Baker and Taylor, long a vendor in the library and book selling world, has ventured into publishing original titles in the last few years. This is one of their new graphic novel series, aimed at beginning and intermediate readers.
The story opens with sibling dragons Forsynthia and Daisy playing “Freezy Fairies” in the yard. Their mom arrives to call them in to say goodbye to their dad who’s leaving for work and to welcome the helicopter delivering her new lab.
Pause the story while Forsynthia explains the history of magic, her mom’s job investigating strange objects and inventing new magical devices for the Secret Magic Bureau, and a few past incidents. After the readers are caught up to speed, Forsynthia and Daisy join their mom in her new science lab to unpack the latest delivery, a mysterious crystal, and they excitedly set out to run errands to different secret facilities across town to research the crystal and its powers.
Unfortunately, their research goes wrong when the sisters and their Nan make a special treat for their mom’s birthday and the yummy cupcakes get mixed up with the crystal’s powers! The city is soon overrun with sentient cupcakes wreaking havoc! Fortunately, with some help from their Nan and some secret weapons from their mom’s stash, Forsynthia and Daisy manage to save the day, just in time for Dad to arrive home… with cupcakes!
I, personally, did not enjoy the palette of colors or the style. It’s very sleek and digital, with a cartoonish cast but the art has an amateurish, uneven look. It’s extremely difficult to tell the female dragons apart – they are all a pale green with purple spots, a large purple oval on their belly, and sprigs of purple “hair.” Nan has a few curls instead of purple sprigs and the father, shown only in one panel at the beginning and a few at the end, has a thick head of dark purple hair. They look like they are wearing dragon suit pajamas.
The backgrounds range through blue, purple, orange and green (yes, it’s a little difficult to see green dragons against a green background) with faint polka dots. Oddly drawn magical or scientific devices pop up throughout the story, but they’re not really drawn in a way that lets readers see how they could, theoretically, work. There are inconsistencies – the mom’s lab is beige when it’s dropped off and has suddenly turned red to match the rest of the house a few pages later – and the shades of various colors shift from page to page.
Some of the things in the story, like the crystal from “Amadula Dooba” felt like stereotyped tropes while others could have used a little more “trope”—what’s the point of featuring “dragons” who can’t fly, breathe fire or actually do any magic? However, it’s a cute idea and most kids at this reading level are not going to be particularly critical about the art style. They’ll enjoy the goofy gadgets and silly cupcakes—talking food is always good for a laugh.
If you are in dire need of more graphic novels at this age range, this is an acceptable addition to the collection, but there are many other fantasy, humor, and STEM-themed graphic titles for beginners that I would be sure are on your shelves before purchasing this series.
Forsynthia: Rise of the cupcakes By Rachel Dinunzio Paw Prints (Baker & Taylor), 2024 ISBN: 9781223187921
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9), Middle Grade (7-11)
Shay Melendez is a human working for the Ghoul Agency, an advertising company in a highly competitive market of humans and supernatural beings. From Action Lab, Gene Selassie and Orlando Baez deliver The Dagmar, the first volume in this series of inter-office politics and supernatural corporate scheming.
The Dagmar unfolds in a somewhat episodic story that gradually builds into a larger narrative. With a quirky cast of characters who often struggle to mesh into a functional corporate entity, the story opens with Shay jumping into the fray to salvage a faltering corporate contract—bringing herself to the attention of the board of directors in the process. What follows is an escalating series of events as the Ghoul Agency goes to war against one of their largest competitors over a lucrative new contract. Office espionage, personal ambitions, and the threat of eternal banishment collide as Shay and her golem assistant, Greer, rush to stay ahead of a situation rapidly spinning out of control.
The idea of a paranormal ad agency is a fun one, with lots of potential for comedy and zany hijinks. It’s clear that Selassie intended to create a workplace comedy in these pages. Unfortunately, the end result falls remarkably flat in humor and storytelling. Most of the characters are underdeveloped, existing either in the background or as perpetual punchlines never given the time to shine on their own. Even Shay, who sits at the center of the narrative, is hardly better developed, despite her implied family difficulties and ability to command respect. The narrative, similarly, jolts from place to place with minimal development beyond the superficial: Shay is good at her job. Another company behaves unethically. Shay is the only one who can stop them—but not without the help of her friends. It’s a basic plot delivered in rough strokes and never given the chance to shine in comedy, character, or story.
Baez’s art also fell short for me. Stylized and cartoonish, it fits the unserious tone of the book well enough, maintaining distinct characters and occasional moments of supernatural humor. Unfortunately, the disjointed story doesn’t translate well to comic panels. There are never any particularly gripping moments in the illustrations, and I found myself skimming over the images as I was waiting for the book to reach its inevitable conclusion. Baez is not untalented, but this book is not a great showcase of what he’s likely capable of.
Action Lab doesn’t give an age rating for this title. Though there’s nothing particularly objectionable in the content, the book would probably be most appealing to older teens and adults due simply to its focus on the world of corporate advertising and office politics. The most engaging moments come from the fleeting humor of one member of the board of directors known simply as The Elder, a haunting grim reaper-like being who is always primed to mete out supernatural punishment. Even with that, there’s simply not much here to appreciate for an ambiguous target audience of kids or adults. I went in with high hopes and, regrettably, The Ghoul Agency‘s first volume just doesn’t deliver much beyond a premise full of potential.
The Ghoul Agency, Vol. 01: The DAGMAR By Gene Selassie Art by Orlando Baez Action Lab, 2022 ISBN: 9781632296177
Publisher Age Rating: ages 9-12 NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Those that know the name Steve Niles are likely familiar with his seminal work, 30 Days of Night, which had vampires run amok in an Alaska town where the nights, as the title says and to the vampires’ delight, last around 30 days. Horror fans were also delighted with the story, which led to subsequent sequels and a feature film starring Josh Hartnett. Helping to popularize horror comic books in the early 2000’s, Niles has been steadily working on horror comics and more mainstream superhero titles. That said, his latest comic, a supernatural story called Brynmore, doesn’t live up to Niles’s reputation.
Forgoing vampires, the terror in this tale comes from a multigenerational curse. Walking into that curse is Mark Turner, a recently divorced and recently sober man who returns to his hometown of Turner Island to try and find his emotional footing, even though Mark’s family name is as welcomed by the locals as a beached whale carcass at low tide. That’s because Mark’s ancestors brought a curse to the island, one that Mark accidentally releases when he releases Brynmore. Now Mark must avoid the supernatural terror closing around the island but he must also escape the anger of the townspeople.
The structure of Brynmore is so evident, Niles could have plugged the elements in on a flow chart: man comes back to hometown where he’s not wanted, Mark accidentally unleashes ancient evil, and Mark and others (including the zombie/monster/superhero Brynmore) are the only ones who can stop it. There seems to be an overall lack of details that would flesh out the characters, explain their motivations, or move the plot along in a logical fashion. Story elements merely happen and the readers are whiplashed from one plot point to the next. This is rather disappointing, considering how strongly the first issue opens. That first issue does a thorough job leaving the proper breadcrumbs of a mystery that will draw readers, and the subsequent issues squander that potential.
If anything can draw readers away from Niles’s barely there story, it’s the artwork by Damien Worm, who adds a distinct and measured aesthetic to Turner’s Island. All of the backgrounds are rendered in the somber colors of a Southern Gothic novel. Porches and docks look ready to creak once someone steps on them and shadows pool around everything once the sun goes down. The titular Brynmore, looking less something from Southern Gothic and more like a centerpiece of a supernatural superhero comic, draws the eye with a look that is somehow both handsome and dour, like the stone statue atop a crypt that has come to life.
Though the book has some delightfully dark eye candy, the story within makes me hesitant to recommend it, especially since there’s so much better examples of Niles’ work, whether its 30 Days of Night and its spinoffs or his other forays into horror like “Remains,” where it’s zombies in Las Vegas. The slow pace of Brynmore doesn’t help Niles. His best work involves people pushed against the wall by a terror that’s relentlessly coming for them.
Brynmore By Steve Niles Art by Damien Worm IDW, 2024 ISBN: 9798887240640
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
When she was a little girl, Alice visited Wonderland and had many wonderful adventures. She also made many friends. Unfortunately, as she grew older, Alice found it harder and harder to return to Wonderland. She also found more and more need to escape from the harsh reality of Victorian England, a distant father, and a family that only cares about her in regard to how she improves their social standing.
Alice’s need for something stronger than mushrooms to open the doorway to Wonderland leads to a life of crime and a growing addiction to strong drugs. This, in turn, leads Alice to commit herself to an insane asylum, not knowing her father was already considering such steps to cover up his own dark secrets. Unfortunately, the asylum holds new yet familiar dangers, leaving it uncertain that Alice will get the help she needs, or the permanent path to Wonderland she dreams of.
Alice Ever After is not the first graphic novel to offer a dark, twisted take on a classic Childrens’ story. It is not even the first graphic novel to offer a dark and twisted take on Alice in Wonderland. What it lacks in originality, however, it somewhat makes up in execution.
Best known for his work as an artist, Dan Panosian has been writing more in recent years. He provided some of the covers for Alice Ever After, and drew the intricate sequences set in Wonderland. For the most part, however, his duty here is to tell the tale and write the script.
There is a good deal of wit to the story, but Panosian does little to break the mold. One twist of note is that there are characters in the real world who correspond to Alice’s fantasy life in Wonderland, like her ever-smiling drug dealer becoming the Cheshire Cat. Curiously, there are also characters who are clear analogs of classic Wonderland characters, who are totally absent from Alice’s dreams. The corrupt head of the Asylum, for instance, is clearly meant to be the Queen of Hearts.
Unfortunately, little is done with this idea beyond suggesting that Alice’s adventures are the result of emotional neglect as a child and drug abuse as an adult. Panosian nails the execution, but the story is still sadly predictable, with no possibility that Alice really is traveling between worlds. Given that, I fear Wonderland enthusiasts are not likely to enjoy this story. The overall tone is more depressing than horrific. This is sadly true even in the later chapters, as the perils of the asylum are revealed, along with the dark secret that may have prompted Alice’s creation of Wonderland in the first place.
The artwork, at least, is well done. Giorgio Spalletta perfectly captures the mundane terrors of a Victorian asylum. And while I may quibble with Panosian’s story, I have no complaints about his art. Alas, that is not enough to save Alice Ever After. It is not a badly told tale, but it does nothing new with the Wonderland world and I question its ability to satisfy its target audience.
Boom! Studios has not given Alice Ever After an official age rating. I would suggest it is best read by Older Teens and Adults. While there’s little in terms of content to make it inappropriate for younger teens, I think the nuance of the horror elements are best appreciated by older audiences and readers who are wise beyond their years. Under no circumstances should this be read to children as a bedtime story!
Alice Ever After Vol. By Dan Panosian Art by Giorgio Spalletta BOOM! Studios, 2023 ISBN: 9781684158850
Related media: Classic to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Character Representation: Addiction, Ambiguous Mental Illness
Marie Blackwood lives in a world that contains magic and fear of those who have access to it from those who do not. Although witch hunts are no longer happening as often as they had, and the Church is working with the witches that remain, Marie understands that she is unwanted by most of the population. Because of this she survives on the fringes of her Edinburgh society. Alone until the Church delivers a teenage boy into her care. Theo is delivered in chains and is described as having the “blood of righteous anger.” He has also been alone for most of his life and doesn’t understand his abilities.
His first lesson happens almost immediately after the Church officiants leave. Marie explains that magic is the ability to see and negotiate with spirits. Theo also quickly learns that his power is extremely attractive to spirits, who will try to pressure him into making deals with them for access to his power. Marie is not only teaching him about his magic but also helping him socialize in a variety of social settings. From interacting with a non-magical optician, to eating breakfast in a busy pub, to visiting Paris for a magical convention, Marie and Theo encounter new experiences together along the way.
This did not feel like a first volume of a new series. Although it did explain some of the magic system and provided some historical context for world building purposes, the character development and explanation of key phrases (e.g. blood of righteous anger), when most of the characters clearly know what it means, did not support the plot in an engaging way. This felt more like a spin-off where the author expected the reader to have some knowledge of a different plot or cast of characters and was trying to build on that. However, I did some digging and did not find any related media.
Since I’ve only read the first volume, I’m not sure where the plot or character development spins from here, but I’m hoping that the author focuses on something quickly to keep the reader engaged and wanting more of the story. I did enjoy the magic system and world building that the author shared, but I am more interested in the characters and their growth than just the background they interact with. I do enjoy the art style though, and it is a large component of why I want to read at least volume two. The line art is delicate but strong enough to support a depth of detail that enhances the world building and character design. It feels whimsical enough to support magic effects while holding enough weight to feel like the real world.
This story would appeal to teen readers who enjoy Witch Hat Atelier and The Ancient Magus’ Bride. Based on some of what was presented in the first volume, I expect the story to cover darker themes at some point.
Witch of Thistle Castle, Vol. 1 By John Tarachine Titan, 2023 ISBN: 9781787741416
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Horror readers might be familiar with the name Stephen Graham Jones. A writer of indigenous fiction that features slashers, werewolves, and vengeful spirits, Jones is steadily becoming a household name in horror. Having already won major horror and science fiction awards like the Stoker from the Horror Writers Association and the Locus Award from Locus magazine, Jones and his fiction has appeared on the New York Times best seller list. However, he’s not a writer who just rests on his laurels. Like many writers who’ve been in the writing game for a while, he isn’t just sticking to just one medium; he’s also broken into comics. His most recent foray into storytelling through words and pictures is Earthdivers Vol. 1: Kill Columbus. Illustrated by Davide Gianfelice, Earthdivers is a time travel epic about the dangers of trying to unravel history and how bloody such undertakings can be.
The book begins in a post-apocalyptic future, where much of humanity has retreated from a broken and dying earth. The story follows a group of indigenous survivors who discover a cave that allows those who enter to travel through time. These survivors decide that the only way to save the world is traveling back in time, killing Christopher Columbus, and preventing the creation of America. However, the man they send to accomplish this task, a linguist named Tad, might not have the skills or the mentality necessary to kill Columbus before he and his ships reach the New World. Not to mention that messing with any timeline is bound to create some truly horrifying consequences.
Though most of this story is head-spinning time travel science fiction, Jones’ signature style is obvious, not only in the subject matter as it deals with the plight of Indigenous peoples from different moments in time, but in how the story moves. Jones is foremost an efficient writer, never letting flowery language or unnecessary explanations slow down the plot. With the time travel narrative wreaking havoc on the order of events, readers will have to pay attention or lose track of what’s happening. That simply makes Jones’ story a roller coaster ride where readers will enjoy the story even if they feel like they’re gripping the safety bar with white knuckles. Sticking with Jones’ story will reward readers with a wild tale full of horror with occasional snatches of humor and heart.
And speaking of horror, Davide Gianfelice proves he is the right artist for Jones’ story. This story does get bloody and Gianfelice shows he has the chops to depict the red stuff flowing out of the body in a variety of ways while the supernatural elements (or whatever fever dream hallucinations Tad is seeing) can raise a reader’s hackles. He also shows a penchant for detailing more mundane details that help immerse readers. He depicts various characters, from the slightly futuristic-looking survivors to the surly sailors in the 15th century, in a way that grounds the story in reality before those characters’ bodies and minds are put through various traumas.
Writers often experiment with different mediums with varying levels of success. They might alienate fans of their earlier work or even show that are ill-equipped to create in the new medium. It is fortunate that Jones does not have that problem. This is a great choice for graphic novel selectors who want a robust horror section and is an excellent choice if the selector serves patrons who are fans of Stephen Graham Jones.
Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus By Stephen Graham Jones Art by Davide Gianfelice IDW, 2023 ISBN: 9798887240459
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
In this intermediate graphic novel, two goofy dogs go on a silly adventure, falling into fairy tales, getting chased by bees, and having all sorts of adventures along the way.
Tatertoes, a big white dog with orange ears and protruding front teeth, lives with his friend Mr. Schnozzer, a fluffy and mostly responsible terrier with a prominent nose. Tatertoes is trying to entertain himself on a rainy day when Mr. Schnozzer suggests Tatertoes might like to visit the mother he doesn’t remember at the Jingleberry Puppy Farm in the town of Buzzard’s Breath and the two set off.
Along the way they share multiple puns, misunderstandings, fall into quicksand, and nearly get eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. Schnozzer does his best to be patient with Tatertoes, but it’s hard when he packs a yo-yo instead of food, hits a “candy bag” (wasp nest) with a stick, and finds a fluffy “kitty cat” (bear cub). However, they manage to make it to their destination in the end and all ends well.
While the advanced review copy I received was mostly in black and white, there were sample pages of the finished copy in color. The art style has a classic newspaper comic feel with typical cartoon faces – big eyes and tiny pupils, exaggerated features, and a simple palette of colors. There isn’t a lot of background or scenery, mostly the forest the two are traveling through, and the emphasis is on the dogs’ deadpan faces as Tatertoes cluelessly falls into problem after problem, with Schnozzer trying to fix things. Some of the panels are set against backgrounds, but the bulk follow the traditional pattern of simple white borders around each panel with the dialogue mainly consisting of jokes and exclamations while the action moves through the artwork.
This is Stromoski’s first graphic novel and he is primarily a comic strip cartoonist, so it’s no surprise that this shows a lot of the traditional comic strip humor – some of which I found uncomfortable and which makes me question including it in a library collection. Tatertoes has, as previously mentioned, prominent buck teeth and also drops in and out of specific speech patterns and quirky made-up words “I don’t have a remember of my mother” or “I thinks we need to rescue them before they get cooked.” It constantly made me think of outdated humor that specifically pokes fun at people with mental disabilities or specific ethnic groups. On the other hand, they’re dogs, not people. Tatertoes sometimes turns the table on the supposedly more intelligent Schnozzer, like pulling out a pair of compasses instead of a directional compass or telling Schnozzer “You need to work on your articulation” when he hears “no spiders” as “nose spiders”.
This new series is heavily blurbed by popular creators like Patrick McDonnell and Terri Libenson and ultimately librarians will have to decide if they find the humor stereotyped and negative, or if it really is just a pair of dogs being silly and a fun new graphic novel series that will appeal to fans of similar humor. If you decide to pass on this, alternatives would include Pea, Bee, and Jay, Waffles and Pancake, or The Inflatables. However, this will certainly appeal to fans of Jim Benton and similar goofy series like Gustav & Henri, so if you have a lot of requests for super silly comics this might be a good fit for your collection.
Schnozzer & Tatertoes Take a Hike! Vol. 1 By Rick Stromoski Union Square Kids, 2023 ISBN: 9781454948315
The Prophet: A Graphic Novel Adaptation is A. David Lewis’s attempt to translate the groundbreaking work of Kahlil Gibran from 1923 to the graphic novel world of 2023. In the afterword, Lewis says, “In his lifetime, Gibran was known not only as a poet and writer but also as a visual artist and philosopher. From reading his biographies and his notes, I became convinced that a multimodal approach to The Prophet, one that incorporated both word and image, would be entirely in keeping with his legacy.” This is an extremely daunting prospect. For context, The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, it is one of the most translated and best-selling books of all time. The original work is 26 prose poetry fables collected and revised over a number of years which didn’t become a hit overnight, but has slowly grown in popularity and been studied extensively. I know that this was assigned reading for friends in high school, but it was new to me at this reading.
The story opens with an old man sitting on a bluff overlooking the sea. “Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese… and he beheld his ship coming with the mist. His joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul.” As he sees the ship approaching their island, he’s overcome with the chance to return home, but also feels deeply how leaving will affect him and others. He has the sailors wait and goes to bid the citizens goodbye, only to have them all ask him to speak on different themes. He’s asked to speak on love, marriage, children, giving, laws, freedom, pain, friendship, prayer, death and more. To all of these he gives long answers in a tone that is both reverential and contemplative.
Credit to artist Justin Rentería for what he accomplished in black and white here. It has been described as, “a 1920’s Ottoman-inspired style”. Lewis says, “Justin and I tried to maintain a semi-timeless feeling for the setting and its citizens: no technology, no jargon, no potential anachronisms. The culture is a mix of several civilizations, not the least of which is Gibran’s own Lebanon.” Rentería accomplishes this and helps deliver a familiar yet foreign world that feels like home for these strange characters. I feel like the art is the strength of this book trying to help paint the picture the words alone can’t.
I can certainly see this book finding a home in high school and college libraries as it tries to find an audience with people who may struggle with the original text. I would undoubtedly have been one of those people, I found this to be incredibly cumbersome and very slow to read. The original text has been described as “heady” and “cerebral,” which feels generous. At 100 years old, I think the accomplishment of the graphic novel is to provide clarity and context that doesn’t exist otherwise as this isn’t conversational or traditional narrative. Framing this story with illustrations and characters we can identify makes it a much more manageable book.
The Prophet: A Graphic Novel Adaptation By A. David Lewis Art by Justin Rentería Graphic Mundi, 2023 ISBN: 9781637790502
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
A dare. A house rumored to be cursed. A doorway that leads… elsewhere. Six classmates. And the things that came back with them from the other side.
Daniel and Emily are tentative friends, both outsiders from the cool crowd at their school. As the story opens, a run-in with four of the popular kids raises tensions and the story soon reveals that each of the six has more going on at home than meets the eye. But it’s Halloween season, a time for fun and thrills. By chance, the six meet up at a ruined home that is the subject of dark rumors and vague fear among the citizens. Trash talking turns to challenges and the six step across that threshold in an effort to prove they are not afraid. But the door is a portal and what they find on the other side is the stuff of nightmares.
Dropped back into reality a short time later, each teenager finds themselves changed. Struggling to understand surprising new abilities and reckoning with the changes to their interpersonal dynamics, the experience is hard enough to process on its own. But something came back with them—something that has its sights set on one of their own, and it doesn’t plan to stop there. From rivals to allies, the lives of their town will soon rest in the hands of these six teens struggling to find their own places in the world.
From Seismic Press and AfterShock Comics, The Darkness We Brought Back is written by Alex Segura and Rex Ogle with art from Joe Eisma and Manuel Puppo. It’s an exciting premise billed as The Chronicles of Narnia meets Stranger Things. Unfortunately, superficial writing and flat characters leave the premise always struggling to find its footing, even until the very last pages. Each of the characters feels plucked from a standard YA school drama and the dialogue is always delivered in the most obvious terms. The plentiful conflicts and disagreements never offer any depth or carry any substantial weight. The insights we gain into these characters’ lives are only the most basic, and even character growth and shifting relationships happen largely in the margins of the story. From a group of young people grappling with coming of age, to a literal fight against a creature from another realm, the story feels largely like an outline of story beats committed to paper before having the chance to be fleshed out in any meaningful way.
The art, at least, is clean and easy to view, reminiscent at times of Paper Girls though with a wider color palate and a style seemingly aimed at a slightly younger readership. Eisma brings us through the bustling hallways of a school, across the threshold of a house barely left standing, into nightmare realms of another existence, and back again. For both the paranormal and the everyday, the art focuses the character emotions as well as the paranormal action that thrusts the story forward. All in all, the visuals are perfectly serviceable for the story being delivered.
AfterShock gives The Darkness We Brought Back an age rating of 13+ and this feels like a perfectly suitable age recommendation. There’s some language, violence, and frightening images throughout, as well as some more intense sequences over the course of the story, but none of this content is particularly lingered on or delivered in graphic detail.
In the end, this title lays out a stronger premise than it delivers. There are so many dynamics at play here that could have gone deeper, allowing the story to be more than a rehash of so many other YA dramas. However, if you have a readership starving for more paranormal YA content in the vein of Stranger Things, this title might be enough to meet that need, at least temporarily. If not, then consider spending your money elsewhere.
The Darkness We Brought Back By Alex Segura, Rex Ogle Art by Joe Eisma Seismic Press, 2023 ISBN: 9781956731279
Publisher Age Rating: 13+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Garvey’s Choice joins a long line of books adapted as a graphic novel. The original Garvey’s Choice is a novel in verse by Nikki Grimes. Garvey struggles to connect with his dad, who expects him to be someone who he is not. It is told in a series of poems in the Japanese Tanka style. The book which came out in 2016 has been popular with middle grade readers, for good reason. It’s a heartwarming story about finding your voice, and the poetry of Nikki Grimes is poignant and deep while using few words.. I am a huge fan of her writing, and was excited to read this book.
Garvey is a young black boy in a larger body. He loves science fiction, space, and reading, however, his father wants him to play sports. The relationship between father and son is strained. They have a difficult time relating to each other, and in general Garvey struggles with feelings of isolation and loneliness. Over the course of the book, Garvey finds his voice through music, with his friends, and eventually with his family.
The Tanka style is discussed in an author note at the end of both the original book and the graphic novel. It is a format that originated in Japan. Each poem is five lines long, with specific syllable patterns, however, Grimes does not follow the syllable counts exactly. The poetry style which focuses on mood and emotion, fits Garvey’s character arc on his journey to find himself.
Theodore Taylor III illustrates the graphic novel in a bright cartoonish style, similar to that of Jerry Craft’s New Kid. The graphic novel illustrates the characters, plot, and poetic metaphors from the original book, but doesn’t necessarily add much depth to the mood or themes. The best parts of the graphic novel are from the poetry text. And while, I do not think the illustrated format adds much to the story, I do think it is a great purchase for elementary collections, because of the illustrations. Poetry can be an intimidating format for some readers. In condensing text to verse, some context must be implied rather than stated, which can be confusing for some. By illustrating the entire text through the graphic novel format, that context is no longer implied but clearly shown, which can provide a strong scaffold for some readers.
The graphic novel text is fairly similar to Grime’s original verse. There are times that the wording of the poems is adjusted, and they switch up the order of some poems, but for the most part, the text of the graphic novel is very consistent with the book. Lines from the poems are turned into speech bubbles or as narration on the page. Some of the poems are told over the course of a two-page spread, sometimes multiple poems share the spread, but most are confined to one page. The illustrated metaphors add weight to Garvey’s emotional journey.
Notably, a large part of the novel explores Garvey’s relationship with his weight, which is also a source of contention with his dad. But Garvey isn’t illustrated with a body size that is noticeably larger than other characters. He is round, but so is everyone else. I think this is a missed opportunity for body representation.
While not perfect, I think the graphic novel Garvey’s Choice is a strong purchase for elementary collections, especially if novels in verse or books by Grimes are used in the curriculum. In such cases, this graphic novel adaptation could be a good supplement. Either way, Garvey’s Choice is an excellent book and story, whether you read it in the original format or as a graphic novel.
Garvey’s Choice Vol. By Nikki Grimes Art by Theodore Taylor III Wordsong, Astra Publishing House, 2023 ISBN: 9781662660085
Publisher Age Rating: 9-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11) Creator Representation: Black, Character Representation: Black,
years. This is one of their new graphic novel series, aimed at beginning and intermediate readers.
Sometimes monsters need ad campaigns, too.
amok in an Alaska town where the nights, as the title says and to the vampires’ delight, last around 30 days. Horror fans were also delighted with the story, which led to subsequent sequels and a feature film starring Josh Hartnett. Helping to popularize horror comic books in the early 2000’s, Niles has been steadily working on horror comics and more mainstream superhero titles. That said, his latest comic, a supernatural story called Brynmore, doesn’t live up to Niles’s reputation.
Unfortunately, as she grew older, Alice found it harder and harder to return to Wonderland. She also found more and more need to escape from the harsh reality of Victorian England, a distant father, and a family that only cares about her in regard to how she improves their social standing.
Marie Blackwood lives in a world that contains magic and fear of those who have access to it from those who do not. Although witch hunts are no longer happening as often as they had, and the Church is working with the witches that remain, Marie understands that she is unwanted by most of the population. Because of this she survives on the fringes of her Edinburgh society. Alone until the Church delivers a teenage boy into her care. Theo is delivered in chains and is described as having the “blood of righteous anger.” He has also been alone for most of his life and doesn’t understand his abilities.
Horror readers might be familiar with the name Stephen Graham Jones. A writer of indigenous fiction that features slashers, werewolves, and vengeful spirits, Jones is steadily becoming a household name in horror. Having already won major horror and science fiction awards like the Stoker from the Horror Writers Association and the Locus Award from Locus magazine, Jones and his fiction has appeared on the New York Times best seller list. However, he’s not a writer who just rests on his laurels. Like many writers who’ve been in the writing game for a while, he isn’t just sticking to just one medium; he’s also broken into comics. His most recent foray into storytelling through words and pictures is Earthdivers Vol. 1: Kill Columbus. Illustrated by Davide Gianfelice, Earthdivers is a time travel epic about the dangers of trying to unravel history and how bloody such undertakings can be.
having all sorts of adventures along the way.
The Prophet: A Graphic Novel Adaptation is A. David Lewis’s attempt to translate the groundbreaking work of Kahlil Gibran from 1923 to the graphic novel world of 2023. In the afterword, Lewis says, “In his lifetime, Gibran was known not only as a poet and writer but also as a visual artist and philosopher. From reading his biographies and his notes, I became convinced that a multimodal approach to The Prophet, one that incorporated both word and image, would be entirely in keeping with his legacy.” This is an extremely daunting prospect. For context, The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, it is one of the most translated and best-selling books of all time. The original work is 26 prose poetry fables collected and revised over a number of years which didn’t become a hit overnight, but has slowly grown in popularity and been studied extensively. I know that this was assigned reading for friends in high school, but it was new to me at this reading.
A dare. A house rumored to be cursed. A doorway that leads… elsewhere. Six classmates. And the things that came back with them from the other side.
Grimes. Garvey struggles to connect with his dad, who expects him to be someone who he is not. It is told in a series of poems in the Japanese Tanka style. The book which came out in 2016 has been popular with middle grade readers, for good reason. It’s a heartwarming story about finding your voice, and the poetry of Nikki Grimes is poignant and deep while using few words.. I am a huge fan of her writing, and was excited to read this book.
