The Leak is a graphic novel that centers around a tween girl and four issues that are central to her life. There are boys (actually one in particular), her family, her hobby-which is writing and creating her newsletter, and midnight black sludge that she finds near the lake that she goes fishing at. It’s written by Kate Reed Petty with illustrations by Andrea Bell. The graphic novel is interesting because it has a laser tight appeal to a certain age range due to several characteristics.
Displacement is a powerful graphic novel about the history of the United States when Japanese-Americans were forcibly place in internment camps. As a story, this period of time has many earnest and worthwhile stories that can be told. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Elsinger, Steven Scott and illustrations by Harmony Becker tells the same story, but from a different perspective. The perspective in Displacement is unique in the fact that the main reason for the story to be is due to the lead character, Kiku and her ability to jump through time.
True story: when I was a child I had a pet crow. Its name was Big Bird. I was about nine or ten and my parents wouldn’t let me have a cat or a dog, so they got me a crow. I don’t know where they got a crow from, it’s not like there’s a crow store down the street. But for a very short period of time, it was my pet. Crows do not make good pets. Before Science Comics Crows: Genius Birds came out I would’ve bet that one couldn’t make an entertaining, much less educational book about crows. To that, author/illustrator Kyla Vanderklugt says hold my magpie and has delivered a corvid graphic novel that’s really something to crow about.
Waves are a common thing amongst the tides, life and publishing. There will never be another middle grade book series as this. The best all age comic book that we’ve seen in ages has just ended its run. There are no new great all age graphic novels. We have points to counter all of those, but let’s tackle that last one first. A great all age graphic novel is one that’s fabulously entertaining for elementary aged readers without babying down the content. This way it can also be enjoyed by those in middle school, high school and those adults that read to children. For all of those in that sentence check out Investigators by John Patrick Green. This is legitimately laugh out loud funny for adult readers, but is probably intended for readers as young as six.
Why is the title character wearing antlers? That was the first thing that I thought when I saw the cover to Snapdragon. The summary about a young girl out to see if the witch that lives in town is eating pets is correct. Snap’s dog has gone missing and while she might be scared to confront the witch, she also needs to find her dog. By the 10th page Snap has solved that problem and is onto dispelling urban myths, discovering a bit her family, making friends and having a grand adventure.
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Happy new comic book day! Technically new comic book day is every Wednesday, but we can celebrate a little early, can’t we? This week has some great all age comic books. In the podcast we’ll talk about My Little Pony, Disney The Little Mermaid, Usagi Yojimbo and a couple other great all age comics. When I first saw InvestiGators I said “this is the next Dog Man”. Our 10 year-old was within hearing distance and said, “the new Dog Man is here”? I followed up by saying that InvestiGators by John Patrick Green is the next Dog Man in that it has the manic sense of fun, plus the bright colors that elementary through middle school readers love. Once you read InvestiGators you’ll immediately want to read more. It’s funny and is just the sort of thing that ages 7 and up want to read.
Graphic novels are meant to be entertaining and are incapable of being educational. Granted readers might gleam something from the art and the book’s cultural relevance, but on the whole, it’s for fun. It’s OK if you have thought that. Education and entertainment sometimes don’t mix. That’s why the best teachers, the ones that you still remember from middle school managed to entertain you while they were teaching you. They lower your defenses and then –BAM, start the soft messaging of teaching you something. Science Comics: Cats is like that and for middle school readers and up who want to learn about animals that will leave you feline fine keep on reading.
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