Review of Displacement, by Kiku Hughes

Displacement

by Kiku Hughes

First Second, 2020. 284 pages.
Review written September 2, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Displacement is a graphic novel telling about a teenage girl who gets suddenly displaced – sent back in time – to her grandmother’s past. The first two times it doesn’t last long, but then she gets displaced for months and sent with others to the incarceration camps of Japanese Americans.

This is a look at those camps through modern eyes. Kiku is bothered that she’s a visitor from the future, but she didn’t really know what happened. Because those who were incarcerated were shamed about it, they didn’t talk much about it, even with their own children. Kiku’s grandmother died before she was born, and not much of her story made its way to Kiku.

Like They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, this book emphasizes the importance of not letting this happen again. Incarcerating people for the color of their skin is a grave injustice, and this book helps you see through the eyes of the humans treated that way.

A powerful story, skillfully told.

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Review of Queen of the Sea, by Dylan Meconis

Queen of the Sea

by Dylan Meconis

Walker Books (Candlewick), 2019. 394 pages.
Starred Review
Review written August 20, 2019, from a library book

Queen of the Sea is a beautifully drawn graphic novel about Margaret, a girl who grows up on an island off the coast of Albion, who doesn’t know who her parents were. The only other people on the island are nuns of the Elysian order, sworn to help sailors and their families.

When Margaret prays for a friend her age, a noble lady comes to the island with her son. They are in exile after their family defied the king. Margaret and this boy grow up together, become friends – for a time. But the next new resident of the island is the deposed queen of Albion, and Margaret gets drawn into political plottings. She’s only an orphan girl, but can her actions on a distant island affect the throne?

The story is not actually based on truth, though it seems so close to royal intrigue of Elizabethan times that I wondered if it was. I like the way the author uses a different style of art for tales told by the nuns. This is a gripping but also heart-warming story with beautiful art. And after last year being on the Newbery committee, I can’t help but think that here’s a graphic novel that will be a solid contender. The story itself is solid enough, and the illustrations definitely don’t detract. Because it’s a graphic novel, this can be read quickly, but it’s a tale with some weight.

Royal intrigue, mysterious origins, an isolated island setting, and rich historical details are all to be found in this lovely graphic novel.

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Review of Otto: A Palindrama, Jon Agee

Otto

A Palindrama

by Jon Agee

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2021. 144 pages.
Review written April 23, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This book is just so silly. But it’s irresistible if you like palindromes at all. I was sitting and chuckling over it in my office, and had to bring it out and share, which got my coworkers laughing, too.

This is a kid’s full-length graphic novel — in which the only printed text that appears are entirely palindromes. The result is very silly — but it all actually makes sense!

Here are some of the 200 palindromes that appear:

Was it a rat I saw?

No, Son.

Nate Bittnagel, elegant Tibetan.

[In a museum] Gustav Klimt milk vats? Ug!

[On a tombstone] Evil, atonal, racy Carla. Not alive.

Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?

No, Don.

I’m Al, a slob. My symbol: Salami!

Too hot to hoot.

This all happens while Otto is looking for his dog, Pip. And of course it’s the pictures that make it all make sense. It’s all extremely silly, but a whole lot of fun.

We’ll have some more Palindrome Days in March 2023, so this may be the perfect book to pull out for a program.

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Review of The Phantom Twin, by Lisa Brown

The Phantom Twin

by Lisa Brown

First Second, 2020. 206 pages.
Review written August 5, 2020, from a library book

You’ve probably heard of amputees experiencing a phantom limb where their limb was removed. This graphic novel tells the story of a conjoined twin, who after separation experiences a phantom twin.

Isabel and Jane were conjoined twins and had been sold by their parents to a carnival freak show when they were small. They had three arms and legs between them, with the shared limbs mostly controlled by Jane, who also had the most forceful personality.

Jane decided to trust the promises of a doctor who said he could separate them and give them separate lives, but after the operation, Isabel is alive with only one arm and one leg, and Jane has died.

This graphic novel is about Isabel finding her place on her own. Except she’s never fully alone because her twin, now a phantom, stays with her. She tries to stay with the carnival freak show, which has its own problems. And there are many questions about who she can trust.

I will say that the author achieves a happy and satisfying ending, with a message of being yourself and finding people who care.

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Review of The Girl from the Sea, by Molly Knox Ostertag

The Girl from the Sea

by Molly Knox Ostertag
color by Maarta Laiho

Graphix (Scholastic), 2021. 254 pages.
Review written October 16, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

The Girl from the Sea is a sweet graphic novel about fifteen-year-old Morgan’s summer romance. She lives on an island and her parents recently split up and her brother is always angry, so she was off alone by the cliffs one night but slipped and hit her head. But she was rescued by a girl in the water, a very cute girl, and Morgan, thinking it’s all a hallucination, gives the girl a kiss.

The next day, the girl shows up on the shore just wearing an oversize jacket. She announces that her name is Keltie, and tells Morgan:

I am a selkie, and you are my true love, and your kiss has allowed me to transform from a seal into a human and walk on land.

Now we can find our fortunes together!

[Morgan:] Yeah, no, nope, we’re not doing that.

[Keltie:] But our destinies are intertwined! Sealed by a kiss!

[Morgan:] That was a near-death=experience hallucination!

[Keltie:] I assure you, it was not.

Morgan doesn’t have the heart to send Keltie away, but she still doesn’t want anyone else to know about her. Morgan isn’t out as gay to anyone — she thought she’d get off the island some day and then come out — so she wants to keep this romance hidden. Her friends start wondering why she’s not as quick to hang out with them.

And then it turns out that Keltie also has an agenda, something she promised to do for her seal siblings.

It all adds up to a lovely story of a teen whose neat and tidy plans get completely shaken up in a beautiful way.

mollyostertag.com
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Review of A Shot in the Arm, by Don Brown

Big Ideas That Changed the World

A Shot in the Arm

by Don Brown

Amulet Books, 2021. 138 pages.
Starred Review
Review written July 28, 2021, from a library book

This is a graphic format work of nonfiction – like a graphic novel, but full of facts, presented all the more clearly because it’s so visual.

This book presents the history of vaccines, narrated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu of the 17th century, who brought smallpox vaccinations to England.

We first learn about the history of smallpox – it was around even in ancient Egypt. And many cultures found ways of fighting it. In China, as early as 1000 CE, they tried infecting people with a mild form of the disease. (How they did that makes some interesting panels.) In India, they did that as well, and Lady Mary discovered it in the Ottoman Empire when she lived there with her husband.

The book goes on to explain the history of inoculation and vaccination and different diseases that have been tackled.

The book does mention COVID-19, but was written before the vaccine was out. Here’s the last paragraph of the main text:

By November 2020 scientists were reporting positive results for several possible vaccines. If one or more are approved, then within months disease-preventing doses can begin to be administered to people around the world. Billions of dollars are being spent to make this happen. Still, no vaccine has ever been created as quickly or in that quantity.

The world holds its breath . . . and hopes.

There’s nothing in here about the reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine, because that hadn’t happened yet. But there’s nothing new under the sun, and this is in the section about smallpox inoculation:

Here’s an odd twist . . . Some people in the Ottoman Empire known as “fatalists” rejected inoculation because they believed that stopping disease interfered with God’s plans . . .

I think God would prefer a healthy flock.

Even though I knew most of the basics about this, the book was still eye-opening and informative for me. The graphic format makes it quick reading and easy to digest. But what a timely topic!

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

Allergic

by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter

Graphix (Scholastic), 2021. 238 pages.
Review written June 25, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Allergic is a sweet graphic novel about a girl who’s planning to get a dog for her tenth birthday – and breaks out in a rash after she’s given her heart to one. It turns out that she’s allergic to anything with fur or feathers.

This has repercussions. Maggie’s class can’t have a class pet. When her new friend who moved in next door gets a puppy, that means Maggie can’t come over any more.

She tries to cope in ways that turn out to be both bad and good. The idea of trying to secretly keep a mouse in her closet turns out to be not so great. Meanwhile, Maggie’s mom is expecting a baby soon, and Maggie’s feeling a little left out.

The pictures in this graphic novel are adorable, and the reader will love Maggie and her family. Her plight will capture the sympathy of readers, helping them see a perspective maybe different from their own. All while reading and viewing a great story with plenty of conflict in a popular format. This book will fly off the shelves, and deservedly so.

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Review of Before They Were Artists, by Elizabeth Haidle

Before They Were Artists

Famous Illustrators as Kids

by Elizabeth Haidle

Etch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2021. 64 pages.
Review written July 6, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a picture-book-sized nonfiction book for children in graphic novel format telling about the childhoods of six distinguished illustrators.

I would have never thought to put these particular illustrators together in a book, and I love the variety of backgrounds they represent. We’ve got:

Wanda Gág, who wrote Millions of Cats, born in 1893 in New Ulm, Minnesota.
Maurice Sendak, who wrote Where the Wild Things Are, born in 1928 in Brooklyn, New York.
Tove Jansson, who wrote Finn Family Moomintroll, born in 1914 in Helsinki, Finland.
Jerry Pinkney, who wrote The Lion and the Mouse, born in 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Yuyi Morales, who wrote Just a Minute, born in 1968 in Xalapa, Mexico.
Hayao Miyazaki, who wrote Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, born in 1941 in Tokyo, Japan.

Each illustrator gets a title spread with one book featured (the one I listed above), a picture of the illustrator as a child in the landscape of their own books, with a quotation coming from a speech bubble. There’s a time line across the bottom with notable events in their lives, including other books they’ve written. Then they each get six to eight more pages with panels in graphic novel format telling about their childhoods, how they got started in art, and their many accomplishments.

This book is delightful to look at and presents lots of information in an entertaining way. It’s sure to inspire other young artists or at least get them thinking about what their love for art could lead to.

There’s a spread at the front with the title “What makes an illustrator?” It talks about how they had many different backgrounds, but they loved to draw.

In all cases, inspiration from someone else helped pave the way: another artist, animator, cartoonist, or painter whose books, films, or paintings moved hearts and imprinted themselves on minds. These heroes and mentors made a path of possibility to walk down.

May the stories in this book inspire other artists in turn.

hmhbooks.com

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Review of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy

by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Little, Brown and Company, 2019. 256 pages.
Starred Review
Review written June 11, 2019, from a library book

This graphic novel is a modern retelling of the children’s classic Little Women, and it’s wonderfully done. It takes only the first book of the two parts of the original book – up to the point where the girls make some life-changing choices. Let’s just say that the modern versions of the girls choose differently, and I like the update.

This time the March family is a blended family. Meg’s father married Jo’s mother and then they had Beth and Amy together. Instead of the Civil War, their father is off fighting in the Middle East. And the book opens with the girls facing that they won’t be able to expect presents for Christmas and they want to give their mother a surprise. Instead of going out to help the poor, they go work at a soup kitchen on Christmas and a kindly rich neighbor across the street invites them over for Christmas dinner, where they meet Laurie, his grandson who has just moved in.

I’ve read the original novel Little Women many, many times since I was in about sixth grade. I loved the way the scenes in this graphic novel parallel the scenes in the original book.

Jo still loves to read and wants to be an author. Beth loves music – but it’s a guitar that she gains from their neighbor rather than a piano. Amy still loves art – she wants to draw comics. Meg still wants to marry a rich man – but that’s one of the choices that end up getting changed. We do get to enjoy familiar-but-new scenes of Meg feeling out of place at a party with girls who have much more money than their family does.

I don’t want to give away the changes at the end. If they write a second book, matching the second half of Little Women, it won’t be able to parallel the scenes as closely. But I do appreciate the changes for these modern times.

Like the original, this is a story of four sisters navigating life, each dealing with their own burdens, but ultimately facing it together.

LBYR.com

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Review of I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf, by Grant Snider

I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf

by Grant Snider

Abrams ComicArts, 2020. 128 pages.
Review written December 9, 2020, from a library book

This book includes comics for booklovers and writers and poets.

You will enjoy this book if you can relate to the author’s confession at the front:

I’m in love with books.
I read in social situations.
I will use anything as a bookmark.
I confuse fiction with reality.
I am wanted for unpaid library fines.
I steal books from my children.
I like my realism with a little bit of magic.
I like to sniff old books.
I am searching for a miracle cure for writer’s block.
I care about punctuation – a lot.
I will read the classics (someday).
I am writing The Great American Novel.
I carry a notebook with me at all times.
I write because I must.
I hope you don’t mind me asking . . .
can I borrow a few books?

The author uses the items from his confession as section titles, giving the cartoons some themes.

Most of the comics take the form of lists with pictures. For example “Advocacy for Animals Ignored by Children’s Books” includes a box with “Can we get a couple cassowaries?” with a picture of a couple cassowaries. “Perfect Reading Spots” has little pictures that go with each spot such as “Unusual Tree” and “Frustrating Hammock.” I like the “Can You Spot the Difference?” comic with an “Aspiring Writer” on one side and a “Writer” on the other.

Book lovers will find plenty to enjoy in this book.

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