nimona. noelle steveson. (319)

i checked out noelle stevenson's nimona after seeing it listed as a national book finalist in the young adult category.  since i liked lumberjanes, i decided to check it out.  

nimona is the story of nimona, a spunky, girl with the ability to shift shapes that becomes the sidekick of the evil villian, ballister blackheart.  ballister was not really looking for a sidekick, and though she proves to be more than he bargained, he grows to love her.  this book is delightful because nimona is witty, always ready with a great one-liner and always up for adventure, though she usually its up destroying more than helping.  though she would argue that her role as a villain calls for her to destroy.

this comic is great because though it started off as a tale of evil vs good, it proves that is not how the world always works.  as it turns out, ballister, the evil side has a higher morale than the good side, the institution.  the institution that is suppose to protect the people is actually working to destroy them and nimona and blackheart inadvertently help save everyone when they seek to destroy the institution.  

in addition to this there is another storyline woven into the mix, blackheart and his archenemy, goldenloin.  at the beginning, they hate each other, but in the end they became friends, possibly lovers, if you read it that way.

i am glad i picked up this book.  first, it has a great female character, which young girls need!  second, it teaches kids the importance of questioning the current systems, we have in place.  third, it demonstrates that not all good is good and not all evil is evil.  fourth, it proves that the most important thing in life is to have good friends and to care for one another.  fifth, if you read it that way, heroes are not just homosexuals.  

a great comic and i look forward to reading more about nimona (i hope stevenson has more in store for her.)  

supermutant magic academy. jillian tamaki. (299)

supermutant magic academy had been on a handful of instagram and facebook posts and since i loved tamaki's illustrations in one last summer, i decided to check it out.

i had assumed that the supermutanta magic academy was cohesive narrative but once i started reading it, i realized it was a collection of comics.  the comics featured the same characters and they related but there wasn't a direct storyline that connected them all.  though i was expecting a graphic novel, i did enjoy the comics.  my favorite character was frances, i loved her art and her smart-ass remarks.  i also loved wendy and marsha's comics, with marsha's cute crush on wendy.

here were my favorite comics:

love food humor!

love frances!!

this margaret mitchell quote is amazing!

time is never time at all.

there is no wrong way to interpret art,

i fear for kids today.

read books!

ps this is the second book i have read that mentioned ulysses (i didn't share that comment.) i really need to read it!

fun home: a family tragicomic. alison bechdel (298)

so i messed up!  when i went to nyc in may, there was buzz about a new broadway show called fun home.  i didn't research it, but from what i had seen, it seemed like a show about a family, and it didn't seem like something i would be into, so i didn't go.  however, after watching the fun home performance at the tony's, i realized that i made a huge mistake.

i, later, discovered after reading an article about a girl that was trying to get this work plus persepolis banned from her college course (talk about ignorance), that the broadway musical i missed out, was based on a graphic novel/memoir!  double regret.  so i decided to check out the novel, and hopefully catch fun home on my next nyc trip.

so from the tony's performance, i discovered that fun home was about a woman that discovered her father was gay after she came out to her parents.  i have to admit i was very excited when i got to the part of the book that tony's was based on.  it performance stayed trued to the memoir, and really wish i had seen it on broadway.

the story of alison's sexuality was complicated, because after sharing she was a lesbian with her parents, her mother told her the truth about her father.  in addition to this, her father's response was awkward and soon after he died when struck by a car.  alison believed that it may have been a suicide based on what had occurred with her.  i have to add that with no disrespect to alison, i didn't think her father committed suicide.  yes, he was reading that camus work at the time, which made a convincing case.  however, i felt that instead of wanting to commit suicide, he would have sought a new life, as a openly gay man.  kind of like hannah's dad on season 4 of girls.  he had lived so long with his secret, though he did get caught of it a handful of times, and his wife was fully aware that to suddenly end his life didn't make sense.  i feel that if that accident hadn't happened, he would have came out, he did express to alison that now was different for gays and lesbian now, that they were able to experience a freedom, he could not.  i feel he would have been hopeful about being there for his daughter versus wanting to end it all.  he did give her colette, which helped her realized she was a lesbian.  he wanted to help his daughter.  i think the reason why he was so distant initially, was to allow her to understand her sexuality in her own terms versus being forced upon by her dad.  being a gay father, he didn't want people to think that perhaps she made him gay.  again i feel bad for typing this, because alison seemed to think it was a suicide.  but i mean life is horrible and sometimes bad things just happen.

overall, i really enjoyed this memoir.  for those of you curious, the title fun home, came from alison's family for the funeral home that they ran.  speaking of the fun home, i, like the kids, loved the story of their grandmother about their father wandering out of into a field.  i also delighted in their delight of the oven part!  but that being said, i want to revisit this work, after i read the literary works that alison referenced.  i have never read ulysses so that went over my head.  i also need to read the importance of being earnest.  

on the topic of literary works, i absolutely loved alison's dad's love of the fitzgeralds.  just like him, after reading both of their works, i became obsessed with them.  there is something so glamorous about their wild times.  i need to read this side of paradise, but loved that we had both loved nancy milford's zelda biography.  i will also look into reading some colette.

this was an interesting read and i look forward to reading it after i visit the above works, to hopefully get a different take on the memoir.

blankets. craig thompson. (253)

blankets has been on my to read list for a very long time.  however, when i saw it on time's 100 best young adult books, i decided to finally check it out.

i really wish that i had read this when it first came out in 2003.  i identified with craig and would have enjoyed reading this closer to when i went through a similar experience.  blanket is an semi-autobiographical graphic novel about thompson's experience growing up in a religious household and his first love.  what i identified with was craig's questioning of his faith and the church leaders insistence on following christian path.  my questioning of my religion, as i discussed before was due to the church views on homosexuality and how i thought it was unfair that families were separated unless they were sealed in the temple.  for craig it was contradiction in the bible and the realization that though the bible may be the word of god it had been filtered through men.  also reading his pastor advise him against going to art school due to the possibility of exposure to nude models and the risk of becoming a homosexual, reminded me of an conversation i had once with a girl i went to church with.  (i may have shared this before in another post, so i apologize for being redundant.  a girl i went to church camp asked me where i was going to school, and i told her ucla.  she then asked me what i was going to do.  i explained study history.  but she asked again, but you go to byu to get married, how are you going to get married.  i think i just smiled as a response.  though i will say that i am grateful for being raised mormon.  as child growing up, we did not fear god, but saw jesus as a loving savior, and were not made to be scared of hell as i saw with craig.

but college was an eye opening experience for me, like craig.  i wasn't born in a completely rural area like him, but being exposed to the big city of los angeles, allowed me to realize that there was more out in the world.

the story of his first love was sweet and like should happen with all first loves, he grew as a person.  he was able to see the world for as it was and not for what he was told it was.  i think the greatest thing was that he reconnected with his brother after seeing how close raina was with her siblings.  it was nice to see them become friends in the end.  (i should also note know it was really difficult to read about his brother's molestation as a child.  craig should have done something, but easier said then done because he was a child himself, but still sickening to read.)

i also found it disheartening to read about raina's adoptive siblings.  i think it was wonderful that her parents decided to adopt two children with disabilities, however, their reasoning behind it seemed unsound.  they adopted the ben and laura as a thank you to god for blessing them with two children.  a beautiful gesture, but neither one were equipped to take care of them.  and in the end, resulted in their divorce and the responsibility becoming that of raina.  i might sound insensitive, but you should adopt to truly help a child not to prove a point about how blessed you are. 

but a wonderful coming of age story and beautiful illustrations.  i also loved that the library was a tool in helping craig discover the world and who he was.  definitely a top young adult book!

  

this one summer. jillian tamaki and mariko tamaki (229)

in my usual fashion now due to all of the book pages i follow on facebook, i do not remember where i first heard of this one summer. i do know that emma roberts instagramming it is what inspired me to put in my request.

in an ideal world, i would have enjoyed this book on a beach somewhere.  however, my sister bailed on the labor day plans so i read this at home on the couch.  though in all honesty, i am not a beach person and i would felt bad if i got sand on the cover.  (i would like to add that it would have made a good beach read cos i finished it in about hour.  which makes me worried, but i mean it is all dialogue and pictures.  i always feel like i read graphic novels too quickly but i guess that is their nature.)

before i go on, i want to add one last tidbit that this one summer is written by jillian and mariko tamaki, who are cousins! so sweet right!! thought that was cute little fact.

so first off the artwork is amazing in this graphic novel.  the pictures felt so realistic in the scene that often times i stopped because they felt like a photograph.  it's not that the drawing looked real but felt like a memory. 

this one summer is a coming-of-age story, rose learning that life isn't easy and nothing is as seems in one summer.  every year her family goes to awago beach.  it reminded me of my summers as a kid going to los osos with my uncle boon and his family.  though it wasn't the same because i was not exposed to any of the things that rose encounter.

rose's had a summer buddy, windy, that she hangs out with.  windy was younger than rose and hilarious.  she reminded me of jack black and even looked a little like him.  and just like jack black, windy was very entertaining but borderline annoying.  i did love her hip hop dancing and her adolescent obsession with growing boobs.  oh and windy also had the habit of saying kidding, which rose harps on her about, but i realized that i do the same thing.  

rose and windy's summer adventures include swimming of course and my favorite, one afternoon of playing mash!!!!  loved that.  i want to add that i kept on trying to place them in the 90's which is my childhood but justin bieber was listed for mash, which made this story like circa 2011.  oh well.  they also start watching scary movies like texas chainsaw massacre, jaws, and nightmare on elm street and scare the bejesus out of themselves.  

rose also developed a summer crush on the older boy that works the market where the girls rented videos.  windy dubbed him the dud.  the dud had some drama.  his girlfriend got pregnant and like an asshole, dud was in denial that it was.  rose, in love with him, believed that his girlfriend cheated on him and told windy that the girlfriend was a slut.  rose then goes on a rant about girls not being able to take care of themselves.  it was said to read rose being so naive but this is this one summer where she grows up.  windy, thankfully, had the good sense to call rose out on her sexism!  

in addition to dealing with hormones, rose was also dealing with her parents divorce.  her mother seemed to be suffering from depression and she and rose's father are constantly fighting.  rose, being young, does not understand why her mother was acting that way and sided with her father, treating her mother poorly.

in the end, after the dud's girlfriend was saved from drowning, by rose's mother.  it was discovered that her mother was depressed due to a miscarriage that had occurred in the lake.  after this discovery, i hoped that her mother would be honest with her family and hopefully things would get better.

the graphic novel ends with rose heading home, none of the story lines are truly resolved other than she and windy mend their friendship.  we don't know if dud and his girlfriend work things out or not.   however, that is how life is, sometimes things go unresolved and we take what lessons we can from it. we move on and it just becomes a memory or a story like "this one summer . . ."    

here is my favorite art and moments:

windy's boob talk.

the walk home when rose gets in trouble for using the word slut.  (note the slut steps.)

when the girls play mash.  i find it funny how we girls pass these games along.

their counting for mash!!!

windy's grandma was hilarious.  and they were virgin drinks!

after a fight with her mom, rose ran out this man told her she should go in due to the lighting.  she was rude to him.  this was his response but great advice for any girl.

relish. lucy knisley. (210)

i firrst heard of relish on flavorpill.  i was actually going to buy it, a graphic novel about food, of course i would love it.  however, it sat on my amazon wish list for a while, actually where it still is. i am not sure what prompted me to finally check it out, i think it was a post about foodie books.

anyway, so relish is actually not a graphic novel but a graphic memoir.  and its an adorable little book that features stories from lucy knisley's life and recipes to go along with it.  and of course the illustrations are adorable as well.

knisley came from a family of foodies, her mother was a caterer and was all about farm fresh before farm fresh became a thing, and her father just liked good food.  also her godfather was a food critic and her uncle joined a food store in nyc.  all her life knisley was surrounded by good food.  

the graphic memoir is a handful of stories and as i mentioned recipes that go along with the story.  well except for one, knisley shared how in venice she had these delicious croissants that were filled with apricot jam.  she tried her best to recreate them but couldn't do it.  instead of having a croissant recipe there was one for sangria!  

the memoir is short so i won't go into too much detail on the stories.  though i will add that i really enjoyed the story about her coming of age in mexico and seeing all the fun things she ate in japan!  

and though i don't cook, i was excited about the recipes.  maybe i will make something one day, the lamb sounded delish,  maybe i can get my sister to make it.  i will add that i did learn that you shouldn't wash your mushrooms!  you should brush them clean or if you do, make sure to let them dry before they are sauteed.  i love mushrooms so will start doing that.

all in all a delightful little book, i mean it ended with a bradbury quote from dandelion wine!!

i also decided to include some illustrations, since it is a graphic memoir.

this will be my to-eat list when i am in chicago (i really need to plan a trip there, maybe next year?)

a recipe for carbonara, i should really try to make it!

and i just loved this little quote:

so if you love food, you should check this out.  and if you make anything from it, invite me over!

a wrinkle in time: the graphic novel. madeline l'engle and hope larson.

when i posted my old copy of a wrinkle in time on instagram, my friend joann informed me that a graphic novel version existed.  and of course, i had my mom and brother get it for me for christmas.  it sat on my bookshelf but after reading, when you reach me, which referenced it, i decided to give this a read in honor of children's book week.

a wrinkle in time is brillant and if you are trying to adapt it and make it into a graphic novel, your illustrations should be just as brillant.  i'm sorry hope larson, but i was very disappointed with the illustrations of the novel.  the illustrations were boring and unimaginative.  larson could have let her imagination run wild but sadly she didn't.  nothing was more incredible then what i imagined in my head as a fifth grader when i first read it.  the illustrations were really bad.  at one point, mr. murray didn't even look like a person but some weird octopus head, but not like cool pirates of the caribbean octopus head.  i wanted to see some crazy sci-fi illustrations but nothing.  it was really disappointing. 

also the book lacked meg's heart.  meg was really two-dimensional, literary and figuratively.  she just seemed awkwardly angry all the time.  i mean i know she was but there was more explanation in the novel that made you understand why she was the way she was.

i hate to be such a downer, but i wouldn't recommend this book, especially to someone that has never read it.  it frightens me that this book is out there because i see how kids love graphic novels nowadays (they are always the go-to book when the class i am subbing for goes to the library).  and it saddens me to think that these images will be what the kid sees as they read instead of what their imagination would conger on it's own.  the greatness of a wrinkle in time is that the reader is travels to other dimensions and planets, which allows their imagination a fun adventure, sadly this novel does away with that fun and takes away from the greatness of the novel.  i hate to be so harsh but with illustrations that boring, a child needs to read it the novel and create their own planet and dimensions!

the baby-sitters club. ann m. martin (174-176)

when packing up to move to my mom's apartment, i came across my claudia doll.  she was my favorite baby-sitter so my grandma bea bought her for me.

seriously she was the coolest! also i would totally wear that outfit nowadays!  (granted the 90's are back in style.

finding claudia inspired me to reread the first of the baby-sitters club series, kristy's great idea.  i had heard that the books underwent an update (ie they got cellphones) so i decided to pick up a newer version of it too.  i also decided to read the new graphic novel version.  one day while subbing, one of the students checked out claudia and the mean janine, and i made a mental note to try to check it out.  since they are short novels, i decided to read all three in one day so i could compare and contrast.

the original

what can i say, i fell in love all over again!! i want to reread the entire series now!  it really is great for tweens because it covers so many issues that tweens encounter:  overprotective parents, diabetes, having a smarter sibling, dealing with divorced parents (and having them date of remarrying), having friends that mature faster, having to deal with boy-crazy friends, having a parent pass away at a young age, having an absent father (and this is all in the first book!).  i also appreciated how the ending, demonstrated the importance of apologizing and that a good friend knows when to admit they are wrong. 

girls can also identify with at least one of the sitters: the outspoken, althetic girls can relate to kristy; the pony-tailed shy ones with mary ann, the artsy bad-spelling non-mathematicians with claudia, and the diabetic boy-crazy ex-new yorkers with stacey.  i loved (and still do) claudia as mentioned before, and i rereading infell in love with her fashion!  i really want to recreate her outfits!  i think i might dress up in her checkered yellow and black top with black pants, red jazz shoes, a bracelet made from a phone chord and skeleton earrings outfit!!! (so cute right!)

also the whole idea of a baby-sitters club is pretty brilliant.  one call and how many sitters! that sitter notebook was pretty clever as an actual tool for the baby-sitters and as a device for martin to introduce their baby-sitting adventures. 

if you loved the baby-sitter's club as a kid, you should really reread them.  for me, it was a fun little trip back in time.  

(oh i have to add, oddly enough when i read the book, i totally imagined it as the tv show, even kristy's narration was heard in that actress' voice.)

the updated version

okay so the this book wasn't updated, though it had a new cover.  i was super disappointed.  maybe the cellphones come later? i was glad that they kept the sitter's (read: claudia's) fashion the same.  the only thing i noticed was that the flyer was updated:

original-

updated-

it is safer that they don't have their numbers on flyers.  too many scary, creepy pedophiles in the world to list numbers.  i am happy for this safety update.

and quick digression about the logo.  i am glad they changed the logo, cause lets be honest, did claudia really have enough time to make that letter block logo during lunch?!?!  to be completely honest (and realistic) the graphic novel had the best logo in terms of believability:

(love that the girls got crafty with the pull offs!)

and before i move onto the graphic novel, one last thing, i thought they would have changed kristy giving watson that kiss on fondue night.  that was just awkward and creepy.  i knew my mom's boyfriend (later husband) for most of my life and never ever kissed his cheek.

the graphic novel

the graphic novel was done by raina telgemeier and her illustrations were great!!!

my favorite had to be this one of claudia baby-sitting jamie and his cousins:

quick note in the og, jaime's cousin, rob, pretends to shoot claudia dead with a gun.  since the graphic novel is post columbine, rob ninja chops her instead.  (and i forgot to mention in the original section that i loved that claudia read them where the wild things are.)

i will say that the graphic novel did disappoint me in three ways.  one, it did not capture all of claudia's great outfits for example the earrings were dangling skeletons not skulls and her red hat from the day of the flyer was not depicted.  second, i wish that kristy had on a snowman sweater that claudia made fun off, oh and that claudia said sheep were in when kristy made fun of her hairclips.  and third, in my head, watson was not so dorky, but a handsome divorcé.  

however, still a great work and a great way to attract a younger generation to a great series.  also a great way for an older generation to relieve their youth.

i had a great sunday reading these books and will definitely start reading a baby-sitters club book once a month! 

flora & ulysses. kate dicamillo. k.g. campbell. (170)

i follow the new york public library (@nypl) on instagram and they posted the winner of the newbery medal award for 2014:

so of course, i immediately went and requested the flora & ulysses! i was also shocked to discover that delano actually had it and i didn't have to wait for it to come.

i was very excited about the book on cover and page flipping.  first, it is about a girl and a squirrel! adorable!  second, it is written by kate dicamillo who also wrote newbery medal winner the tale of despereaux, which i haven't read but have a copy to read.  and third, it is part graphic novel!  i thought this was clever because kids the graphic novel part would attract kids but majority of the book is real text.

my excitement was soon met with disappointment.  though an interesting premise, i didn't completely enjoy the story myself so it did not seem newbery medal worthy, but i can see why it would appeal to kids.

flora & ulysses is the story of a girl flora and ulysses, a squirrel has super powers after he is sucked up by a vacuum, ulysses 2000x (yes, he is named after the vacuum.) his superpowers are super strength, ability to understand humans and communicate with humans via typing, flying, and writing poetry.  i really loved the idea of him writing poetry.  he is revived after his accident by flora, a self described cynic.  she is an avid reader of a comic book and that is how she discovered ulysses is a superhero.  the books is their adventure as they discover what ulysses can do.  oh and i should add that ulysses, arch-nemesis is flora's mother.  she wanted ulysses dead for fear that he had rabies.

the characters in the story are great.  i loved that flora was a cynic and gained so much knowledge from a column in the back of the comic book called terrible things can happen to you.  it would make a great companion book to this novel.  she was a very clever child.  ulysses is a poetry-writing squirrel, need i say more? just read his poem:

words for flora

nothing

would be easier without 

you,

because you 

are 

everything,

all of it--

sprinkles, quarks, giant donuts, eggs sunny-side up--

you

are the ever-expanding

universe 

to me.

(seriously the sweetest poem! i would actually take a book of his poetry as a companion to this novel as well.)

my favorite character had to be dr. meerscham, flora's father's neighbor, she was eccentric but filled with truth.  i loved the mystic way she shared stories, for example,

all things are possible. when i was a girl in blundermeecen, the miraculous happened every day. or every other day. or every third day. actually, sometimes it did not happen at all, even on the third day. but still, we expected it. you see what i'm saying? even when it didn't happen, we were expecting it. we knew the miraculous would come.

i loved that she had a painting of a giant squid attacking a boat to remind her that "loneliness makes us do terrible things".  but the best that came from her and what i will steal from her to used is what she used instead of good-bye growing up in blundermeecen, "i promise to always turn back towards you."  so sweet.

i know that my praise of characters seems to contradiction my lack of praise for the book, but even with these wonderful characters the book lacked an interesting storyline and plot.  i became bored with the book, the incident at the restaurant was ho-hum and i think that was meant to be the first amazing adventure.  even the climax when flora's mother squirrel-napping ulysses wasn't all that nail bitting or exciting.  dicamillo had a great cast but just did not know how to direct them.  the episodes of each chapter were good but didn't make for a great book.  

i have to add this book was great in terms of vocabulary.  there were words that i had to look up!  if a kid takes the time to look up words they come across in this book, it could build their vocabulary.

it was a good read but not a great one, but still check it out.  it did win the newbery medal, so maybe i am the one that is off versus vice versa.

i