Sidekicks

Captain Amazing is the greatest superhero around. Unfortunately, he is also starting to feel the weight of his age and decides to hold auditions for a new sidekick. Who better to take on the role than his beloved pets, who long to spend more time with their master and help him save Metro City from evildoers. But Roscoe the dog and Fluffy the hamster's dreams may be cut short - Captain Amazing hasn't been too keen on a pet sidekick ever since an unfortunate incident with his cat Manny. Still, Fluffy is determined to make a difference and recruits Manny to train him and the Captain's new chameleon in the art of being sidekicks. But there is also a supervillain at large with a personal vendetta against Captain Amazing. Can these four pets set aside their differences and save the day?

When it comes down to it, Sidekicks is a fairly typical superhero story. But even if the story itself isn't completely surprising, it's still a ton of fun to read and will surely appeal to fans of the genre. The pacing is very tight, giving this graphic novel a bit of intensity that will keep readers turning the pages. What really makes this graphic novel stand up above the rest is author/illustrator Dan Santat's brilliant artwork. The pictures are incredibly bold and vibrant with just the right amount of extra detail. Color is used to perfect effect and really helps to set the tone of each scene.

But don't just take my world for it. Let this lovely book trailer entice you to grab a copy today:



Overall Grade: A-

Library Wars: Love and War

I'm absolutely convinced that if I were to write a children's book, I'd write about libraries. Every library in the US would purchase a copy because we librarians have just as much vanity about the awesomeness of our jobs as the next person - perhaps more because our jobs actually are that awesome.

So needless to say, a book titled, Library Wars was certain to grab my attention. The premise of this graphic novel has been seen before: In Japan's not-to-distant future books are being censored and "inappropriate" titles are confiscated by a federal government task force. Not cool, say the librarians. They in turn form their own task force to oppose the censors and keep their materials safe for public use. What makes this rendition of the concept interesting is that many of the librarians on this task force are trained in combat along with librarianship. Sweet! These aren't your grandma's librarians. Members of the Library Defense Force are capable of finding whatever it is you need, but also kick butt on behalf of freedom of information.

Enter our main character, Iku Kasahara. She has dreamed of being part of the Library Defense Force ever since her teens when a gallant Defense Force member rescued a book for her when the government attempted to confiscate it. She looks up to this mysterious man as her hero, her idol, her knight in shining armor and dreams of meeting him again. Iku is actually very good at the combat training and has passion in spades for the cause, but lacks focus and has fallen behind on her library studies. She repeatedly butts heads with her superior officer (who she is convinced is out to get her) and one of the other new Defense Force recruits. Antics ensue.

Keeping the characters straight was kind of tricky in the beginning because several of the characters have fairly similar designs. But once you get it all straight and figure out each character's subtle quirks you see that the art is clean and interesting to look at. As is the case with almost all manga imported from Japan, this graphic novel reads "backwards" from right to left which may be tricky to those unused to the style, but is easy enough to get the hang of with a little patience. And not that this first volume wasn't a lot of fun, but I have a feeling that as the series progresses and characters become better developed the story quality will improve as well. All in all, it's a fun story and I will happily track down the rest of the series.

Overall Grade: A-

Owly

I have yet another confession: I'm a sucker for adorable animals. Anything small and fuzzy or fluffy with big eyes will do.

And yet another confession: I'm a huge sucker for owls.

So you can only imagine my delight when I discovered Owly!

One of my favorite graphic novel series, created by Andy Runton, features an adorable little owl named Owly. Owly is incredibly sweet and generous and loves helping everyone around him in the forest. Unfortunately, Owly is also rather lonely living alone in his treehouse. One day he rescues a little worm and nurses him back to health. Wormy is very nervous at first - after all, owls usually eat little guys like him! But soon Wormy begins to realize that Owly is a good friend. Throughout the series Owly and Wormy have many adventures together, making new friends along the way and learning that friendship takes on many forms.

There's no denying that the artwork in these graphic novels is adorable. It's all done in black and white line drawings, and all of the characters are round and sweet and expressive. The characters' expressiveness is especially important when you consider the coolest thing about these books - they're practically wordless. Owly, Wormy, and their friends have lots of dialogue, but when you look inside the speech bubbles you'll see picture symbols instead of words. Why is that so cool? Because anyone can read it! You don't need to have an incredible vocabulary or be able to sound out words to appreciate this story since you just have to be able to interpret the pictures. That means that a child in Kindergarten who can't read yet, a 4th grader, a kid who grew up speaking another language, and these kids' parents will all be able to read and enjoy Owly together.

Just as an example, let's take a look at a page from Owly and Friends, which was created to celebrate Free Comic Book Day in 2008:

In the top panel, we see Owly standing amongst some potted plants and a greenhouse. Look at Owly's hands and the symbols in the speech bubble. By putting the two together, we can guess that Owly is calling for Wormy, who seems to be missing form this picture.

In the next panel, Wormy appears. He's made himself known, and the question mark in the speech bubble indicates that he has a question. Perhaps he's asking Owly what he wants.

Next, Owly tucks a scarf around Wormy's neck. The picture of the thermometer and the arrow, along with the scarf, indicate that Owly is explaining that the weather is getting colder.

In the bottom-left panel, Wormy's face is concerned. There's another question mark in his speech bubble, so he has a question. Look at the picture before the question mark - the plants all have their own scarves. Wormy seems to be asking if they'll give the plants their own scarves to protect them from the cold.

Owly answers Wormy's question in the last panel. There's a slash through the picture that Wormy had used to ask his question, so we can assume that Owly has said that they will not be giving the plants scarves. The next speech bubble illustrates a solution - they will put the plants inside the greenhouse during the winter.

See, that wasn't too hard at all! To read Owly, we just need to take clues from the illustrations and combine them with the symbols in the speech bubbles to understand their meaning.

So if you're looking for a comic with adorable characters, strong messages about friendship and generosity, and something accessible to a wide range of children, Owly is for you! The very first book in the series is Owly: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer but each graphic novel stands strongly on its own and they can be read in any order.

Overall Grade: A+

Rapunzel's Revenge

I adore fractured fairy tales. "But what is a fractured fairy tale?" you may be wondering. Well, this is when an author takes a well-known story or fairy tale and does something to change it. Maybe the author changes the setting, so that Cinderella now takes place on the African savanna. Or maybe instead of telling the story from the three pigs' point of view, we get the Big Bad Wolf's story. Or maybe we even get to see exactly what happens after Sleeping Beauty marries Prince Charming. Often, the normally weak female characters found in fairy tales become strong and take control of their own destinites. But whatever happens, a fractured fairy tale turns the story that we know on its head, making it unique in some way.

Rapunzel's Revenge is an absolutely brilliant fractured fairy tale in the form of a graphic novel, written by the excellent Shannon Hale (author of Princess Academy) and her husband Dean Hale, and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation to the writers). In this story, Rapunzel grows up happily inside Mother Gothel's villa behind a tall wall, but with every luxury she could ask for. But when she climbs over the wall on her twelfth birthday, Rapunzel discovers that Gothel is a terrible slave master and that her real mother is working in her mines. Gothel, who controls some powerful growth magic that can make plants either grow tall and beautiful of shrivel up and die, punishes Rapunzel by locking her inside the trunk of a very tall tree. After many years, Rapunzel escapes this prison on her own with the help of her 20-foot long braids, which she uses like a lasso. Now that she is free, Rapunzel vows to return home and rescue her mother from the mines and free the rest of the world from Mother Gothel's selfish cruelty.

I was very impressed with this graphic novel. The illustrations are excellent and really go a long way in helping to tell the story. Rapunzel's sidekick Jack, who readers will soon recognize as a character from another beloved fairy tale, is incredibly hilarious and his fairly complicated character is lovable. I also loved the magical Wild West setting that this story was placed in, and Rapunzel's whip/lasso tricks with her hair are pretty awesome. If you're looking for a great story with some familiar characters, but with a very strong heroine, this is definitely the book for you.

Overall Grade: A+

And, best of all, I hear that a sequel is in the works! Currently using the working title of Calamity Jack, this book should be available next year, and I absolutely can't wait.