Dragons Beware!

Dragons Beware!
by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado
First Second, May 12, 2015
review copy purchased for my classroom library

Claudette is relentless. She has not given up on becoming a warrior. Her little brother, Gaston, is equally single-minded. He HAS given up his dream of becoming a chef until he can become as good a blacksmith as his father and/or do something that will make his father proud.

When the flying gargoyles attempt to attack their village, Claudette and Gaston's father, Augustine, and his sidekick Zubair set off to get Augustine's sword Breaker from the belly of the dragon Azra so they can defeat the evil Grombach, who is sending the gargoyle army.

Knowing that Claudette and Gaston will try to come along, Augustine leaves them locked in the tower with Marie. Guess how long that lasts?

Here's how our heroes are armed to defeat a dragon and an evil...grandfather (you'll have to read the book to get the back story on that plot twist): Claudette's stumpy little sword seems to have some magic, and she is not at all lacking in bravery. Gaston is encouraged by Hag (a character I'm pretty sure we'll meet again in book 3),

"Don't turn your back on a talent, Boy. Lots of folks spend their whole lives looking for something their good at."

as she presses a book of spells into his hands. "Casting spells is like learning a recipe. Like cooking."And Marie has been learning about diplomacy.


I loved the first book, Giant's Beware!, but I love this book even more. I can't wait to hear Rafael Rosado (artist) and John Novak (colorist) speak at Cover to Cover on Saturday, May 23 from 2-3:30. See you there!

George O'Connor Blog Tour

Ares: Bringer of War
by George O'Connor
First Second, January 27, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

"The stories that make up the body of Greek myths are what remain of their culture’s deeply held beliefs. The stories of Zeus and his family are more than just entertaining yarns about giants who slice open the sky and monsters so fearsome their gaze can turn a person to stone. They were, and are, an explanation of the world that that ancient culture’s people saw around them: a lightning storm could only be the King of Gods hurling his thunderbolt; a volcano could only be the escaped vapors of an entombed Titan. 

Not many people today believe in the gods of Ancient Greece. But their stories are still around, and they live on in all of our memories." George O'Connor (from his website, The Olympians).

The volumes in George O'Connor's Olympians series (Zeus, Athena, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Aphrodite) do so much more than simply retell a story from Greek mythology. They also feature a detailed family tree at the beginning of the book. At the end are extensive G(r)eek notes that cite page and panel numbers and are a combination of author commentary, historical context, and vocabulary and classical art connections. After that, there are resources for the reader who wants to know even more.

The whole premise of Ares is pretty amazing -- in it, O'Connor retells the Illiad with a focus on the gods' role in the Trojan War. In a 66-page graphic novel. For kids.

Wow.

Everything you know about Ares is shown to be true in this book -- when it comes to warmongering, he is the opposite side of the coin from Athena, who is the disciplined strategist of war. Ares represents the violent, crazed, bloodthirsty side of war. But in this book, we also see that he is a father with at least a teeny tiny soft spot in his heart.

One of my favorite spreads in the book is p. 12-13. It takes you by surprise as a reader, because the top half of both pages is one large panel. It shows the gods gathered around a sort of table that is the battlefield in the mortal world. The panels below the large top panel read left to right as usual, but all the way across both pages. When you turn the page, the story continues in the usual page-by-page format until the climax on p. 52-53 when the gods can't stand it anymore and they go down to the mortal world to battle it out "god-on-god" (p. 73 in the G(r)eek Notes) All of this is to say that besides being a master of mythology and storytelling, George O'Connor is an amazing graphic artist.

I recommend this book for students in grades 4 and up...all the way up to adults who would like a refresher course on mythology and a peek into some of the best graphic novels around.

You can follow George O'Connor on twitter @GeorgetheMighty.


STOPS ON THE BLOG TOUR:

Monday, January 26th

Kid Lit Frenzy

Tuesday, January 27th – A Year of Reading -- You Are Here!

Wednesday, January 28th

Great Kid Books

Thursday, January 29
Charlotte’s Library

Friday, January 30
Graphic Novel Resources

Saturday, January 3
Librarian’s Quest

Sunday, February 1
Musings of a Librarian

Monday, February 2
The Graphic Novelologist

Tuesday, February 3
Supernatural Snark

Wednesday, February 4
Panel Patter

Thursday, February 5
Finding Wonderland

Friday, February 6
The Book Rat

Saturday, February 7
Teen Lit Rocks

Sunday, February 8
The Brain Lair

Monday, February 9
Haunting Orchid

Tuesday, February 10
Alice Marvels

So Many Things to Love About Comic Squad: Recess!

The world has been very excited about Comics Squad: Recess!  for a very long time!  And it was worth the wait! What a great book. I am sure I am going to need several for the classroom this year. Kid are going to go crazy with this one!

If you haven't read Jarrett Krosoczka's Nerdy Book Club post about the book, it is a fabulous story of the book and how it came to be.  

Here are 10 of the things I love about this book!

1. It is a great size!

2. It has 8 different stories!  So great for read aloud or independent reading. So many possibilities!

3. Babymouse and Lunch Lady intro the book together! What could be better?

4.  It is VERY funny!

5.  There is a lot of orange inside!

6.  It seems to be good for ALL ages--like 0-99, I think!

7.  It is a collection of stories from some of the best graphic novel writers around. This is a great way to introduce kids to new authors OR if they already love these author, they get something new!

8.  There is an ugly sweater in the book. Any book with an ugly sweater is a real treat!

9.  You can learn to draw Betty in 12 easy steps (maybe)...!

10.  There will be a Comics Squad #2!

Thank you authors for an incredible new book! 

History -- Graphic Novel Style

Graphic novels count for your summer #bookaday and for the 48 Hour Book Challenge, so put these on your TBR if you teach grades 4-8 or simply if you want to brush up on your American History.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

With a given name like Nathan Hale, how could you NOT write about Nathan Hale? This book is the set-up for the whole series. Nathan Hale is about to be hanged for treason. (On the cover, bottom left is the British officer in charge and, bottom right, the doofus hangman.) When Hale says his famous words, he is sucked into the Book of History and can see ALL of history. He delays his hanging by telling the Brit and the Hangman great stories from history. In this book, the focus is Hale's story, and the big picture is the American Revolution.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad!

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 1, 2012

review copy purchased for my classroom

Big Bad Ironclad focuses on the race between the North and the South during the Civil War to develop ironclad ships. Big picture: Civil War.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, August 6, 2013

review copy purchased for my classroom

The Donner Dinner Party should also be known as "How Many Bad Decisions Can Be Made Based on Pride, Greed, Stubbornness and Competition?" Focus: surviving a winter stranded in the Sierra Nevadas. Big picture: Westward Movement.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood (A World War I Tale)

by Nathan Hale

Harry N. Abrams, May 13, 2014

review copy purchased for my classroom

If you're like me, you're a little fuzzy on why World War I was fought. The politics of WWI are extremely (EXTREMELY) complicated, but Nathan Hale does a masterful job of bringing them down to kid level. To help the reader keep track of all of the countries involved, he draws each nationality as a different animal. 

History in Graphic Novel Format

Now that I've started thinking about creative "right brain" ways to expand and enrich the ways I am (and my students will be) responding to informational texts (common craft videos, illustrated note-taking), new possibilities keep cropping up everywhere I look:

Why not take a page of text and do an erasure poem with it? Or, as Austin Kleon calls them, a newspaper blackout poem?

How about a ThingLink?

And maybe you could take a complicated historical event, like the Boxer Rebellion in China, and make it a two-part graphic novel that explores both sides of the story.

Boxers & Saints Boxed Set
by Gene Luen Yang, First Second, September, 2013
review copies from the public library

I think it's fair to say that I would never have picked up a history of the Boxer Rebellion to read in my spare time if it hadn't been in graphic novel format. And I think it's fair to say that a historical description of the rebellion/movement would never have given me such a deeply personal glimpse into both sides of the story.

An added bonus was finding this review on GoodReads by FirstSecond, and gaining an even deeper appreciation for the complexity of what Gene Yang created in these two books:

One of the things that makes both Boxers and Saints fascinating is how the author treats religion. 

Boxers features a magical realistic element; the Chinese gods (who the characters know mainly through the opera) possess the Boxer rebels and help power their rebellion; when the rebels go to war, they feel that they are taken over by the gods and protected and driven by them. In the book, Gene draws the gods as they are taking over the Boxers and propelling them into battle. The pictures aren't just people saying, 'a god is possessing me!' while nothing is happening -- a god is _there_. 

This is clearly meant (through our 21st-century lens) to be magical realism; these gods aren't something that we today are meant to be like, 'drat those gods possessing people and causing rebellions all the time; you'd think they would know better after all these years of being gods and all.' 

This is all thrown into question in a fascinating way in Saints, when Gene (a devout Catholic) draws the main character seeing an actual Catholic saint -- Joan of Arc -- and at one point, seeing Jesus. In the same way that the Chinese gods appear on the pages of Boxers, the Catholic saint and deity appear throughout the pages of Saints. Does their more-convincing reality (both in our culture today and in the author's life) throw into question the reality of the Chinese gods? Does this set-down-on-paper reflection of the beliefs of that time, both equally devout -- call into question the veracity of our own beliefs today, and the amount our contemporary culture is influencing what our beliefs are?

The format of the graphic novel has huge possibilities both as a launch-pad for introducing readers to new information (history, science, etc), and as a way for readers to process their learning of informational text.

Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action!

Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action
by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost (from The Center for Cartoon Studies)
First Second, on shelves October 8, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

They're back! The same crew of cartoonists whose first book, Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics (one of the NCTE 2010 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts) taught readers how to make a cartoon are now moving into the realm of "how to draw simple characters, pose them, and put an expression on their faces that communicate emotions to the reader." And all of this gets wrapped into a story about an evil movie director, a missing king, and our heroes, the Knight (there's a surprise about her in the first book...oops...I just gave it away...), the knight's steed, Edward, and the Magic Cartooning Elf.

For all those buddying graphic novelists in your classroom, this book is a must-read!

(See also last year's Adventures in Cartooning: Christmas Special)

Fairy Tale Comics

Fairy Tale Comics: Classic Tales Told by Extraordinary Cartoonists
Edited by Chris Duffy
First Second, on shelves September 24, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

From the same editor who brought us Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists, we now have this fabulous collection of Fairy Tale Comics!

17 different artists, 17 different stories from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Bre'r Rabbit, 1001 Nights, and Japanese, English and Russian Folktales.

Readers in my classroom will recognize the work of Raina Telgemeier (Drama and Smile) and Charise Mericle Harper (Fashion Kitty versus the Fashion Queen). Probably 6 of the 17 stories will be familiar.

So, it's safe to say that this book will introduce readers (in a fun way) to many new graphic artists and many new fairy tales! Win-Win!

Notice and Note (With CHICKENHARE)

Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading
by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst
Heinemann, 2013

In my post last Thursday, I shared my plan to search for the signposts in everything I read/viewed for the rest of the summer. What's that quote about roads that are paved with good intentions? What a ridiculous goal that was!! And what a good reminder: EVERY text does not need a close reading! Note to self and others: don't overdo the signposts, or they will kill a love of reading as surely as any packet of worksheets.

I had success last week using the Notice and Note signposts with DON'T FEED THE BOY, a middle grade realistic fiction novel by Irene Latham. I've been on a graphic novel-reading binge for a couple of days, so I got to wondering if I could find the signposts in a graphic novel. After all, many (if not most) of my students will choose a graphic novel over any other genre or format any day.

Lo and behold, they were there. I had to think differently about them at times, finding them in characters' facial expressions or in the illustrations. But they were there. And I didn't try finding them in a straight-forward, traditional-narrative sort of graphic novel. The next one up on my pile was fantasy with oddball random characters and a storyline that makes you feel like you've been dropped into the middle of the story. (Just checked online. Although this book is not identified as a part of a series, it might be the third book. That would explain a lot about the dropped-in feeling.)

Chickenhare

by Chris Grine

Scholastic/GRAPHIX (February 1, 2013)

In this story, a chicken-legged rabbit and a bearded box turtle team up with the ghost of a goat to defeat the evil guy who keeps killing his pets and stuffing them so that they can't run away from him. (Think "willing suspension of disbelief...")

p. 9 What the butler says and how the evil guy answers don't match. CONTRAST AND CONTRADICTION (with a bit of irony and sarcasm thrown in)
p. 11 The other evil guy who kidnapped Chickenhare and Abe (the turtle) unwittingly gives the duo information that will help them to escape. AHA MOMENT (for characters and the reader, who should be predicting like mad when this happens!)

p. 66 The ghost of the goat shows up again. AGAIN AND AGAIN
p. 79 " 'Forty years ago...' " MEMORY MOMENT
p. 97 Interchange of questions between Chickenhare and the ghost of the goat. TOUGH QUESTIONS
p. 98 The ghost of the goat comes as close as it gets to giving WORDS OF THE WISER
p. 139 The visual clue in the picture gives the reader an AHA MOMENT when they realize how Chickenhare and the goat are going to trick the evil guy.
p. 157 The faces of Chickenhare and Abe are happy that they are continuing their journey. The faces of their two companions are not happy. CONTRAST AND CONTRADICTION

Bullies

Bully

by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Roaring Brook Press (A Neal Porter Book), July 2013

review copy provided by the publisher

Bull is a bully. He is mean to every single animal, and with every meanness, he gets bigger and bigger on the page. That is, until the goat stands up to him and calls him what he is: "BULLY!" 

This causes Bull to experience introspection, deflation, and happy resolution (after he apologizes). 

BULLY is a simple book, but even for older children, there is much to talk about, beginning with an illustration before the title page that hints at why Bull is a bully. Also, not enough can be said, in my opinion, about the power of standing up for yourself. So many students come to me on the playground at recess complaining about something another child did to them, and 9 times out of 10, they wouldn't have needed to come tattle to me if they had simply turned to the other child and asked, in an assertive voice, "Why did you do that to me?" This usually gives the other child a chance to A. realize they did something to cause offense, B. apologize before the child who's been "wronged" runs away to tattle, and/or C. deflate a bit because they've been called out for their behavior.

Tommysaurus Rex
by Doug TenNapel
GRAPHIX, 2013
review copy purchased for my classroom

TOMMYSAURUS REX is more about losing a dear pet than it is about bullies, but there is a really mean one who plays a key role in the story. (The bully is a boy whose dad has left his mom and him, and I'm getting a little tired of that over-simplified formula for a bully. But we'll set that irritation aside for now and continue with the review...)

Ely's beloved dog Tommy is hit by a car and killed, and to help him get over his grief, his parents let him spend the summer on his grandfather's farm. While there, Ely discovers a Tyrannosaurus Rex who escaped extinction, becomes fast friends with (**spoiler alert**) her, and then has to figure out a way to raise money to pay for the damages she causes and convince the town that he should be able to keep her as his pet. Randy, the bully, dashes Ely's every hope, but there are a couple of plot twists in the end that result in multiple happy endings.

Just like in BULLY, the ending is just a little bit too easy -- neither book is an accurate portrayal of real-life bullies and what it's like to deal with them. But both books (together or separately) will be great for classroom (and family) conversations about what's possible, and strategies that need to be attempted, whether or not they work the same way in life as they do in literature.

Think for Yourself (Part 3)

Odd Duck
by Cecil Castellucci
illustrated by Sara Varon
:01 First Second, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

Theodora believes that she will never be friends with her new neighbor, Chad. They are too different in too many ways. When winter comes and neither flies south, they discover that they both love star gazing and also that "...even though they were very different, they felt the same way about most things."

Then one day, they are walking in the town, and they hear someone say, "Look at that odd duck!" They each try to console the other for being called odd, then, realizing that the other thinks they are odd, have a complete falling out...which ends when they admit to themselves, and then to each other, that perhaps they are each a bit odd.

But, "It's not so bad to be odd," Theodora thought, "not when you have an odd friend."

If you dial back balance-a-tea-cup-on-your-head-while-you-swim "odd" and hang-upside-down-from-a-tree-to-grill-out "odd," you can find all the ways we each are different, and you can celebrate both differences and oddnesses! But most of all, THINK FOR YOURSELF -- don't listen to what others say!

Poseidon: Earth Shaker

Poseidon: Earth Shaker (Olympians)
by George O'Connor
First Second, on shelves March 10, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher


George O'Connor's series of graphic novels about the Olympians have taken my classroom by storm.

In each of my classes I have a student who is deeply interested in mythology (one boy, one girl), and there are lots of others who enjoy mythology because of the Percy Jackson books, but there are plenty of others who are simply attracted to the "super hero" factor of these characters: Zeus, Athena, Hades, and Hera (so far). I'm going to have to start a sign-up sheet for Poseidon, I'm sure.

When I finished this book, I said to myself, "Poseidon is a really hard character to understand." And then I read George O'Connor's author's notes, and he said pretty much the same thing. The author's notes really helped me to understand the book better, and they sent me back into the book to re-read some parts.

The sequence when Theseus, Poseidon's son, goes into the labyrinth to kill the minotaur is absolutely brilliant, graphically. That's what I like best about George O'Connor's books -- the combination of great art and good storytelling.

#holidaybookaday update

My goal was 16 books and I only read 12, but considering everything else on my to-do list that I accomplished over break I'm pretty pleased.

Yes, a quarter of the books were graphic novels. Thank you, Nerdies Nominations for getting me caught up on the best GNs for 2012! How have I missed the work of Doug TenNapel? I enjoyed Bad Island, but wow -- Ghostopolis and Cardboard. Wow.

May B. took me right back home to the dry flatlands of Eastern Colorado/Western Kansas! I have this thing for sod houses...seeing as my dad was born in one! And my uncle has a pasture that is unbroken prairie, and there are still ruts from the wagonwheels of the covered wagons of the westward movement carved into the land!

My Santa Brother sent two new (old) books of poetry for my Signatures of the Poets Laureate collection -- Maxine Kumin (which I read) and Charles Simic (still on the TBR pile). Other posts here and here and here about this collection.

And finally, not appearing yet in Goodreads, Santa brought me the entire Series of Unfortunate Events. It seems appropriate in a year ending with 13, that one of my reading goals for the year is to re-read the entire series!

'Tis the Season

Glitch (The Aldo Zelnick Comic Novel Series)
by Karla Oceanak
illustrated by Kendra Spanjer
Bailiwick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

There's definitely more than a little GLITCH in Aldo's plan to get more presents for Christmas this year!

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas
created and illustrated by James Dean
story by Eric Litwin
Harper, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

In this take-off of The Night Before Christmas, Pete the Cat leaves the beach where we left him in his Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, and steps in for a sick Santa to save Christmas.

It's Christmas! (I Can Read Book 3)
by Jack Prelutsky
illustrated by Marylin Hafner
Greenwillow Books, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

A dozen very accessible poems cover Christmas from the decorating to the present of a sled in a year with no snow.

Adventures in Cartooning: Christmas Special
by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost
First Second, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Santa's nostalgic for the olden days when kids got toys for Christmas instead of electronics. With the help of the dragon and the knight from the first book, Santa delivers a book to all the children that makes them want to turn off their screens and draw comics...and of course, that is the book you just read!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Thanks to Kellee and Jen at TEACH MENTOR TEXTS for hosting. 

Pop over there to see everyone's lists.

What have I been reading lately? GRAPHIC NOVELS! 

Binky Takes Charge (A Binky Adventure)

by Ashley Spires

Kids Can Press, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Binky the cat is in charge of training a new cadet. But the cadet turns out to possibly be a spy, and definitely to be a DOG. How will Binky keep the space station safe?

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers

by Dav Pilkey

Scholastic, 2012

Really?? The whole series perhaps didn't happen because of a time travel (banana cream pie) paradox? In fact, the whole earth is destroyed, unless Tippy Tinkletrousers can save Captain Underpants? Stay tuned -- we'll all find out January 2013.

Amulet #5: Prince of the Elves

by Kazu Kibuishi

Scholastic, 2012

This series started out very kid-friendly (for 4-5th grade) and now is getting really dark and REALLY complicated. I probably should have re-read the entire series before reading this one. It might have made more sense. I am having a hard time keeping track of the characters. My students will clamor for it because, like me, they are invested in the series and can't wait for the next book, but I'll let them know that I'm going to read it again after I re-read the first four.

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl

by Ben Hatke

First Second, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Zita's back! YAY! 

This time she has to deal with a robot that imprints on her...but who turns out to be as much of a hero as she is.

Her beloved Mouse is captured, and at the end of the book, Zita takes off to rescue him. But of course, that's not enough for author Ben Hatke. He has to throw in a SERIOUS cliffhanger.

Luz Makes a Splash (The Future According to Luz)

by Claudia Davila

Kids Can Press, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Second book in The Future According to Luz series. Like the first, takes on a variety of environmental issues, this time focusing around water conservation.

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel

by Madeline L'Engle

adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

When I opened the package that contained this book, I gasped, then clasped it to my chest. LOVELOVELOVE what Hope Larson did with this.

Now. That said, I will admit that I didn't actually read it cover to cover. It's too much like watching the movie of this landmark book that's been a part of my life since 6th grade. I like the visuals that are in my own mind. But I read enough to see that Larson stayed extremely true to the story. Practically word for word.

I'll take this copy to school, but I'll have to have another copy to keep with my original Scholastic paperback and the hardback and paperbacks of the 50th anniversary editions.