Here's What Happened...

one summer at work we had this Summer of Wonder.  And it featured the book Wonder.  Now I have loved this book ever since I read the ARC.  Fell in love with it right away.  LOVED it.  But then the Summer of Wonder just killed it for me.  It was just...I don't know...the way we did it...ah...it is complicated.  But this doesn't take a way from what a great book it really is.  So when I saw White Bird, well I was still thinking of the Summer of Wonder and I really didn't want to read it.  No interest at all.  But man, man, man I am so glad I did.  I listened to it and I know it is a graphic novel and so I will read it, but man the audio was just powerful.  Especially Palacio's author's comments at the end.  IMPORTANT.  Please, please, please let us never forget.  It is happening again.  It is.  Please.  Speak up.  Please.  Love and love and love again.  And do not be afraid.  Do not let others prey on fear and turn us into people who devalue and dehumanize others.  We are all diversely created children of God.  Please, please do not be frightened into hardening your hearts.  Please do not be frightened into thinking that rights for all mean less rights for some.  That is how it begins.

Still Want to Read to More!

Dog Man:  A Tale of Two Kitties is the third in the Dog Man series and still makes me want to read the next!  In this one Evil Cat shows his tender side.  Awwww! 

It's a Dog! It's a Cop! It's a Great Series!

I always like it when I actually like (love in this case) a book or series that the kids like.  Being a children's and teen librarian, I feel excited when I can honestly tell a kid that I, too, like Dog Man!  I am always embarrassed when I say that Harry Potter was decent for me, but I am not Harry Fangirl.  Dog Man Unleashed is the second in the Dog Man series and I really find these to be really funny!  I am looking forward to reading more!

Not Afraid Anymore!

This was a great song! 
And it is my theme song for Captain Underpants and Dog Man.  I just finished the first Dog Man and yes, it has gross moments, but I LOVED it!
There, I said it!
I did!  I loved it!

Book By Its Cover

So many graphic novels have fabulous covers.  I mean, art is their thing, right?  So when I was at a middle school READATHON and I wanted to read a book instead of listen and this was sitting on the shelf in the middle school library, I grabbed this baby up!  All's Faire in Middle School has a great cover.  And Roller Girl was a great book so I was excited to get a chance to read this.  

This one didn't do it for me like RG did, though and that was through no fault of the book.  It was the whole Renaissance Fair aspect.  Renaissance Fairs are REALLY not my thing.  I think it might be because of the commercials that were played ENDLESSLY with some singer singing, "The Renaissance Festival is back in time!" And then there was the festival itself which I went to at a particularly hard time in my life with some people who were REALLY into it and even made their own costumes.  Good for them, man!  I mean if a Ren-Fest, as the kids call them, is something you enjoy, then great!  But it was NOT something I enjoyed.  At all.  So I probably should have paid more attention to  the fact that AFIMS was going to be all about a Ren-Fest.  So it wasn't a favorite of mine!  But I did appreciate the  clever way the "now" was woven in the "ren" part and I did appreciate the art, for sure.  It is really well drawn!  And middle school...well, while it might have been "faire" it really isn't fair at all.  So there is a lot of good in this book and I can and have and will continue now to recommend it, as long as someone doesn't mind the Ren Fest Factor!

Swinging Seventies!

It was hard to believe that Sunny is actually a little older than I am!  What?!  Is anyone ask old as I?  Swing It, Sunny is the second in what I didn't even know was as series about Sunny Lewin by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm.  I read the first one, Sunny Side Up, during the year that I didn't write about my books, but I really enjoyed it.  My sweet friend, Rebecky loved the first one and recommended it to me but said she didn't like this one as much.  Personally I enjoyed this one, too! 

When is a Ship Not a Ship?

When it's a FRIENDSHIP!  Real Friends was such a good book.  It reminds me of how much I love reading graphic novels.  Shannon Hale wrote about her own life and LeUyen Pham made it look fantastic.

Until There Was You

I never would have read Soppy until I fell in love.  Had a been forced to read it, I would have hated it and mocked it.  I loved this book.  If you are in love, you will love it, too.  If you love "ordinary time" with the one you love, you will especially love this book.  What a love story.  Only thing is, David Levithan would hate this book.  The female character is drawn so that she looks a bit overweight!  He would have a field day saying how lazy she is!

Lunch Lady Land

Do you remember this song?  Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute is the first in the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. I may have mentioned this before but he did a TED talk in which he mentions the amazing Jack Gantos!  And I figure, if he likes Gantos then I will like him! And I did!

Never Could Get the Hang of It

Roller Girl was a GREAT book!  I totally got the hang of the book.  I just could never get the hang of roller skating!  But I loved this graphic novel!

Good Stuff

Tomboy was a very good graphic novel.  I listened to it and read it.  And that seemed to work out really well! I wouldn't have wanted to do just one!  A very interesting and funny and well done graphic memoir.  Liz Prince is a pretty brilliant lady.  I can totally understand wanting to dress like a dude, I mean, they have it SO much easier!  (that's not why Prince didn't like "girlie" things, its just my personal feeling because I am lazy and I do hate spending so much time and money on nails and waxing and all of the rest--- but I do, slave to society!)  Anyway, very recommended.  And I think guys should read it, too.  And "girlie" girls and well, just all humans!

Haunted

I just couldn't rate Ghosts because while I found the sisterly relationship to be super well done the cultural appropriation really bugged me. But I don't think that Raina Telgemeier meant any harm. But yet I really think it is important to make note of it and to recognize that it just isn't okay to do that. For a much better understanding about all of this, please read here.  But man, it is a shame because there is a lot of good stuff in here.

Oh, I don't know...

Dork Diaries #1:  Tales from a Not-so-Fabulous Life has gotten a lot of bad reviews.  Main character, Nikki Maxwell certainly has first-world problems. Upper-middle class first-world problems, really.  But the series is still going strong, with the eleventh book coming out this fall.  It even has a spin-off now,  The Misadventures of Max Crumbly:  Locker Hero.
From the bad reviews from adults, saying the Nikki is just superficial and annoying and materialistic and mean and so forth, I thought I would hate this book.  But actually, I didn't.  The series is very popular.
I don't think that Nikki is any more superficial and annoying and materialistic as most other tweens.  She is in eight grade in the books, but fans of DD are much younger.
Will I read another?  Probably not, but I think I could recommend this.

Almost Made Me Want to be a Dog Person

Almost.  It's just that cats are so much cuter and less scary!  But Cat Person was just not for me. I am probably just too old.  While I loved the cover, my love for this book ended at the cover.  Bathroom humor is a major turn-off for me.  I can't really like a book in which the main character spends part of the book in the bathroom.

Can there be more than one Newbery!

If there were, El Deafo would HAVE to get one!  What a remarkable book, done in graphic novel format and so I think that would make it very popular as well.  I found this book on Anderson Book Store's Mock Newbery site and I saw my friend with a copy just in at our library and I begged her to let me take it home over the weekend.  Wow WOW WOW!
One of the posters on goodreads said it best, We appear to exist in a golden age of children’s graphic novel memoirs." 
Indeed, El Deafo is a shiny, golden book.  Cece Bell has an author's note at the end of the book in which she says that she set out to show how she felt as she lost her hearing due to meningitis at age four.  Excellent book.  I learned a lot about deafness in general, too.  That some deaf persons see their deafness as a disability.  Some see it as a difference, Deafness with a captial D.  After reading El Deafo I began to learn more, to learn that the term "hearing impaired" is very offensive when used improperly.  Check this out from deaflinx.com:
hearing impaired:
This term is considered highly offensive. Just as "deaf-mute" and "deaf and dumb" are inappropriate labels, "hearing impaired" is an outdated way to collectively label people with any level of hearing loss. It does not account for cultural identity.
Elderly people with a hearing loss developed late in life often refer to themselves as being hearing impaired. This is an appropriate exception, but is often over-generalized by the majority of the American public.

The use of "hearing impaired" may be considered less blunt by many hearing people, but within the Deaf community, it is an insulting term and a sign of ignorance.
Super important to know!  And once again, this is an example of how reading has really changed my life and is helping to make me a much more aware person.  

A Hard Summer

This One Summer is a graphic novel done by two cousins, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki.  It is super well illustrated and super well written.  It's a coming-of-age story, maybe?  Rose and her mom and dad always go to the lake over the summer and usually it is a good old time.  Rose hangs with her friend Windy who is a little bit younger than she is.  Getting older is hard.  This book is so well done, you can feel the pain of innocence lost.  Good stuff.

Chiggers, Finally

The same young patron who recommended Frindle to me has been telling me about Chiggers for years.  She does the whole summer camp thing and so it makes sense that she would like a summer camp story.  This is a graphic novel and I usually like them a lot, but I found it hard to keep track of the who was who in this one, so that took a lot away from the book, for me.
I think that if someone has gone to summer camp, they will relate to this book a lot better than I did and maybe get more out of it.  Of course, I would have been FAR TOO CHICKEN TO EVEN THINK ABOUT SUMMER CAMP because of some of the topics explored in this graphic novel.  Like cliques, which scare me and make me sad.  So it was a quick read, but not much to write home about for me.

Sisters!

Raina Telgemeier is an incredible artist and storyteller.  Drama and Smile are two of my most favorite books of all time and after reading them, I became interest in graphic novels as a format.  Sisters, the sequel to Smile was a book I was looking forward to ever since I finished Drama and Smile.  When I saw it on netgalley, I let out a whoop of joy!
The book did NOT disappoint!  It was compelling and real and funny.  Very well done!  I highly recommend this and I know it will be a big hit!

Uh oh...am I stuck on another series?

I think I am!  This time I used the Comixology app and bought and read another of Rick Geary's graphic nonfiction books in his Treasury of Victorian Murder series.  The Case of Madeleine Smith was interesting because Geary is simply a great storyteller and illustrator and also because I had never heard of Madeleine Smith and also because, even after reading it, I can't be totally sold on the idea that she did it.  Good stuff here.

He was the devil, you know, in the White City

When I read The Devil in the White City, I was blown away.  What a great, great book.  And the devil, referred to in that book as H.H. Holmes, mostly, was a fascinating, foul and frightening character from history.  I had never heard of him before, even though he is considered by many to be America's first serial killer. The Beast of Chicago:  an account of the life and crimes of Henry W. Mudgett, known to the world as H.H. Holmes focuses on the monster himself.