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librarycomic · 23 hours
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Spirited: Day of the Living Liv by Liv Livingston, illustrated by Anna Volcan at Glass House Graphics. Little Simon, 2024. 9781665942287. 144pp. https://www.powells.com/book/-9781665942287?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Liv is the only living person at her new school, Gloomsdale Elementary, where all the other students are ghosts. Finding a seat in the cafeteria is awkward when everyone is invisible, her new Principal thinks he's royalty, and there's a rude group of ghosts that are mean. But a few non-ghostly students seem like they're going to be friends, and (minor spoiler) Liv's art eventually helps her connect with others.
This is a simple, amusing take on the "new student" stories that younger elementary school-age kids will enjoy, and it's the start of a series. Worth noting: both cat and dog lovers will find something to love in this graphic novel.
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librarycomic · 2 days
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librarycomic · 3 days
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Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable. First Second, 2023. 9781250195036. 364pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781250195036?partnerid=34778&p_bt
A teacher writes the word "eerie" on the chalkboard in front of her class and then asks the young students to tell the class the eeriest story they have. Their stories are strange. Alvin tells the first, "The Village That Vanished…", about two men who follow a map to a field filled with sheep where they meet a strange dude who tells them what happened to the town of Wattersbug. It's not horribly graphic, but it's also not a story I'd expect a kid to tell, though his teacher seems excited. Alice's story, "The Face In The Forest…" features a girl named Luanne who's expected to do everything for her aunt and uncle, though they don't seem happy that she's so helpful. When she goes into the forest in search of wood she meets a sympathetic head. Will it help her, or does it mean her no good? It's hard to say at first though the head seems very friendly, and it says it wants her help.
More stories follow. They involve drones, ghosts, spaceships, aliens, grandparents, and demons. When you're reading the book, don't jump ahead -- it has a fun ending, but you have to read every page to really enjoy it.
This is my favorite spooky kids' graphic novel in a while. I know a few kids who would have enjoyed it in grade school, but it's probably got more appeal for older students and adults, it would make a great read-aloud.
bookreview #graphicnovel #graphicnovelreview #yagraphicnovel #school #horror
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librarycomic · 4 days
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See you at the Public Library Association next week, I hope! Willow will be at booth 1118 with me -- it's her first library conference -- so please come by and say hello if you're there. We'll have the full array of T-shirts and merch, including a new shirt.
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librarycomic · 8 days
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Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures by Jason Pamment. Harper Alley, 2023. 9780063065208. 288pp. https://www.powells.com/book/-9780063065208?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Ember is a tiny boy who lives in a huge city and dreams of going to school with the "giant" kids at Seawinds Elementary. One day he slips and falls into the schoolyard and, after an Indian Jones-esque escape, ends up on a beach where he meets Lua, a sea turtle. She tells him about an island she found when she was a little turtle, a magical place full of lost creatures where she went to school and learned about the world. And she offers to take him there.
And the island is super cool, but telling you more about it and what happens there would spoil this graphic novel for you. This book is just as beautifully drawn as Pamment's Treasure in the Lake, and it's full of strange, magical, and mostly friendly animals and plants. My favorite character is Ember's first friend on the island, a rock that helps him get to school on his first day. (Doug the dung beetle is a close second.)
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librarycomic · 9 days
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librarycomic · 10 days
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The Night Eaters Book 1: She Eats The Night by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. Abrams Comicarts, 2022. 9781419758706. 204pp. https://www.powells.com/book/-9781419758706?partnerid=34778&p_bt
This family story starts in Hong Kong in 1956, when Ipo arrives looking for work, and continues in Queen's Village, New York, now, where she is a hard, chain-smoking mother of two who lives across the street from a spooky house. Her husband seems like the most patient, loving guy ever, and the couple's love story is charmingly strange. Their kids, Milly and Billy, are working to keep their restaurant afloat. Ipo is trying to get them to take care of a few plants, and eventually she makes them accompany her across the street as part of what seems to be a neighborly gardening project. It quickly becomes clear there's something supernatural happening at the house, though. And then Milly and Billy are forced to face it.
In some ways this reads like a beautifully illustrated, narrator-less, Hellblazer-esque Finding Your Roots episode. By the end you'll know more about Ipo and her family, and it's clearly the beginning of a series of books rather than a standalone graphic novel. (Volume 2 has already been published, and it's just as great.)
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librarycomic · 11 days
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librarycomic · 15 days
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The Unpetables by Dennis Messner. Top Shelf, 2023. 9781603095235. 88pp. https://www.powells.com/book/-9781603095235?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Pigmund Isadore Pigmund grew up in Uncle Milo's All-Natural Petting Zoo, where he wrote his life story on paper plates. His best friend Lizárdo Van Buren Van Halen (an iguana) was also born there. After getting really sick of all the petting, they escape using a train and some chickens. Kenny, Maintenance Man Kenny from the zoo pursues them. He continues to try to hunt them down as they seek their destiny as freelance pets.
I particularly loved the section of encounters with potential customers looking for pets -- they're all nightmares until suddenly Pigmund and Lizardo meet Chad. And that situation becomes its own weird nightmare, complete with a house containing comics, collectibles, and an insane hamster named Mr. Buttercups.
It's all super silly, and Messner's black and white drawings reminded me of some of my favorite comics from the 1980s - early 2000s.
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librarycomic · 16 days
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librarycomic · 17 days
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Nothing Special Volume One: Through the Elder Woods by Katie Cook. Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 9781984862839. 416pp. including a look inside Radish's notebook at the end. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781984862839?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Callie's dad is a daemon, and he runs an antique store. He never talks about her mother, and he seems overly protective of Callie.
She goes to a high school in the human world, and it's there she runs into Declan, who can also see sprites. (These are little spirits, mostly of plants, that follow Callie everywhere.) It's a nice meet-cute even though they've been in class together since Kindergarten. She helps him learn to communicate with the large sprite outside his house that's freaking him out. He's there when she finds her house trashed and her father missing. Then they set out together to find him, through the door to her father's shop which opens into a magical market.
The magical forest where they go next is a bit intimidating, but in Cook's hands it's delightful, a bright place full of humor, cuteness, and pop culture references. Soon Radish joins the quest -- he's the bossiest sprite around, and more than a little protective of Callie (though that may just be jealousy). And soon Decklan has a rival for Callie's affections, too, though it's clear Declan has nothing to worry about. They figure out why Declan can see sprites and discover who Callie's mom is, too, in the process of rescuing her dad (who really needs help).
Great book. Put it in your YA section where middle school kids can find it, too.
If you're trying to decide if this is right for your library, youo can still read Nothing Special in its original format on Webtoons at https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/nothing-special/chapter-1/viewer?title_no=1188&episode_no=1
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librarycomic · 18 days
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librarycomic · 21 days
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Here's another bonus comic based on reader stories, one of those we created to promote the upcoming Texas Library Association's annual conference (which is in San Antonio this year). Hope to see you there! (And at PLA a few weeks before that.)
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librarycomic · 22 days
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My Very Own Special Particular Private And Personal Cat by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, designed and illustrated by Remy Charlip. Enchanted Lion, 2023. (Originally published in 1963.) 9781592703852. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781592703852?partnerid=34778&p_bt
I love everything about this book: the poetry, the illustrations, the orange-yellow paper, and especially the layout, which helps the words and illustrations work together. A child talks about playing with his cat, and the cat is clearly not having a good time and finally runs off. The story really gets going in the second half, when it shifts into the cat's point of view.
Also: I loved the reproduction of Remy Charlip's signature on the "This book belongs to __" page.
Gravity Is Bringing Me Down by Wendelin Van Draanen, illustrated by Cornelia Li. Alfred A. Knopf, 2024. 9780593375921. https://www.powells.com/book/-9780593375921?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Gravity is in a bad mood, and it's making Leda's school day pretty rough. (Don't worry, she makes up with gravity later in the book.) The story is great, and a fun way to introduce kids to science, but Li's illustrations make the book amazing; the way she draws the sun is my favorite thing in the book.
Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illustrated by Yas Imamura. Candlewick, 2022. Includes an author's note at the end. 9781536204308. https://www.powells.com/book/-9781536204308?partnerid=34778&p_bt
The story of George and Tama Tokuda, the author's maternal grandparents, who fell in love in the Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho. (Tama worked in the library during their incarceration; George came in all the time and checked out more books than anyone could possibly read.) This is the best picture book on the internment of Japanese Americans I've read, and the most beautifully
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librarycomic · 23 days
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librarycomic · 24 days
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We Are Raccoons by Jim Munroe. 9798211698024. 241pp.
I loved this book. I took a chance and bought a physical copy in 2022 when I found out that each of them had a different cover generated by Midjourney AI, using a different quote from the novel. It took me a while to get around to reading it (my to-read pile is deep, my eyes slow), but I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a while.
It's the story of six game designers who, while working on a common NPC they can each use for their games, create an AI. It starts in 2019 and stretches into 2031. It's written in short sections organized into chapters involving one or more characters, including AIs. The non-explaininess worked for me, along with the brief views into each of the characters' lives over time, as they find their place in what has become of the world and figure out the part they played in creating it.
More details would ruin it, but I urge you got give it a shot. Cory Doctorow and Charlie Jane Anders blurbed it. There are no more physical copies available, but a PDF is free, and you can pay what you like for an Epub or Mobi file if your eyes need help like mine do. (Worth noting: I'd have enjoyed this book as a teen, too.)
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librarycomic · 25 days
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#librarylife
Hope to see you at #pla24 #pla2024 in Columbus in a few weeks, and then at #txla24 in San Antonio in mid-April.
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