Review of Borders, by Thomas King and Natasha Donovan

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Borders

story by Thomas King
illustrations by Natasha Donovan

Little, Brown and Company, 2021. 184 pages.
Review written October 22, 2021, from a library book

This short graphic novel is presented as a boy remembering what happened when he was twelve. He and his mother set out from their home in Canada to visit his sister in Salt Lake City, who had moved away some years before.

But when they cross the border and get to the United States entry point, the guard asks their citizenship. His mother answers, “Blackfoot.”

No matter what the guard asks and how they explain, his mother doesn’t claim any nationality except Blackfoot. Finally they’re turned back.

But when they try to get through the guard station to go back to Canada, the same thing happens.

And so they’re stuck in the small area between the borders with the food they brought with them plus what they can find at the duty-free shop.

The story is simple, but thought-provoking. It was adapted from a short story published in 1993, and I think the graphic novel format makes it even more engaging, especially for kids.

lbyr.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Snapdragon, by Kat Leyh

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Snapdragon

by Kat Leyh

First Second, 2020. 224 pages.
Review written July 17, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Snapdragon is a girl who all the kids at school think is weird. She lives with her mom and her dog, Good Boy. When Good Boy goes missing, she looks at the house of the old witch, who’s rumored to eat pets. She does find Good Boy, and he’s been patched up after a car hit him.

The next day some boys are playing with the body of a dead possum and trying to gross out Snapdragon. But she finds the possum’s babies and goes to the witch’s house to get help taking care of them. It turns out the witch is a lady named Jacks who harvests roadkill and ends up selling their reticulated skeletons on the internet.

Snapdragon is fascinated by that and keeps coming for help with the possum babies and learning about the skeletons, and then it turns out that Jacks really is a witch. So now it’s time to learn about magic.

That summary doesn’t begin to convey the richness of the characters in this graphic novel. Jacks is not at all a stereotypical witch anymore than Snapdragon is a stereotypical outsider kid. Challenges come up, and even though magic comes into play, it feels like the challenges are dealt with realistically.

As a graphic novel, the book is short, but I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.

Buy from Amazon.com

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books!

Review of Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham

Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Lunar New Year Love Story

written by Gene Luen Yang
art by LeUyen Pham

First Second, 2024. 350 pages.
Review written March 27, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This graphic novel is sweet and wonderful. Last night, I intended to just dip into it for a few minutes — and came up for air about an hour later, when I’d finished it.

It’s the story of Valentina, a junior in high school. She loved Valentine’s Day when she was a kid and made elaborate valentines with the spirit only she can see, Saint V. But back when she was a freshman, she had a disastrous Valentine’s Day. After that horrible and memorable day, she changed her feelings about Valentine’s Day, and Saint V stopped appearing to her as a sweet cherub, and more like a frightening ghost.

Now Saint V has given her one year to find true love – until next Valentine’s Day. He’s asking for her heart — if she gives her heart only to the old spirit, she can escape her family’s curse of suffering with love.

She finds a wonderful boy when she joins a group of Lion Dancers. But why won’t he call her his girlfriend? There’s a lot going on as she looks for love, and it’s tied together with her own family history, with lion dancing, with friends who have different attitudes toward love, with spirits, and with Val choosing her own path.

I really enjoyed seeing LeUyen Pham draw older characters than what I’m used to. I can still recognize her basic style, but it’s softened, and the result is truly beautiful images. In graphic novels, I like to be able to tell the characters apart, and she achieved that well.

I did not at all begrudge my unplanned hour reading this book, and closed it with a smile. A truly lovely graphic novel.

geneluenyang.com
leuyenpham.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/lunar_new_year_love_story.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Pawcasso, by Remy Lai

Children's Fiction Review, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Pawcasso

by Remy Lai

Henry Holt, 2021. 238 pages.
Review written July 29, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Pawcasso is Remy Lai’s third book that involves kids keeping a huge secret from the adults in their lives. I’m getting a little tired of that – but Pawcasso is so adorable, I loved the book anyway.

In this book, it’s the start of summer, and Jo’s been staying in her house all day. When she does go out, she sees a dog carrying a basket. The basket contains money and a shopping list and Jo watches the dog do the shopping for his owners.

But when the dog walks into a bookstore where a children’s art class is happening, the kids think Jo is the dog’s owner, and they want to paint the dog. Jo doesn’t get a chance to correct them – and starts walking with the dog to art class every week. She tells them his name is Pawcasso. And she gets paid with free books.

But then a mean man complains to the City Council about Pawcasso going around town without a leash, and he almost gets taken to the pound. Jo’s new friends are incensed. They start a pawtition that goes viral. And meanwhile, Jo is terrified of getting found out.

This engaging graphic novel is full of pictures of a truly adorable dog, with a story of a kid who falls for the dog and gets herself into a tight spot. It’s got all the ingredients of a book kids will love.

remylai.com
mackids.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books!

Review of Class Act, by Jerry Craft

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Class Act

by Jerry Craft

Quill Tree Books (HarperCollins), 2020. 250 pages.
Review written March 20, 2021, from a library book

Class Act calls itself a “Companion to the Newbery Medal Winner New Kid,” so I won’t call it a sequel, but it does tell about Jordan Banks’ second year at a private school outside his neighborhood, where he’s one of a few African American kids. The publisher is right, though, that you won’t feel lost if you didn’t read the first graphic novel, or if it’s been a while. The author is good at catching the reader up.

And this time, besides following Jordan’s story, we also follow two of his friends – Drew, whose skin is darker than Jordan’s and faces more discrimination, and Liam, who is white and rich, but whose parents are never around.

This year Jordan’s bothered that he doesn’t seem to be growing and developing like his friends are doing, and he doesn’t want to stay a little kid forever. He also is afraid that drawing his comics is babyish and wonders if he should go to art school next year.

For all of them, there’s still discrimination to navigate, and friendships, and girls, and what kids in the neighborhood think of them going to a private school. I liked the part where a mean kid accidentally got his skin dyed green with unwashable dye for Halloween – and thus became a person of color temporarily. The teachers are trying to figure out how to be sensitive to diversity – with mixed results.

The chapter break pages refer to other published books. It starts out with mostly children’s graphic novel references but includes some adult novels as well. I didn’t quite understand the point of doing this, though it was fun for me to recognize the books.

The story is good, and it’s great to have another graphic novel with Black kids as the protagonists. There’s no doubt in my mind that kids will happily scoop this up and be glad they did.

jerrycraft.com
harperalley.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books!

Review of Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend, by Noah Van Sciver

Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Novel, History, Starred Review 0

Paul Bunyan

The Invention of an American Legend

by Noah Van Sciver

With stories and art by Marlena Myles
Introduction by Lee Francis IV
Postscript by Deondre Smiles

Toon Graphics, 2023. 48 pages.
Review written December 1, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

The bulk of this book is the graphic novel story of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe — but this story goes further and shows us an advertising man with a lumber company making up the tale, exaggerating other lumberjack tales, in order to make their company look like heroes for clearing the old growth forests that used to blanket North America.

Set in 1914 on a train in Minnesota, there’s a delay in the journey and an ad man from the lumber companies starts telling the tall tales of Paul Bunyan, mesmerizing the other passengers as they wait for the train to start again.

But in this version, we see that a slick ad man is inventing the stories. And he gets some pushback from people on the train who saw acres and acres of mighty forest cut down. The land is laid bare, and the lumber companies simply continued to move further west.

The other people listed on the title page are Indigenous creators whose stories and art appear before and after the main narrative. They give more context about how those same lumber companies pushed out Indigenous peoples to get access to the trees.

Put together, it’s a thought-provoking and moving story that shows how much more there is to the tall tales I heard as a kid.

toon-books.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/paul_bunyan.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Hidden Systems, by Dan Nott

Graphic Novel, History, Science, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Hidden Systems

Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day

by Dan Nott

RH Graphic, 2023. 264 pages.
Review written September 29, 2023, from a book sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2023 National Book Award Longlist

Hidden Systems is graphic novel format nonfiction about some essentially important – but hidden things. In three sections, the author explains, with diagrams and drawings, how the Internet works, how electricity works, and how our water systems work.

It’s interesting that the topics are approached in the opposite order from the subtitle, which is also the opposite order from how they were developed in the real world. But taking a present to the past approach does get the information across.

At the front of the book, the author talks about what hidden systems are and how he learned about them by trying to draw them. Because so much is invisible, the metaphors we use to describe them are important. Here’s a bit from that introduction, which has a small picture accompanying each line.

A hidden system is something we don’t notice
until it breaks.

But when these systems are doing what they’re supposed to,
they become so commonplace
that we hardly see them.

Hidden systems are in the news all the time.
Usually when something dramatic happens.
(especially if something explodes)
But by overlooking hidden systems the rest of the time,
we take for granted the benefits they provide for some of us,
and disregard the harm they cause others.
These systems structure our society,
and even when they’re working,
are a source of inequality and environmental harm.

Something I appreciated about this look at the Internet, Electricity, and Water Systems is that he showed the big picture, too – how these things are physically hooked up and connected around the world.

There was a lot I didn’t know about each system: The importance of data centers for the internet, almost all the physical aspects of the electricity grid, and our frequent use of dams to run the water system.

Okay, this summary doesn’t do the book justice. Let me urge you to read it – and look at it – for yourself. (So much is communicated by the drawings!) The story of how humans have built these systems helps us think about what ways we could modify them to better work with our earth.

As he finishes up (accompanied by pictures):

We often just see the surface of our surroundings,
but by understanding these systems more deeply,
we can form our own questions about their past and future.
The answers to these questions can help us not only fix these systems
but also reimagine them –
creating a world that’s more in balance with the Earth
and that provides equitably for all people.

dannott.com
RHKidsGraphic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/hidden_systems.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Squished, by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Squished

by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter

Scholastic Graphix, 2023. 250 pages.
Review written July 12, 2023, from a library book.

Hooray! Big family representation in a graphic novel!

I’m third from a family of thirteen children, and I’ve noticed that there’s not a whole lot of big family representation in children’s books, so I was delighted to learn that the creators of the charming graphic novel Allergic have taken this on.

Avery’s the second in a family of seven kids. (So that’s just over half as big as my family — but let’s not get crazy. It’s a big family.) She’s 11 years old, and all her younger siblings look to her. And she’s desperate for her own room and a place to paint — and sleep — without being disturbed by little kids.

So when her older brother gets his own room, and the toddler comes into the room she already shared with a sister — well, it’s simply not fair.

This book mostly shows the light side of big families. But it does show how an older sister ends up doing lots of caretaking, like it or not. And the embarrassment of a huge family showing up to “support” her at school events. I enjoyed the way all the kids were invested in getting the baby to crawl. All of that is for sure realistic, and fun to see in this book.

And yes, older siblings really do need their own room!

meganwagnerlloyd.com
michellemee.com
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/squished.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Ride On, by Faith Erin Hicks

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Ride On

by Faith Erin Hicks
colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick

First Second, 2022. 220 pages.
Review written May 9, 2023, from a library book.

Ride On is a sweet graphic novel about making friends – and riding horses.

The book starts with a new girl at the riding stable, named Victoria. At first, she rebuffs the overtures of one of the regulars. We learn that she had a falling-out with her best friend at the other stable because Victoria decided to have a gentler summer and not focus on competing in shows. So now, she hopes to just focus on horses and not mess with human friends.

But humans have a way of getting into your heart. The book has lots of interactions with people and with horses. My heart was warmed by an adventure at the end with Victoria and her new friends.

Graphic novels are always popular with their accessible story-telling, and this one will especially appeal to horse lovers.

faitherinhicks.com
firstsecondbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/ride_on.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Garlic and the Witch, by Bree Paulsen

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Graphic Novel 0

Garlic and the Witch

by Bree Paulsen

Quill Tree Books, 2022. 152 pages.
Review written March 3, 2023, from a library book.

Garlic and the Witch is a follow-up to the delightful Garlic and the Vampire. In both, we see sentient vegetables created by Witch Agnes to be her helpers.

In the first book, sweet, small, and timid Garlic confronts a vampire who has moved into the nearby castle. In this book, Garlic turns to her friend and neighbor Count as she is startled by changes happening to her. They go on an adventure together to the Magic Market to get ingredients for Count’s blood substitute.

It’s another sweet story about a timid and small young person confronting her fears. In this case, I got to thinking a little too much about sentient vegetables becoming human — but if you don’t do that, it’s another lovely story. (And I’m pretty confident most kids won’t be freaked out by that.)

It remains a wonderful graphic novel for early elementary. There’s no talking down to the reader and visually the panels present much of the story in a sophisticated graphic novel set-up. But it also doesn’t have a high word count and does have an emotionally comforting story.

harperalley.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/garlic_and_the_witch.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?