Review of "Relish: My Life in the Kitchen" by Lucy Knisley up on The Broke & the Bookish

I'm making progress on my 2014 Hub Challenge! I just finished Printz Honor book Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool, which I liked much more than I expected I would, and I reviewed Alex Award-winner Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley on The Broke and the Bookish today. Check it out! 

Review: "Anya's Ghost" by Vera Brosgol

Title: Anya's Ghost
Author: Vera Brosgol
Publisher: First Second, 2011

Anya, daughter of a Russian immigrant, insecure in her body, and just trying to fit in at her private school, ends up finding a friend in the most unlikely of places. After falling down a well, Anya discovers a skeleton... and its ghost that's been hanging out down there for about 90 years.

At first, Anya is obviously freaked. But she escapes from the well, with help from Emily (the ghost). Who ends up following her out. Emily turns out to be a great friend, helping her with school and boys, but Anya soon figures out that Emily is here to stay... whether she likes it or not.

This graphic novel is beyond awesome. The illustrations are outstanding, all in black, white, gray and muted purple. The pacing of the story is excellent too—we jump into the story right away with Anya's fall, discovery of the skeleton, and subsequent befriending of Emily Reilly, who died 90 years ago after she fell down the well herself.

This is also a mystery. Anya promises to search for Emily's murderer, who she says killed her parents and then chased her through the woods the night of her fall. But Emily seems strangely uninterested and not very eager for Anya to start her search. She's much more interested in finding Anya a way into the heart of her crush, basketball star Sean. Even when Anya isn't interested anymore. Slowly we begin to see Emily's true personality and psychosis, and Anya tries to uncover Emily's history.

I had to keep going back after finishing this to just look at the illustrations and relive parts of the story. There is true terror within the pages, but a more subtle terror than you might expect in a ghost story.

There's also a lot in here about acceptance of yourself and your culture, with Anya's denial of her background and attempts to keep her family out of the line of sight of her schoolmates. She avoids another Russian student at her school because he acts too "fobby," without giving him a chance at any sort of friendship because of his social status. Throughout the plot, she has to come to terms with all of this.

Whether you read graphic novels or not, this is one you should go out and read immediately. The story and illustrations are in perfect harmony to make for one scary and mysterious ride.

Disclosure: I got this from my local library.

Review: "The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin" by Holly Black

Title: The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin
Author: Holly Black
Illustrator: Ted Naifeh
Publisher: Graphix, 2008
Where I got it: The library.

Rue starts right off the bat by telling us she doesn't worry about anything. She doesn't worry about her mother who has been missing for 3 weeks, she doesn't worry about her dad who has gone into a stupor since her mother disappeared, and she doesn't worry that she might be going crazy. That's why she's seeing all of these weird things and impossible beings, right?

But when her dad is accused of not one, but two murders, and a previously unknown grandfather shows up, she knows she has to dig a bit to find some answers. What she finds is much more than she bargained for.

Holly Black has created a spellbinding world in which faeries and folklore exist among the mortals in our worlds. The two previously lived together fairly peacefully, if not on the best of terms, but things are starting to crumble a bit. Rue finds herself in between the two worlds, through no desire of her own, and discovers she is to play one of the biggest roles in some sort of upcoming confrontation, though she's not sure of specifics, and we're not given many answers in this first installment of the Good Neighbors trilogy.

Black certainly leaves her readers with a lot of questions, which I expect to have answered in Kin's sequels. The story is promising, if not terribly original, and Black promises at least an intriguing plot with some interesting characters.

Speaking of characters, I found it hard to connect with any of them. We are treated with Rue's first-person narrative, but I wasn't particularly fond of her and didn't quite feel enough sympathy to care about where she was going or what she was trying to figure out. I was invested merely in the story, and not the players (unless you count finding out about mysterious characters, like the thus-far-impenetrable Tam). Her friends seem loyal, except for her boyfriend, and her dad a decent enough guy, but I found there was little character development or depth to any of them.

As for the illustrations, Naifeh was born to draw faeries and magical creatures. Humans not so much. I found myself confused as to how people came to the extreme emotional duress the illustrations implied—they occasionally seemed far too dramatic. The rest of the time, they looked warped and unpleasant, like they didn't quite fit their skin, and their features were inconsistent. The only way to tell who was who was often defining characteristics like hair and clothing.

I will continue reading the series, if just to find out what happens and learn more about the different beings in this world. I sincerely hope there will be a greater need for faery illustrations and less for humans. It's an interesting premise, and I'm hoping it will live up to its potential.

On The Broke and the Bookish: "Rapunzel's Revenge"

Today I'm the featured reviewer on The Broke and the Bookish! You can check it out on that blog here, or you can just read it on mine. Since, you know, you're already here.

Title: Rapunzel's Revenge

Authors: Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation)

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2008

Where and why: From the library through ILL, for the folktales/fairy tales unit in my children's

lit class.

Who remembers the old story of Rapunzel? If it's what you're expecting in this graphic novel, you're in for a surprise and a treat. In this tale, things are a bit different.

Rapunzel grows up in a beautiful villa, with servants and everything she could possibly wish for—except the love of the woman she believes to be her mother. Eventually she discovers that beyond her (ridiculously tall) garden wall, there is something she could never have imagined possible.

Things happen—Rapunzel is locked up in her tower, her hair grows. Her witch of a stepmother visits yearly, until Rapunzel crosses her one too many times. What's a girl locked in a tree tower to do? Why, put her 20-foot length of hair to use, of course.

This is a completely fractured and often hilarious Rapunzel tale, a hodgepodge of familiar fairy-tale characters and legends, with a few literary allusions thrown in for good measure. There are a lot of elements that are the same (taking from parents for some stolen lettuce, long hair, trapped in a tower), but the whole thing is completely turned on its head. Set in a vaguely Wild West–ish land, it's a great adventure full of thieves, rescues, acts of daring, narrow escapes, and a bit of romance—not to mention the most awesome fairy-tale heroine I've come across in quite some time. Just look at that picture of the cover! You know she's using those braids for some serious lassoing and butt kicking. Finally, a Rapunzel who knows how to DO stuff.

There's a lot of great detail in here, too, not only in the clever nods to various literary characters, but in the setting and the secondary characters. The ethnicities of each is clearly carefully chosen, especially concerning who owns what type of shop and who is in charge at various villages and towns. It looks pretty well researched, though it lacks any kind of source notes, which is unfortunate. I'd love to know why the Hales chose to use certain aspects and not others, why they decided to set it where they did, and a few more things.

But despite that one drawback, here we finally have a graphic novel heroine who not only holds her own, but is the one to fight for what's right and save the day. This is great for reluctant middle-grade readers, or even those in high school. (It will probably appeal more to girls than boys, but boys can certainly enjoy it too. There's a sequel titledCalamity Jack that came out in January, featuring the male protagonist in its predecesor, which might appeal more to boys. Either way, I certainly plan on reading it.)

Nathan Hale's illustrations are absolutely fantastic. He uses a lot of color, perspective, detail, and humor throughout. He's also great at showing what panels are flashback, what dialogue is meant to be an aside, and each character's face clearly shows their emotions (unless they are too far away in the panel for that kind of detail).

If you like retellings or fractured fairy tales, and you could do with a nice dose of graphic novel fiction, definitely go for this one. It's a fast read, the illustrations are beautiful, it's hilarious, and it's pretty much nonstop action—something for just about everyone.