The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes, D.J. Kirkland
I was intrigued when I saw this book come up on NetGalley, so I picked it up, but then forgot to read it, and then I was sad. And I met the author and illustrator at the New York Comic Con, and they were really nice! And then the library I work at got a copy, so I was the first one to check it out! Anyway… On first glance, this looks like Harry Potter, but if Harry Potter was the only black kid. […]
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
Back in 2013, Allie Brosh published Hyperbole and a Half named after the blog she kept (and has finally updated with a new post!). I pre-ordered the last book and bought it as a Christmas present for pretty much every single person my husband and I knew that year (now our own copy seems to have mysteriously gone missing – which distresses me). Allie’s blog (we are clearly on first-name basis, and would be great friends if we ever met) and her book meant a lot to me, […]
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
Wow. I thought I knew where this was going, and then I didn’t. I had some doubts over some decisions that were made at the beginning, but then it turns out I was wrong! Looking back, of course those things were different! I’m going to try my best to avoid spoilers, but that’s going to be very difficult. The story starts off paralleling the Sherlock Holmes story of “A Study in Scarlet,” but with some slight twists. All right, you think, this is an […]
The 1918 Flu Pandemic by Katherine Krohn, illustrated by Bob Hall, Keith Williams, and Charles Barnett III
Well, this is timely. This juvenile graphic novel came out in 2008, and I’m sure the author and illustrators never thought they would have to live through a pandemic themselves. This is meant for kids around 4th grade, and tries to explain what happened during the pandemic. It focuses on the speed and deadliness of the virus, but also on the uncertainty. Some of the things that they did will definitely be familiar with kids today, especially the closing of schools and the use […]
Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir & Sarah Andersen
Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz have all had a rough go of it after their adventures in the stories. And the stories we were told were not their only adventures. No, these girls have grown up a bit and have spent more time in their respective other worlds. Alice is bitter and angry, Wendy always carries a knife, and Dorothy has been subject to electroshock therapy, but that last bit is cannon, I think. […]
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisenger, Steven Scott, Harmony Becker
Cbr12bingo Shelfie This graphic novel geared toward young readers is an eye opening first hand account of the Takei family’s experience in the US’s Japanese internment camps during WWII. World renowned actor George Takei relates his childhood memories of being uprooted and shipped across the country with his family and reveals his subsequent struggle to come to terms with the injustice and trauma of those years. Even though many of us may have heard about the camps before (thanks in part to the hard work […]
