Read Rage

Your parents -- sometimes they bore you, annoy you, or frustrate you, but you love them and you know they love you. They encourage you to eat right, do your homework, be kind to others -- all the usual stuff. But what if you found out that your parents are actually super-villains in disguise, and that they and the parents of your friends are all members of a secret evil organization called The Pride? What if you accidentally witnessed them sacrificing a young woman in some bizarre ritual? What would you do?

This is what happens to the six teens in the graphic novel series Runaways. And what do they do? They runaway from home, during which they discover powers of their own, descended from the very parents they now vow to fight. The group finds their own secret lair and sets about upsetting their parents' plan, first by going to the police (who are in on it, of course), and then by more desperate measures--becoming super-heroes themselves.

In the first three volumes, the teens discover more about The Pride and their parents' evil deeds, confront their own homesickness, meet strangers both helpful and dangerous, and find out one of their own is a mole! Will they defeat their parents, and if they do, what happens next?

We have the first three volumes of this very funny, smart, action-packed, super-powered story in the library in the Graphic Novel section on the first floor, with more volumes to come!

Posted by Krista Hutley at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can’t say enough good things about Pride of Baghdad. It tells the story of four lions who escape from the Baghdad Zoo during a bombing raid in 2003. The four lions wander through the war zone looking for food, for shelter, for a wild, free life outside the safe confines of the zoo. What they find is open to interpretation, but I defy you not to have your heart broken by the ending.

The book reads simply but evokes complex ideas. Freedom vs. safety. Is there a price for freedom, and when, if ever, is it too high? Is it better to be free and living with the possibility of starving, of violence, of homelessness, or is it better to be caged if that also means your needs will be met (food, safety, health care)? Should you be loyal to your keepers for keeping you safe, or should you hate them for keeping you penned? When do the needs of you and your family outweigh the peace you keep with the others around you? What does war do to the environment, to the animals, to nature?

The artwork is so good that it stands up to such a beautiful, painful story. In fact, it doesn’t just stand up to it, it enhances it. It’s clear and easy to follow from panel to panel, but has such depth, especially in its use of luminous color.

I read this in about an hour (that’s with staring at some of the spreads and marveling over the gracefulness of the lines and the deep, saturated colors) but thought about it far longer. I’m still thinking about it.

This book is available in Pigott Library on the Graphic Novels shelves; the call number is GN Vaughan.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This year, the Michael Printz award winner is a graphic novel, American Born Chinese. I would like to mention that I had the amazing foresight to purchase this for Pigott Library before it won anything, leading me to believe that I am very clever. Oh, yes.

The Michael Printz award is given by the American Library Association for excellent teen books, may they be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or anthologies (or graphic novels, as in this case). Basically, the Printz award is like the Newbery for teen books.

Still, some people are unhappy about having a graphic novel win anything, because they don't believe that graphic novels can be as meaningful, intelligent, three-dimensional, and worthwhile as novels. They're wrong, of course, but that doesn't stop them from complaining. Of course, some of them may be unhappy because of nitpicky rules, such as the Printz award only being for young adult "fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anthologies" and not also "graphic novels." Of course, I'm purely speculating based on what only one person has said to me about some complaints she overheard, and not on anything I've heard myself, so if that makes me a gossip, so be it. Other people are ecstatic about it, and I am one of them.

The Printz honor books are also great choices:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, v. 1, the Pox Party, by MT Anderson
An Abudance of Katherines, by John Green
Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak

Of those, we have the first two in the library, and they're on my "to read" list.

Posted by Krista Hutley at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)