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Book Suggestions for November, 2007
New Graphic Novels in the Library-- pleasing to the mind and the eye!
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The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci
"As Jane walks past a sidewalk cafe in Metro City, a terrorist's bomb goes off. Her parents, overtaken by fear, move the family to the small town of Kent Waters. The popular girls at Buzz Aldrin High court her, but Jane wants to be an outsider. She finds three other girls named Jane, all of them unpopular in different ways--one is "Brain Jane," one an aspiring actress and one an athlete--and together the four of them make "art attacks" on the city, leaving the name P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods) wherever they go. They build pyramids on the site of a planned strip mall ("The pyramids lasted for thousands of years. Do you think this strip mall will?") and populate the police department's lawn with gnomes. But to a community consumed with elevated threat levels, the attacks seem more ominous than generous, and P.L.A.I.N. becomes an outlaw group." Publisher's Weekly, April 9, 2007 |
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Auschwitz by Pascal Croci
"Croci's intense graphic novel depicts an elderly couple as they recall their nightmarish experience at Auschwitz. The story's stunning present-day climax, which encompasses contemporary manifestations of hatred, strikingly conveys the message that the evil manifested at Auschwitz persists to this day. Croci based this work on interviews with concentration camp survivors, and he effectively depicts their grim existence in washed-out gray tones. Although the painstakingly rendered settings--the action takes place on the grounds of the camp, in the barracks, and, most gruesomely, inside the gas chambers--demonstrate extensive research, the artwork is most convincing in its rendering of the ravaged, bitter faces of the inmates." Booklist, March 15, 2004
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Anima vol. 1 by Natsumi Mukai
"Cooro fell from the sky when he was a baby, like a dark angel. He is a "+anima", or a human with some of the powers of an animal; in Cooro's case, he can grow the wings of a crow. Husky is also a +anima, with the abilities of a fish, and is being used as a circus freak in a traveling sideshow. The 11-year-old Cooro frees Husky, and the two flee together, trying to find a new home. In this world, normal humans hate and fear the +anima, even their children. Cooro and Husky soon meet others like themselves: the taciturn Senri, who grows claws like a bear, and the cute but hapless Nana, who has been using her bat abilities to pickpocket. The ragtag bunch agree to travel together and find a new family with each other. +Anima is unabashed shonen manga, with adorable, magical children with golden hearts and mysterious secrets yet to be revealed. " Publisher's Weekly, June 6, 2007 |
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Flight by Kazu Kibuishi (ed.)
"With truly stellar art from masters of the field, this fantasy anthology is a must for comics connoisseurs and a delight to readers who like pretty stories. Fanciful tales of children, monsters, fairy-filled forests and imagined worlds create an enchanted escape. Some of the stories are entirely wordless, while others are told from a child's point of view. " Publisher's Weekley, May 29, 2006
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Mouse Guard Fall 1152 by David Petersen
"After the war with the weasels, the Mouse Guard, headquartered at the fortress of Lockhaven, turned their energies to protecting travelers from predators in between the mice's hidden villages. When three of the Guard-Lieam, Kenzie, and the brash, young Saxon-are sent to find a missing rice merchant, they uncover a plot to overthrow Lockhaven's mistress, Gwendolyn, and replace the aid and support she provides to the villages with tyranny. Worse, they discover that rebellion's leader is himself a Guard member. The key to victory or defeat for the Guard rests in the legend of an ancient mouse hero, the Black Axe." Library Journal, July 1, 2007 |
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