Review: Jerusalem A Family Portrait

In the same shipment that I received Relish by Lucy Knisley, I also received Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi. (First Second, will publish 4/16/13, 381 pages).

Bottom Line: While this will most likely not be a classic graphic novel, it is a very noteworthy graphic novel. It's an important story, but more than that it is a well told story. As such it is worthy of a place in medium sized and larger public libraries that maintain an adult graphic novel collection. It will appeal to history/historical fiction fans and family relationship GN fans. (Spiegelman, Bechdel, etc.)

Confession: I don't know much about the history of Israel/Palestine in the time period covered by this book (1940-1948). Fortunately the author includes an introduction to both the historical context, the city of Jerusalem, and the families portrayed. This was invaluable to me and I flipped back to it numerous times.

Unfortunately the reason I kept flipping back to the family tree is I had trouble keeping two of the brothers straight. Additionally several side characters were introduced with so little fanfare that when they reappeared, I had forgotten them and had to refresh my memory. The jumbling of characters (there were a lot of characters) is my main complaint about this book.

The artwork is spot on (other than the two brothers I couldn't tell apart). The black and white palette and harsh lines are perfect for a city at war. Primarily told through smaller (6 to a page) panels, this book packs a lot of action into it's pages, but does occasionally go to larger panels for dramatic impact. Excellently done entirely with the artwork. Text and artwork complement each other nicely.

The story is doubly fascinating, both the story of a time of extreme unrest in an unstable region and that of the two families trying to survive in it. Other than popping over to a few wikipedia entries (which I always do because I'm rather a nerd), I was completely engrossed in this book. I read the entire thing in two settings. I would have liked an author's note comparing the fiction of the family to his real family, but without one I presume the family story is primarily fictional. That makes it no less compelling a read.

Review: Relish My Life in the Kitchen (Graphic Novel)

I received a copy of Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley a few months ago. (First Second, April 2013, 174 pages). While I eagerly devoured (expect many more food puns in this review) the book, I saved the review for this week's #fridayreads because this delicious graphic novel released this week.

Bottom Line: Delicious book. Should be in all medium and larger sized libraries who collect adult graphic novels. Would recommend for anyone who watches the food channel, Anthony Bourdain and/or is a "foodie".

Food is an integral part of our lives. It's tempting to start this review with stories of my own food culture, dishes cooked with families, and the flavors that always take me to a certain place and time. We could all spend days reminiscing in this way. And that is what this graphic novel is, a large reminiscence, a life told through food.

But while I grew up with good but traditional cooks in a Southern/Midwestern atmosphere, Lucy Knisley grew up with gourmet cooks in the middle of a New York food renaissance. This is the story of both a recognizable middle class childhood (divorced parents, travel, school, friends), but also of a lot of different foods.

The tales of childhood and young adult transitions are sweet without being cloying, substantial enough to fill you up, but not heavy enough to way you down in introspection like more literary memoirs. Instead what you will remember as you walk away from this book is the food. After reading this I added about 12 dishes to my "to cook" list. Besides descriptions of the dishes she ate, she includes cooking tips and handily illustrated recipes. Immediately before reading this my (future) mother-in-law and I tried a sushi recipe that we found on pinterest. It worked but not perfectly and thanks to the sushi tips in this book, I think I know what we did wrong.

Let me have one more tortured food metaphor. This book is a perfect summer picnic meal: filling, nutritious (helpful recipes!), memorable and fun. If you want a heavy feast of a graphic novel full of food for thought, try Maus. But when you just want a really good read without deep heavy issues, Relish hits the spot. I can't decide if I'm going to keep, pass along, or donate my copy. And I can't decide if I want to shelve it with graphic novels or cookbooks (or memoirs).

Newbery Wrap Up - Books I LOVED

I've been wanting to do a series of wrap up posts about my year on the Newbery commitee, but honestly I've been in recovery mode. Today I'm ready to go!

As you all know, our committee chose The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate as our Medal winner and three honor books: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz (my personal favorite of the year), Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, and Bomb: The Race to Build--And Steal--The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Here's a press release if you missed it.

And since it is Friday and Five Things Friday, I'm going to talk about five books from 2012 that I LOVED but that didn't win the Newbery medal (even if I really wanted it). I've talked about some books that I was recommending to kids, so I won't repeat any of that here. This is a new discussion of books I loved and really thought were strong Newbery contenders, but just not quite strong enough (because I love our final list and am in no way disagreeing with any of it).

The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin
I got an ARC of this at Midwinter last year and it was one of the first books I read all year long. It became the standard by which I was judging every other book and it kept "winning". Oona, the narrator, has a wonderfully distinctive, child appropriate but also child respectful voice as she retells her father's stories to her younger brother. The stories within a story and overall theme of storytelling are perfectly developed and integrated throughout the book. It's charming, funny at times, heart breaking at others (I cried every time I read it) and completely relatable. This was my favorite "dark horse" for Newbery so I didn't talk about it all to avoid jinxing it. It was my second favorite book of the year (after Splendors and Glooms). This book is a tight little package, every word carefully chosen, every plot element leading somewhere, every character growing and/or contributing to the story arc. Really an extraordinary book.

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex
Full disclosure: I've had an author crush on Rex since Smekday and meeting him a couple of years ago, driving him around for author visits in Anchorage, and he's charming and delightful in person. This book is everything you would expect from him: tightly plotted, fun fantasy world, intriguing characters, charming and exciting. It's a short step left from our world into the one where cereal mascots are real, magic is exploited by corporations, and Bigfoot can be a nanny. I got an ARC for the sequel Unlucky Charms (now out) at Midwinter and it's next on my too read list. This is a "boy book" that will appeal well to girls and does not talk down to children. Fun and fantastically written.

Summer on the Moon by Adrian Fogelin
With my love of Cold Cereal, Cardboard, and this title, I'm beginning to believe there might be an 11 year-old boy buried in my 30 year-old female self. (When I was an 11 year-old girl, I read maudlin stuff, Lurlene McDaniel for example.) I'm a fan of setting and the settings in this book were perfectly drawn. First we begin in the inner city neighborhood home to Socko and Dante then move to a middle class suburb with Socko and his mom. So many details are perfect in this book, the small neighborhood that seems like a world and is a trap, the halted subdivision falling victim to the recession, it's all so real. I think kids in the middle class and kids from the lower class neighborhoods will see their homes in this book. There are so many details that are just perfect, food deserts, housing busts, that which people from lower income neighborhoods give up to "move up" and a hundred smaller details. Beyond all that, it's exciting, a mystery and an adventure, a story of friendships old and new, and a tale about family. I donated my copy to my library because I know it will be a hit. I don't know why this book didn't get more press, but it balances social interests, characters, and plot beautifully.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
This book gears just a bit too old for Newbery (or at the top end of the spectrum of up to age 14) and I was thrilled to see it win the Morris Award (for debut authors). It may also top my list of most anticipated sequels. When a topic is as done and over done as dragons (or vampires or zombies) it can be hard to find a new angle that doesn't have readers rolling their eyes and straining their credibility, but Rachel Hartman does it with grace. Here we have the standard quasi-medieval fantasy world without the overwhelming sense of magic/other worldliness (no elves and hobbits) but the neighboring kingdom is dragons; dragons who can shapeshift into humans. And our protagonist is a half-human half-dragon hybrid, perhaps the only of her kind. It's an incredibly intriguing concept and Hartman lives up to the early promise with an exciting plot and well-developed appealing characters. Every bit of buzz about this book is well earned. Pick it up and read it. And then wait eagerly for the sequel. Join me in considering begging the publisher for an ARC.

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel
By far and away my favorite youth graphic novel, Cardboard excels in both text and illustrations. The illustrations (which sadly don't count for Newbery) are bold. I loved the color palette and use of perspective. Even the cover with the boy against the eye of the cardboard monster is a fantastic arrangement. But the reason I wanted to push this book on my "almost wish Newbery" list is the text. The text reads like an extended prose poem, each word perfectly chosen to create characters and portray feelings. It is a story mostly of friendship and in many ways it is more Marcus (the bully/villain) and Cam's grieving widower father who grow and have self-reflective epiphanies; it is more their stories than Cam's. Cam is the sun of the story and they define themselves in relation to him, but we as readers are more interested in their journey around him than in Cam himself. (Complicated metaphor where the planetary orbits are more interesting than the sun, you with me?) The story is more philosophical and insightful then the admittedly goofy premise and jet packs would suggest. But underneath it, is an incredible heart, complex social and emotional issues (grieving father, collapsing economy) and just a few goofy but true to life moments (two boys in the middle of a fight for their lives who can't resist cracking jokes about crab shells). When you combine the illustrations and the text, they work seamlessly together for a masterpiece of a juvenile graphic novel.

I'm going to get back into the swing of things with more reviews, both catching up on the 2012 books I didn't get to read (primarily adult) and the ARCs for 2013 sitting on my shelves.  I wouldn't have traded this year at all, but it feels good to be in charge of my reading again.

Final Newbery Nominations - IN

Turned in my last round of nominations for the Newbery. When I finished writing them up last night, I was no longer obligated to read basically every eligible book published. I have to go on faith that we didn't miss anything amazing. I've been following the blogs and I don't think we have. Between the 15 of us, we surely cast a fairly wide net.

I especially spent the last bit of time before the final nominations reconsidering Graphic Novels and the Newbery. Initially I blogged about it and then the amazing Chris Schweitzer (of Crogan's March which is one of my go to recommendations for middle grade graphic novels) showed up with some very insightful comments. And then I got a text, "did you know you're in The Mary Sue?" And thus began one of the most surreal weekends of my life as about 8 of my friends texted or messaged me that. (Why yes, I do have cool friends). I also read the comments by Comics Beat and Heavy Medal on this issue. Tons of good comments by everyone and I really re-read my 3 favorite youth graphic novels of the year. I can't tell what I decided regarding nominating one of them, but it was the nomination I thought hardest about all year long.

We did a Mock Newbery at the Anchorage Public Library. I'll blog that tomorrow. I'll probably be a better blogger now that I'm not reading all the books and feeling very conflicted about what exactly I can blog. And avoiding talking about work due to some complicated situations (all resolved now). However I've never been a super-reliable blogger so you probably shouldn't hold your breath.

In a couple of days when we get the final list of nominees from our committee chair, I'll start re-reading very heavily and critically. But for now I'm taking a "vacation". I watched tv and knit last night! I went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. (Right before the screening I leaned over and whispered "roads are dangerous things" and my fiance asked me to marry him again.) This weeknd I'll do some holiday baking and spend a lot of time with friends and family.

This year of being on the Newbery committee has been amazing. But I'm glad there is a 4 year waiting period before you're eligible for a new committee. Because I'm exhausted and I miss reading adult books, watching tv and movies, and knitting.

Five Things on a Friday

I'm back... I went on vacation for 12 days and apparently blogging vacation for a month. I've half written a bunch of posts, but here are some of them condensed, five things style.

1. If you're a librarian or at all tuned into the library blogoverse, twitter feeds, or listservs at all in the last few weeks then you're aware of the controversy over Harper Collins ebooks. A short recap, Harper Collins (one of the biggest United States publishers) decided that all of the ebooks they sell to libraries through distributor Overdrive (the most popular service used by libraries to provide downloadable ebooks and audiobooks) will expire after 26 checkouts. Library Journal had a good article about it and then Overdrive weighed in with their response. Lots of librarians/bloggers/library systems also weighed in. Google it or search for the twitter tag #hcod and you'll get thousands of responses. I particularly like the response of Librarian in Black.
   
   
2. Our collection development librarian has decided that our system will not be buying Harper Collins ebooks whenever we can avoid it. Paperbacks have a limited number of checkouts before they're in such bad condition that they can't circulate anymore. We try to avoid buying those whenever possible unless the book is super popular and that's the only way to get it (such as graphic novels). Our budget is small and we make tough choices like that. We try to buy books that will last the longest and be enjoyed by the most patrons. 26 ebook circulations just won't do it.
   
   
3. Keeping with my ereader theme, there's another rumor circulating that Amazon will start giving away Kindles as soon as November. The gist of the rumor is that if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber (you pay $80/year for unlimited free 2-day shipping) then you get a free Kindle. Amazon Prime is a good deal for Amazon because even if they're consumers use it often enough to make their money back on shipping, Amazon still makes money because people aren't likely to stray from Amazon even if another seller has a lower price. Giving people a free Kindle just further locks them into the Amazon world and it's a very viable business model if they can get the Kindle hardware production costs down enough. Plus it would entice more people to join Amazon Prime. It will be interesting to see in the next few years how many more places follow this model.
   
   
4. The Iditarod is in full swing. I love the Iditarod. This year we have an Iditarod map up and little yellow pieces of paper with mushers names tacked on it. Once a day our Associate Librarian (who rocks so hard it's barely legal) moves all the little people to their new position. It's a lot of work (THANKS TERESA!) but it seems to be very popular up here. Mitch Seavey had to withdraw due to an injured hand which makes me sad. So now I'm rooting for his son - Go Dallas!
   
   
5. I fell into Graphic Novels rather backwards. First I started ordering them for the library, then I started reading them, then I fell in love with them. I've reached the next stage. I'm thinking about taking home an anime to watch this weekend. I'm already kinda crazy with the knitting things so hopefully someone will stop me before I'm going to conventions in costume. (There's nothing wrong with going to conventions in costume but I'd prefer to limit the number of consuming crazy-making passions I have and I want to go to knitting conventions.)
   

Review of Lunch Lady

I update so rarely, that I pretty much only assume people are reading this blog if they stumbled upon it on a google search. Since I often do searches on "activity/activities" and the book title before book club, someone else must be doing them too. I have a goal of updating at least once a week until I have the chance to get through my backlog of notes on book clubs. Today I will not be talking about kids' book club though.

Recently (at the beginning of this year, so 10 months ago) I became the buyer for our library for children's graphic novels (well all of 700s but mainly graphic novels). I've always enjoyed them, but now I'm trying to be educated about it. Our collection of graphic novels was almost non-existent beyond Tin-Tin and Garfield, so I've been building up from scratch. I've been buying at a large pace for 10 months and the shelves are still bare. I take that as a success. If all my graphic novels were in, they wouldn't fit on the shelves currently allotted to them. They're always all checked out. It's also usually one of the messier (more heavily browsed) sections and they end up on the reshelve cart with great frequency. So as much as I buy and add, I haven't yet hit saturation, heavens I'm not keeping up with demand. But it's a fun challenge. And so today I review one of our newest acquisitions.

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Knopf, 2009, available in a library binding
Lunch Lady Website

I of course must begin this review by saying that I am morally obligated to despise anything that portrays librarians as less than the beacons of hope and pillars of society that we are. Got that? Great, moving on.

I was thrilled to get this book because I love Jarrett Krosoczka, especially Punk Farm. Many is the time I've lost my voice after a particularly energetic storytime performance with those guys.

Starting with the cover, and to be honest that is where my library kids start, and all is good. I hate comparisons, but they're useful, so here goes. Lunch Lady is similar in size and look to Babymouse. Except where Babymouse only uses (shades of) three colors (black, white and pink), Lunch Lady only uses (shades of) three colors (black, white, and yellow).

Inside artwork: it is still only those three colors, but you won't miss the rest of the palette. The resulting artwork is deceptively simple and striking. This book has a lot of shelf appeal, especially to both genders. (I have yet to convince a single boy to check out Babymouse.) There are a mix of sizes and styles of panels, from traditional (aka newspaper style) small square panels to double page spreads. The variety keeps it entertaining and allow for more flexibility in the storytelling which Krosoczka uses admirably.

Plot and writing: I started with the second one since for reasons known only to our distributor it arrived before the first volume despite being ordered at the same time. It worked just fine to read out of order which is always a huge plus in the library world, where we often hope to convince kids to take what is available no matter which volume it is. For the plot, once again we have evil librarians. They've taken all their fundraising money, stolen fundraising money from the cheerleaders (this librarian thinks our severely underfunded, having to take mandatory furlough, closed three days a week libraries could use the extra cash and doesn't see what is so evil about that) and are plotting world domination (a world run by librarians might work better, perhaps we should give it a try, still not evil). They've used the purloined fundraising money to buy deadly weapons (okay probably evil) and are setting out to sabotage the latest video game system so kids will read. And what is super cool (and not at all evil) is that their weapons are books that release "Book Beasts" such as the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia.

I'll end the plot description at the risk of being too spoilery. Let's just say I have ambiguous feelings about the end, but I know the kids will love it. The writing doesn't feel that he stretched for too epic, or kept it too simple, but just right. There is a lot of action, massive fight scenes, and plenty of humor. While most kids will like the action, I appreciated (and I know many kids who will as well) the small, almost throwaway, bits of referential humor.

Cross Appeal/ Age Appeal: This will appeal to readers of Babymouse, Sardine in Outer Space, etc. Primarily ages 5 to 10 depending on reading level. I think it will appeal to a wide range as it is neither too hard for the younger guys nor too babyish for the older ones. I can tell you that all of the library's copies were checked out within hours of hitting the shelves.

Overall Conclusion: This book gets an A. (It only didn't get an A+ because librarians aren't really evil.) If you're a librarian with a graphic novel collection, buy the two that are already out. Go ahead and order the next two he's announced. (I have.) If you're looking for a gift for a reluctant reader, try this.