graphic novels

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Best Gifts for Readers – Young Adult Books

December 21, 2009 in childrens, gifts, graphic novels, recommended reading, young adult by Kim | 5 comments

Here is the list my daughter has been clapping her hands in anticipation for:  a YA list from Jessica, the pied piper of young literature from Latitude 33 in Laguna Beach, CA.  Last summer, Kelsey and I visited Latitude 33 and Jessica spent a long time talking books with Kelsey – they were reading soul mates.  Luckily for the rest of us, she just started her own blog about children’s and young adult books, Read Schmead:  Tales from the Book.  We asked Jessica for some favorite YA books that any reader would love to receive as a gift and here are her thoughts:

A Non-Definitive List of Great Books for Young Adults

This list, like all lists, is incomplete.  Also, it is definitely not definitive.  My fiancee, Nōn, and myself have compiled this list because we love young adult books.  Enjoy.

 Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke – Igraine the Brave, from the author of the Inkheart trilogy, is absolutely delightful.  Igraine wants nothing more than to be a Knight, but little excitement comes to her Pimpernel’s castle, until one day when all craziness breaks loose and Igraine—with some help—must fight against the evil sorcerer.  I listened to the audiobook version and found Xanthe Elbrick’s voices perfect for all of the characters.

 The Maze Runner by James Dashner – Suspense, action, creepy crawlers, The Maze Runner has it all.  Thomas awakes in an elevator shaft in a place called the Glade unable to remember anything of his life, only his name.  He soon discovers that he and the other boys living in the Glade must stay there until they figure out the ever-changing maze, but it’s not that easy because after dark the Grievers come out.  I was utterly captivated by the world Dashner creates and I can’t wait for the next book (this is the first in a trilogy)!  For the first time in a while I found myself unable to put the book down and actually used my cell phone to light the page when I was reading late at night.  [Kim - check out  the book trailer on Jessica's blog.]

 Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Easily the best young adult book in the last few years!  This book is the first in a series about Katniss, a sixteen-year-old girl, living in what used to be America and is now called Panem.  She is forced to participate in the “Hunger Games;” a government orchestrated game in which a boy and a girl from each district is forced to fight until there is only one survivor.  I definitely recommend this book to everyone over the age of twelve, adults included!  If you have not read Hunger Games yet then it is a must buy for the holidays! 

 If I Stay by Gayle Forman – A touching novel, If I Stay left me weepy, but I never felt manipulated. Seventeen-year-old Mia is involved in a terrible car accident leaving her in critical condition and her mother, father Read the rest of this entry »

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Recommended Reading for Halloween

October 26, 2009 in graphic novels, recommended reading, short story by Claire | 4 comments

Head for the bookstore on a dark and scary night 

See? It's scary.

See? It's scary.

Halloween is just magical.   Being able to go up to virtually any house in your neighborhood, ring the doorbell, and get free candy–could there be a better holiday for little kids?  Plus you get to dress up like the protagonist from your favorite novel.  (That was supposed to be a joke but then I remembered the ten million Harry Potters I’ve seen over the last few Halloweens and I realize it’s not a joke anymore–kids do dress up like book characters these days, thanks to J.K. Rowling.)

But let’s not forget the other side of Halloween: the dark and scary side.   We can all use a little thrill now and then–the ghost story that makes the s’mores taste sweeter, the haunted house journey that makes your adrenaline pump, the slasher movie that gives you an excuse to cuddle up close to your date . . .  

And, most importantly, the graphic novel that makes you clasp the covers closer to you and huddle in your comfy bed, hoping the monsters in your closet stay where they belong all night long.

You probably already know from reading this blog that I’m a huge fan of graphic novels in general.  I think there are some absolutely amazing ones out there, some of them beautifully realistic and moving, others gorgeous and fantastical.   But of course graphic novels are particularly brilliant at capturing the grotesque and the frightening–a picture may be worth a thousand words but when you combine the right creepy pictures with the right unsettling words, you have something that slips into your brain and discomfits you in ways no other art form can match. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Top Ten Books to Read with Your Teenaged Son

October 4, 2009 in autism, childrens, graphic novels, humor, short story, young adult by Claire | 1 comment

I’m no expert, just a mom whose son likes to read as much as she does.

My 15-year-old son just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and its sequel Catching Fire (reviewed in these pages by Kim’s daughter Kelsey) and immediately said to me, “You have to read them, too.” 

We have a long history of reading books together.  Of course, it started when he was a baby and I read picture books to him, but long after I’d stopped reading out loud to him (and anyone who knows me knows I stopped doing that as soon as my kids could read to themselves), he and I would trade books or take turns with them.

I used to sneak into his room after he had fallen asleep to nab the new Harry Potter off of his night table so I could cram in a few chapters before my own bedtime.  (Now he stays up later than I do, so that kind of sharing doesn’t work so well anymore and I have to wait my turn.  Or he has to wait his.) 

We both love fantasy, so I made him read some of my favorites.  I gave him the best of the best, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card when he was too young to appreciate it, forgetting that reading comprehension is a different skill from moral nuance comprehension.  But a few years later, he agreed to try it again–and loved it as much as I did.  Victory. 

More recently, I started passing on to him all the graphic novels I loved and he’s now as eager as I am to read the best of that genre.   I’m thrilled to have someone to talk with ad nauseum about Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Alex Robinson and a ton of others.

Book sharing took on a more official tone when Kim and I started a parent/son book club with a couple of other families.  Once a month we’d meet for dinner, wine (the kids got sparkling cider) and a discussion of a book that had been agreed upon at the previous meeting.  Many of our choices were suggested by our elementary school librarian Yapha Mason who has a book blog of her own and an inexhaustible knowledge of what kids at every age like to read.

Some books were huge hits with both parents and kids, but others were less successful.  One important lesson we learned was that kids mature fairly quickly and a bunch of 12 year olds will happily read a middle reader book but a bunch of 14-year-olds won’t.   We had to “grow” our choices along with our kids.   So here are my top suggestions for books to read with your teenaged son, ones that you’ll both enjoy.

This first group is good for 12 to 14 year olds.

1.  ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card.   You saw that coming, didn’t you?  It’s exciting, riveting, action-packed–but the moral implications are explored for every choice the characters make and there are no easy answers.

2.  Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby.  A very moving book about whether or not a chimp can be a domesticated pet and how inhumane humans can be to animals and to each other.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Translated Tuesday–Epileptic, by David B.

July 21, 2009 in autism, book review, graphic novels, translation by Claire | No comments

I didn’t buy the graphic novel Epileptic (Pantheon Press) because it was translated from the original French and I thought, “That will come in useful for a Translated Tuesday post.”  In fact, I didn’t even realize it was translated from another language until I started to notice that all the characters’ names were French and so were the locations. 

I bought it because I love graphic novels, this one had appeared on some “best graphic novel” lists, and the subject–a sibling with incurable epilepsy–spoke to me.   My nephew had epilepsy (happily, he outgrew it, which does happen with certain childhood types) and I remember how terrifying it was to see him suddenly collapse for no reason.  The drugs which controlled it made him a little sleepier, a little out of it.   That’s one of the problems with neurological disorders: almost any medication that helps also brings with it unwanted side effects.  The brain is a delicate and tricky thing.

Even more meaningful to me than my little familial history of epilepsy was that Epileptic is the story of a family struggling with a son’s neurological disorder that can never be cured.  My own son has autism.  I’ve written about it in two books.  He’s doing great and we are, without a doubt, among the lucky ones when it comes to that particular battle.  But it’s there, it’s always been there, and I had a feeling that David B.’s book would have a particular resonance for me because of it.

And it did.  The book tells the story–not always in chronological order–of the author’s childhood and young adulthood, from 1964 when he’s five until the 90’s when he’s working on this novel (and occasionally getting his parents’ not-always-positive feedback on it).  At first his family is a pretty normal French family, three kids–two boys and a girl-leading what seems to be a relatively content middle-class existence. 

Then his older brother has his first epileptic seizure. 

And from then on, his family is on a painful, psychological, medical, geographic and emotional journey that never leads them any closer to a cure. Read the rest of this entry »

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Who’s Watching the Watchers Watching Watchmen?

March 24, 2009 in classics, film, graphic novels by Claire | 2 comments

When books become movies

I finally saw “Watchmen.”  The original plan was for me to run out and see the very first matinee on the very first day it opened–and by “plan,” of course I mean “fantasy.”  I didn’t even come close.  It had been out for a couple of weeks by the time Rob and I actually made it to the cinema. 

I was dying to see “Watchmen” because I read the book this year and was blown away by it.  I wanted to roll around inside that book forever–it was that kind of feeling.  I like reading graphic novels in general, but Watchmen is to its genre what “The Simpsons” is to prime time cartoons: it inverts and subverts convention and defies expectations and yet somehow stays true to its identity.   If you haven’t read Watchmen, I can’t explain it to you–just go read it.  (And, by the way, according to one of my husband’s colleagues, I haven’t actually read Watchmen, because I’ve only read it once.  For legions of fans, you only really get to say you’ve read the book if you’ve gone through it at least half a dozen times.  And it is true that I probably missed tons the first time around–I look forward to rereading it one day.)

So I went off to the movie with a fair amount of anticipation.   Almost three hours later, I walked out with a fair amount of a shrugging sort of  ”well, that was kind of fun.”  Was it faithful to the original?  It was.  Did it transcend the original?  No.  Was it as good as the book?  Not really.  Was the adaptation flawed?  I’m not sure.   Would I have liked it if I hadn’t read the book?  I doubt it. Read the rest of this entry »

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