The answer is a story of the American Indians, the buffalo, and the grass.”

In The Buffalo Are Back, Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves and The Wolves Are Back) explains in detail the historical events that lead these majestic animals to the edge of extinction. In a very clear narration, the reader is taken back through an eco-history of the Great Plains. The journey begins in the 1800s with the birth of a single orange buffalo then tells the story of the Native Americans/Plains Indians, the white fur hunters, and westward expansion. In a mere fifty years, the Great Plains was an environmental disaster. 

This is a great book to use for discussing the environment and ecology. This is the story of not only the rescue of the buffalo and Great Plains but also the history of American Conservationism with a very important message.

Curricular connections

Subjects: History, Science/Ecology, Biology/Life Sciences, Science/ endangered species, History/environmental history, Biology/environmental issues.

Grade: 5-12

Literary devices

Use of Simile:

"A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe".

"The green-gold grasses of the plains rippled like waves from horizon to horizon.

Use of Repetition:

"A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe"(2). “A lark flew to a blade of grass and and as sweetly as a panpipe.” (17) "A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe." (27)

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 3 and up.

Reviews and Awards

Junior Library Guild Selection

Teacher’s Choice Award / Intermediate Readers, 2011

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 2011 (Books published in 2010) Life Science division

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

Illustrator website: www.minorart.com/

Media: Watercolors (based on photographs taken by Charlie Craighead and Thomas D. Mangelsen).

Genre: Nonfiction

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham

Kerley, Barbara, & Fotheringham, Edwin. (2010). The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy). New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 978-0-545-125086.

Annotation

Based on thirteen year-old Susy Clemens’ secret biography of her famous writer father Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain).

My thoughts

Barbara Kerley shows a side of Mark Twain by using quotes from Susy Clemens’ journal. The book tells about Twain’s family and personal life and interspersed are Susy’s comments about her father. It starts off with Susy stating that most people don’t really know Mark Twain and that he was so much more than a humorist. Susy proceeds to describe her father. She writes about his flaws (smoking too much), his likes (billards), makes observations about his temperament, and describes his physical appearance. Susy gives the reader an honest account of one of America’s greatest writers.

Edwin Fotheringham’s bright glossy digital illustrations add humor and details that bring the reader back to Twain’s time. The illustrations support the text without distracting the reader. The journal “mini-book” pages inserted between the pages written with cursive with the misspelling of youth give insight and make this a good example of primary and secondary sources.

The book includes a timeless of Mark Twain’s life in the back along with instructions about how to write a biography.

Curricular connections

Elementary school 5^th grade- Middle school: Humanities/English: biographies

Using the page in the book, Writing an Extraordinary Biography (According to Barbara Kerley*), as a guide for students to learn how to write a biography. Then have them write a biography on someone who they know well utilizing observation, research, examples and quotations, and specific details. Students can use the mini-diary for inspiration.

Lesson Plan

See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Alliteration:

“the busiest bee in the household hive”

Use of Repetition

The cursive line work in the background of the illustrations which seem to represent Mark Twain's verbose nature and remind the reader that this is a story told from a young perspective. 

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 3-6

Reviews and Awards

2010 CYBILS Nonfiction Picture Book Award

NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book

Best Children’s Books 2010 -- Publishers Weekly

Best Books 2010 -- School Library Journal

Best Books for Children and Teens 2010 -- Kirkus Reviews

Best of 2010: Books for Young Readers -- Washington Post

Oregon Book Award Finalist

Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee

Author website: www.barbarakerley.com/

Illustrator website: www.edfotheringham.com/

Media: digital media

Genre: Juvenile fiction, biography

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down.

Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, illustrator (2010).  Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down.  New York City, NY: Little, Brown and Company.  ISBN: 978-0-316-07016-4

Author website: No website found.

Ilustrator website: http://www.brianpinkney.net/

Media: watercolor and india ink

Genre: biography, non-fiction, juvenile literature, civil rights movement, history

Annotation

Four African American students in Greensboro (NC) peacefully refuse to leave Woolworth’s lunch counter that only served white people. Their peaceful nonviolent act would inspire others to follow and led to more sit-ins and the end of segregation.

My thoughts

Many have said ‘this is a powerful book’ and it really is. Based on true events that happened in Greensboro in 1960, this book serves as a pictorial representation of a pivotal turning point in our country’s social history. Sit-in: How Four Friends Stood up by Sitting Down is also is a good representative for the power of a good picture book. The storyline, quotes, comments, and illustrates all combine to make this a great multicultural picture book that showcases the Civil Rights and the struggle for equality of the 1960s.

Andrea Davis Pinkney takes this great event and through the personal perspectives of the teenagers and storyline she makes it come alive and become more relatable for children and teens. The book effectively demonstrates the power of people when they work together for a cause that is right inspired by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Actual quotes from Dr. King's speeches within the text to help explain the protesters motivation to keep peaceful. These teenagers sat at a counter and asked for a simple doughnut and coffee. This was a peaceful sit-in for justice and equality not a complex revolution or a political scheme.

The watercolors by Brian Pinkney come across as modern and classic. They added to the story and did not distract from the powerful words and storyline.

The food metaphor and the story really hits you in the gut. Typically, the Civil Rights Movement is one that young people have trouble relating to because of its complexity, but stories such as this really help bring it to life. I also really enjoyed the back of the book's Civil Rights Timeline (in paragraph form from 1954 to 1964), the photograph of the "Greensboro Four" in Woolworth's, the more in depth look at the incident and the times, and additional recommended book and website resources. These 40 pages are really packed with information!

Memorable Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quotes.

“We must meed violence with nonviolence.”

“Demonstrate… calm dignity.”

“We are all leaders.”

“We must… must meet hate with love.”

“Be loving enough to absorb evil.”

Other memorable quotes:

“They sat straight and proud. And waited. And wanted. A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.”

“Practicing peace while other showed hatred was tougher than any school test.”

“… it’s not about food – it’s about pride.”

Curricular connections

This material can be added into a Civil Rights Lesson plan for History and Social Studies (grade 4-6). Both the words and art can be added to a discussion.

Literary devices

Use of Metaphor: The recipe for equality and integration throughout the book.

Use of Repetition: “They did not need menus. Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.”

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grades 4-6

Reviews and Awards

Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards)

Booklist Starred Review

School Library Journal Starred Review

The Stephen Hawking Story: The Boy Who Turned Disability into the Ability to Embrace the Stars by T.S. Lee

T. S. Lee- author. Chad Walker- translator. The Stephen Hawking Story: The Boy Who Turned Disability into the Ability to Embrace the Stars. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Joyful Stories Press, 2009. First printing 2010. ISBN: 978-0-981954295.

Author website: No author website found.

Media: Pen and ink

Genre: Graphic Novel, Biography, Comic, Science

Annotation

Fictionalized manga biography about the genius physicist Stephen Hawking. The comic biography shows on how Hawking survived Lou Gehrig's and worked to become one of the world’s top physicists.

My thoughts

Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man and has striven through a lot of adversity and personal challenges to accomplish all of the things that he has accomplished. Overall, I think that this is a good biography. It kept information simple and did not oversimplify Hawking’s life or ideas. This level, the simple manga comic, makes it so that younger readers can know what Hawking is responsible for and learn about his work on black holes and the secrets of the universe and other highlights of science (like Galileo, Newton, and Einstein). Physicists, however, might cringe at the jump in physics to manga. So far, this book has not had too many reviews so it is difficult to know how actual scientists perceive the science in this graphic novel. It can be noted that the actual details of physics might have otherwise shied younger readers away from Hawking’s achievements and science.

Most the book focuses on how Stephen Hawking coped with being diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He learned in his early twenties that he had this disease and was given a couple of years to live. After the diagnosis and physical paralysis, he went on to get his advanced degrees, publish multiple books and articles (including the pivotal A Brief History of Time), propose many new theories, was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from Oxford University, and became one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society. In 1985 due to pneumonia had had a tracheotomy, which rendered him unable to speak without the aid of a voice synthesizer. Through all of this he continued with his interests about the universe and personal goals. The manga graphic novel starts with his children love for books (and memory for details) and covers these events.

Stephen Hawking has lived more than 40 years since he learned he had the disease. He beat the life-expectancy odd for people with ALS and serves as a role model for ALS patients, others who face adversities, and now also children. In addition, this book takes away mystery around the man who speaks with a voice synthesizer. This graphic novel format makes it so that his differences are not as intimidating or different.

Use of sophisticated language

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), epitome, Einstein’s theory of relativity, universal gravitation, celestial bodies, modern theoretical physics, inertia acceleration, reciprocal actions, singularity theorems, theories, degradation, tracheotomy, voice synthesizer.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 3-8

Reviews

The School Library Journal notes that fictionalized manga biographies are “appealing, but their usefulness is limited by their uneven translations” and made the criticism that statements are “incorrect, unclear, unsupported, and occasionally downright weird.” There are – other biographies in this series. I have not read the other biographies but the Stephen Hawking Story one did not contain too many overt errors.