Review Me Twice - My True Love Gave To Me by Multiple Authors

I am actually a big fan of anthologies.  I have the theory that, by sheer odds, you're eventually going to hit ONE story that you like in it.  And I did.  In fact, there were a number of stories that I liked in it.  I really liked the one by Rainbow Rowell, though probably more so because when I went to see her at Politics and Prose, she read it.

If you ever get the chance to hear an author read their own work, do it.  It's SO MUCH BETTER than what happens in my head (and what happened there was pretty good.)

Some were definitely better than others, because you have twelve authors and while some are great authors, not all of them are meant to be short story writers.  David Levithan's was not one of my favorites.  I love him, and I liked his better when I heard him read it out loud, but I still didn't enjoy his story as much as I have enjoyed his books.

But probably my favorite out of the whole batch was Gayle Foreman's.  It was funny and poignant and sweet and just a great story.  I thought it was well done and one of those stories that was satisfying where it ended but still full of potential.

The book was a good anthology, and definitely worth reading, especially if you're just looking for a nice Christmas book.

I promise, one of my New Year's resolutions is to read every single Review Me Twice book beginning to end. But it's still 2014, so I didn't finish this one. What I did read, though, I really loved. My favorite thing about anthologies (other than what Cassy mentioned above, finding at least ONE you like) is how different authors take different approaches to the same theme or topic. I think a major reason why I didn't manage to finish this book on time was that I had to put it down between stories (and there are a lot of stories... twelve, so sayeth the subtitle). I don't read different authors' short stories back to back. When the anthology is all the same author, I can read straight through, but I have to do that thing where you put it down and digest what you read before I can pick it back up in the multi-author situation.

Twelve Author Bios

This week, we actually have TWELVE authors, because we're reading a Christmas Anthology!!  So, I thought it might be fun to actually do a quick bio on each of them (and that means most of them will be almost directly copy and pasted from Goodreads.  So be prepared for that.)

Stephanie Perkins

Perkins writes novels for teens (and for adults who aren't afraid to admit that teen books are awesome). She was born in South Carolina, raised in Arizona, attended universities in San Francisco and Atlanta, and now lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

Her best friend is her husband Jarrod. Their house is almost a hundred years old, and every room is painted a different color of the rainbow. They share it with a cat named Mr. Tumnus.

She's always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. On weekdays, you'll find her at her desk, typing away, downing cups of coffee and tea. On the weekend, you'll find her at the movies, waiting for the actors to kiss. She believes all novels and films should have more kissing.

Holly Black

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Ally Carter

Ally Carter is a writer living and working in the Midwest. She loved school so much she kept going...and going...and going...until finally she had to graduate. Now she has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and a house and a job and other very grown-up things.

Her life is either very ordinary or the best deep-cover legend ever. She'd tell you more, but...well...you know...

Gayle Foreman

My name is Gayle Forman and I love to write young-adult novels. Because I do. So thank you for reading them. Because without you, it’d just be me. And the voices in my head.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications asJane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Jenny Han

(Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went on to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn.  She is the author of To All The Boys I Have Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty

David Levithan

David Levithan (born 1972) is an American children's book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

Kelly Link

Kelly Link is an American author of short stories born in 1969. Her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: sometimes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism.

Myra McEntire

Myra McEntire is an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best. She loves to search thrift stores for things to upcycle, as she’s a big believer in second chances. She lives with her two boys and husband near Nashville, Tennessee. Myra is the author of the Hourglass trilogy, which has been nominated for two RITAs and a YALSA Teen Top Ten, and was chosen as a SIBA Okra Pick. She’s currently contracted with Storybird, where she’s serializing a middle grade novel, called THE SHADOW GATE.

Matt De La Pena

Matt de la Peña is the author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels—Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You and The Living—as well as the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.

Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

Laini Taylor

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . about kissing. I am also an artist with a licensed gift product line called "Laini's Ladies."

Kiersten White

Hi! I'm the New York Times best-selling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally. I also give the most awkward hugs in the world. You should probably opt for one of my books over one of my hugs, but then again, maybe you like awkward hugs.

As for me, I like writing flirting scenes, and fighting scenes, and sometimes I write scenes that fall somewhere in between the two, but only if I can't avoid it.

And don't forget to enter our contest to win a signed copy of Unwind!!!

Review Me Twice: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Nope. Just... nope. Couldn't care less about this book. I don't say that to be mean; it's just not my cup of tea. And I don't even like tea. That might not be relevant.

Let me offer you some of the words and phrases from a summary of this book that are inconsistent with my interest in books: "Enigmatic message." "Terrorist plot." "Crime syndicate." "[He] wonders if his experiences were unavoidable due to fate." None of that falls in line with what I want to read about, so it's a personal thing. Lots of other people like this kind of thing... that's why this book got the Pulitzer.

It's a long book, too. So unless you're really into it, it will seem like it goes on forever.

This book was terrible.  I mean, as the person who suggested we read this book, I feel like I should personally apologize to Alex for forcing her to read it (and, let's be frank, I did.)  I'm not even sure if she read the whole thing.  If she didn't, I wouldn't blame her, because as the person who did it WAS TERRIBLE.

Really, at the end of the day, while I did enjoy the ending of the book, the pay off wasn't enough for the 700 pages of torture I was put through to get there.  I mean, just on and on and on, with this book.  If I'm going to sit through that much book, there better be a freakin' huge awesome ending.  And there wasn't.  There was a 'Meh, that was nice' ending.

So basically, don't bother with this book unless you really like long winded books.

And, just so you know, Goldfinch is the #1 unfinished bestseller.  Which means a ton of people buy it, and then around 80% of them never finish it.

Review Me Twice: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 1

You know how, if you haven't read/watched/personally experienced a certain pop culture phenomenon after it has risen to enormous popularity and perhaps has been around for a while, you've picked up little bits and pieces here and there? Like, your friends talk about it, Redditors post about it, SNL makes fun of it, whatever, and you can't help but learn little things here and there. Well, that happened to me with Sailor Moon. I had never watched and episode or read a page, but I knew the names and looks of all the Sailor Scouts, I knew about the little cat Luna, and I knew Tuxedo Mask was this major romantic interest of some kind.

And that's basically all I learned from reading this book. So maybe Volume 2 would be more informative.

As you may have learned on Wednesday, I don't read manga. I know how (protip: backwards) but I just... don't. So that was a little off-putting to have to get used to that.

Finally, as a 27-year-old who doesn't know any 12-year-old girls and didn't like them even when I was one, I hate having to listen to this brat. Usagi (Sailor Moon) is so annoying. She doesn't like school. Her only real interests are sleeping and playing games (which she repeats a few times). There is literally an exchange between her and Luna (yeah, the cat) where Luna tells her it's time to fight the bad guy and Usagi actually whines about it. You're a Guardian, princess whiny-pants! GUARD!!!

So to summarize... I'm not a fan. But I'm not a manga fan or a Sailor Moon fan. So that isn't too surprising, I suppose.

I admit that I look at Sailor Moon with tainted eyes.  Also, I look at it with the knowledge of what happens later in the series.  Is Usagi whiny?  Yes.  Is she annoying?  Yes.  Does she eat a lot and do terribly in school and just want to spend her time in an arcade?  All true things.

And, if you don't know what she's like, the first book can be very off-putting.  But I DO know.  I know that the character becomes incredibly loyal and protective of her friends.  I know that Usagi eventually gets better at school.  I know that she stops whining about fighting and takes up the call like a champ and a proper leader.  So it makes me hate her maybe not quite the way that Alex does.

Plus, I grew up with her, so I admit, I definitely have the nostalgia thing going for me.  The books (and anime) are crazy and ridiculous and so sappy I can't even handle it sometimes... but I still can't help but hold a special place in my heart for it.

Author Bio - Naoko Takeuchi

This week, we're getting into some Manga and reading Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi.

If you don't know what Sailor Moon is, well, then you've been living under a rock.  Oooorrr, maybe you just weren't a teenage girl in the '90s.  Lots of Takeuchi's life made it into Sailor Moon.  Usagi's (Sailor Moon's) family actually bear the same names as Takeuchi's family.

Takeuchi also went to school for Chemistry.  She actually got her degree in Chemestry and became a licensed pharmacists: a far cry from the work she did on Sailor Moon.  However, drawing was always a passion for her, what she wanted to do and chemistry was her back up plan.

She started drawing manga at 19 years old, for a company called Kodansha.  It was here that she created Sailor V, which eventually became the launching pad for Sailor Moon.  She worked on many other projects during this time, including The Cherry Project and PQ Angels.

Takeuchi is currently working on the reboot of Sailor Moon, which premieres on Friday, July 5.

Review Me Twice - The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

I'm not going to lie: I hate poetry.  Which is no real surprise if you've spent any kind of time on this blog.  And, while I don't hate Tolkien, he's really kind of wordy.  So when you combine a format of reading I hate with an author I don't particularly like, you just give me a book that I hate.

There, I said it.  I hated a book.  I think Tolkien will forgive me.

Really, Tom Bombadil, the character, only shows up in about three of the poems, and I didn't understand what was going on in the other half of them.  I'm sure if I were more immersed in the Tolkien world and lore, I would have enjoyed it more, but I'm not, so it really didn't do anything for me.  There were not characters I could get behind, or even discern, and it all just kind of jumbled together for me.

If you like Tolkien, and you like poetry, then by all means pick up, but this really wasn't the book for me.

I'm so glad that Cassy feels exactly the same way I do about this book. I chose this book for us to read. I don't know what I was thinking; I guess I was having a particularly masochistic day or something. You know now how I feel about Tom Bombadil and I don't think I've been particularly quiet about the way I feel about Tolkien's writing ("not especially fond"). And traditional poetry is really not my favorite thing to read. My brain insists on getting the meter and rhyme exactly right before moving on to the next line, and it is exhausting.

The English major in me kept insisting that, "No, Tom Bombadil is totally in these other poems... he's some sort of weird mystical nature-man, right? Maybe he's the tree? Is he literally a shape-shifter? Does he embody the spirit of these nature elements?" Shut up, brain. Just stop it. Tom Bombadil isn't in most of these poems and you should be happy about that because he's annoying.

I kid you not, these are the most boring poems I've ever read. The first one literally follows this storyline: Tom encounters something in nature that attacks/kidnaps/annoys him; he tells it to stop; it totally does (for no reason other than he's Tom Bombadil); repeat fifty times; he steals Goldberry from her mom and marries her (with absolutely no input whatsoever from Goldberry herself... I can only hope she was cool with that arrangement).

Tom Bombadil

I'm going to be weirdly specific today... I'm going to talk about one character from one book of one series by one author: Tom Bombadil, from Fellowship of the Ring by J R R Tolkien. He's also the focus of the majority of the poems in the short collection we're reviewing this week.

I hate him.

Tom Bombadil is the reason I put down Fellowship and never picked it back up again. You read for pages and pages and pages and nothing happens. Just this weirdo in the woods faffing about, telling nature not to mess with him (and nature pays attention for some ridiculous reason).

When our ragtag group of hobbits run across him, I feel far worse for them than at any point in the movies when horrible events befall them. Oh, you were captured by orcs? Separated from everybody because you touched the scary crystal ball thing? You're at Mount Doom? Nope, you'll be fine, because you survived a visit with Tom Bombadil; you can do literally anything.

A lot of LotR fans use Tom Bombadil as a metric for "true fans." If you've seen the Peter Jackson movies, you know that Tom Bombadil is nowhere to be found. I have heard of people who were disappointed by this. I have nothing to say to those people.

So I guess I read just far enough to "count" but I still hate the guy, and I can't read anymore of those books. Who knows what other poncy git might show up just like him? I can't risk it.

At any rate, I think I needed to get all of that out before we do our review tomorrow so my feelings about the character (which I shared at a book club last night and discovered that I'm absolutely not the only one who feels this way about the guy) don't taint my review of the poems.

Have you read Fellowship? How do you feel about Mr. Bombadil?

Author Bio: J R R Tolkien

This week, we're reading a short story by the classic J R R Tolkien (the "J R R" stands for John Ronald Reuel).

I'm hoping that if you're interested enough in books to be reading our blog, you've at least heard of this man in passing, though I can't blame if you if you've never tackled one of his books... the Lord of the Rings books and all the associated material (there are many volumes chronicling the history of Middle Earth) are dense tomes of high fantasy, and if that isn't your bag, you probably wouldn't like slogging through a Tolkien. Even The Hobbit, written for children, is pretty intense, though much shorter and far more light-hearted than the others.

Tolkien lived January 3, 1892 to September 2, 1973 (13 years to the day before I was born, fun fact). He was born in South Africa (before it was known as such) but moved to England at the age of three after his father's death.

His cousins had a constructed language they called Animalic, which introduced him (in his early teens) to the concept. You might be passingly familiar with Quenya and Sindarin (two forms of Elvish) and some of the other complete, speakable languages from Middle Earth. (On a personal note, I think this was his strongest suit... background, languages, cultures of fictional peoples. I would have enjoyed reading encyclopediae about the world he created, but I have barely the slightest interest in reading about them via his novels.)

At any rate, this guy did more for the genre of fantasy than I'm willing to type up without a book deal of my own.

Favorite Character with a Disability

There are a lot of awesome characters in books that end up being awesome despite their disadvantages.  Rochester in Jane Eyre went blind, Mad-Eye Moody was missing an eye the entire time that we knew him, and Captain Ahab may have been a bit obsessive, but to be fair, he was missing a leg.

Christopher John Francis Boone is 15, has Asperger's (or high functioning Autism), and is very, VERY good at math.  He wakes up one morning to find his neighbor's dog dead on the lawn, thus starting him on a quest to find out what happened.

I like Christopher because despite his disability, he's a smart kid, who learns a lot about his family and himself and even though it scares him, he still does a TON of stuff that puts him outside his comfort zone.  He doesn't lie, and can't stand it when other people lie to him.  You really can't help but love him, and his honest personality brings out the best in everyone.

This is another one of those books I read when I was in that undergraduate young adult literature class that Cassy and I talk about so much.

Shawn suffers from severe cerebral palsy; he has no control over his body whatsoever. The story of Stuck in Neutral is told from his perspective. Shawn is upset about people talking down to him like he's a child, ignoring him like he isn't in the room, and on top of all that, he's pretty sure his dad wants to euthanize him.

Terry Trueman wrote this book because his son has cerebral palsy. The book serves to educate young adults about the condition and how to deal with it (from the perspectives of the person who has it, their friends and family, and total strangers). But Trueman isn't didactic about it. He doesn't say "people with cerebral palsy are just like you and me and this is how we should treat them." He shows the reader. You know, like Cassy tells me: show, don't tell. So much more effective.

By Its Cover: Inside Out

I understand how this cover fits the story, but it's not the imagery I would have chosen.

There is a brief reference to Zach's mind as being inside-out and all mixed up because of his schizophrenia, but it isn't a very evocative image. I'm not sure what I would use, but this just doesn't fit quite right.

What I do like, very much, is the faint text across the whole cover. It consists of the nonsense phrases and syllables that the voices in Zach's head repeat to him when he gets close to needing his medication. It shows very clearly that this sort of thing is just an overlay, sitting on top of everything else Zach sees. It's background noise that doesn't go away. That part is just perfect.

I'm with Alex that the picture part of the cover, doesn't necessarily fit the book.  I mean, I understand the "inside out" thing, but I'm not really sure using a t-shirt to portray that was the way to go.

But I also love the words over the picture thing (and, in fact, they're interspersed within the book too), because that's pretty much how his life is all the time.

Review Me Twice: Inside Out by Terry Trueman

Inside Out is a very short book. Terry Trueman has been praised again and again for writing books that not only find a genuine teenage voice to delve into difficult topics, but for doing it in books with language choices and lengths that appeal to reluctant readers.

Without talking down to the audience by being overly simplistic or didactic, Trueman tells a compelling tale about two boys holding up a coffee shop, from the POV of another boy, with severe adolescent-onset schizophrenia, who is one of their hostages.

It's a quick read, but it isn't fluff. And please, take my advice... if you are a fan of maple bars, get one before you sit down with this book. Otherwise, you are going to be seriously jonesing for one before you're done.

This book reminded me a lot of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Our main character, Zach, has the very same kind of mannerisms.  He seems a lot younger than he really is but... he's weirdly endearing during the book.
 
Also, I like that the "bad guys" in it aren't really bad.  They're just confused, scared kids.  I like that not everything is as it seems in the book.  It's well written.  

The ending was... surprising.  It didn't end exactly how I thought it would, but I like it more for that reason, I think.  A quick read, so worth picking up.

My Bottom Line 4 out of 5

Author Bio: Terry Trueman

This week, we'll be reading a book by Terry Trueman.

(This guy.)

Trueman was born in 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama, grew up in Washington, and earned a BA in creative writing (University of Washington), an MS in applied psychology, and an MFA in creative writing (Eastern Washington University).  Clearly, he's a slacker who will never amount to anything. ;)

His first novel, Stuck in Neutral, was published in 2001 and won the Printz Award. It is about a teenager named Shawn who has cerebral palsy, told from his point of view. Trueman wrote this book because his son, Sheehan, was born with cerebral palsy in 1979.

Inside Out was Trueman's second novel, and is this week's review book. It was published in 2003, and tells a story about a teenage boy with schizophrenia who is a hostage in a store robbery.

Published only in the UK, in 2003, was Trueman's third novel: Swallowing the Sun. It's about a Honduran teen saving his family after a mudslide in his village.

In 2004, Trueman published Cruise Control, which is a companion book to Stuck in Neutral, told from the point of view of Shawn's brother, Paul.

Trueman's fifth novel (fourth in the US) is No Right Turn, published in 2009. It's about a teenage boy (see a trend?) whose father shot himself. The boy befriends the neighbor just to get rides in his Corvette, and even goes so far as to take the car out on his own, risking their friendship and a great deal more.

In 2007, Trueman published a work of non-fiction as a prequel to his most popular work, Stuck in Neutral. It is about his son, Sheehan, the inspiration for the novel.

Then Trueman wrote another novel about Honduras, this time with the teenager, his family, and his village weathering Hurricane Mitch in 1998 instead of a mudslide. In real life, Mitch was the worst storm to hit the Caribbean area in two centuries.

Trueman keeps a schedule of many school and library visits, talking to students about his books and the issues they cover. To read more about what he's up to, check out his website.

By Its Cover: Blankets

From a first glance, it is clear that this book contains a love story of some kind. If you look closely at their faces, you would probably guess that it's a little sad.

What is not clear is the important element of religion. It plays a very large role in the story (and Thompson's life during the time being portrayed in this book) and it is nowhere to be seen on the cover.

Or... after you read the book, you may recall a scene where Craig, in Sunday school, is being asked what he thinks people will do in heaven. He says drawing, because he assumes you do what you love to do in heaven, and he loves to draw. The teacher says no, you spend all your time in heaven praising God, and Craig asks why he can't praise God by drawing. The teacher doesn't see how this is possible, and Craig suggests that it is by drawing His creation: the trees, animals, etc. So in this way, perhaps Thompson illustrated that part of the book in plain sight. Or maybe I'm overthinking it; I don't know.

At any rate, this cover caught my eye because of the monotone, and the minimalism, and the aesthetic. It's pretty and I wanted to know what the title meant. (Blankets show up several times in the story; I counted five, but there are probably more.)

I'm not really sure what I expected out of this book, based on it's cover.  A romance, definitely, which is what I got.  I expected them to be older, though.  The two characters, on the cover, don't look to be teenagers, so I was a little surprised when that was what they turned out to be.

Review Me Twice: Blankets by Craig Thompson

As we told you on Monday, Blankets is an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson, written between 1999 and 2003. He published it as a way to tell his family that he was no longer a fundamentalist Christian like them.

That story also contains a love story (as is evident from the cover art). I like the combination of the two. It's a sort of coming-of-age story, sort of love story, sort of shift-in-faith story. It's a great combination, and Thompson gives appropriate weight to each part.

It's a linear story, from Thompson's childhood to adulthood, incorporating flashbacks that inform the story at various stages, and make links between events of his life. I thought these were done very well, because they epitomize the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words"; one small drawing in the middle of a page about a significant event can explain a complex feeling it brought about, by reminding you of a previous event in the story line.

The illustrations are beautiful, especially the ones dealing with his fears and concerns (particularly about going to hell for being selfish - see the example I used for grayscale yesterday) and anywhere he's talking about how beautiful Raina is.

I... am just not that much of a graphic novel fan.  And the more that I read them, the more I realize that.  I like them well enough, but for the most part, I'd rather just read a novel.

I liked Blankets well enough. I liked that he had such an inner struggle with his religion.  Religion is hard and, as often happens when it's shoved down your throat in childhood, you either completely embrace it or you reject it.  Thompson was more of the latter but he didn't completely reject religion.  He still believed in God and spirituality, he just took a more relaxed approach to it.  A more compassionate approach you could say.

I liked his relationship with his brother more than anything in this book.  I love reading about sibling relationships and he and his brother... it was heartwarming.  And even though they grew apart during their teens, they were still brothers in the end.  Which, I loved.

I didn't really care that much about him and Raina.  Raina REALLY annoyed me.  Sometimes I just kind of wanted to tell her to suck it up and deal with life.  And what annoyed me more was that her excuse for ending it with Craig were kind of dumb.  "I'm going through a hard time so clearly I should be alienating the people that care for me the most."  I don't know; I just wasn't a fan.

The book just kind of made me feel "meh."  I didn't think it was great, but nor did I think that it was terrible.  Just not my kind of book, I guess.  Like I said, I think it's the graphic novel.  It's harder for me to lose myself in a GN because it takes so much WORK.  I guess, my thing is reading isn't supposed to be work and it kind of feels that when I read a Graphic Novel.

My Bottom Line 3 out of 5

Author Bio: Craig Thompson

This week, we're reading Blankets, an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson.

Born in Michigan in 1975 and raised in Wisconsin with a brother and sister, Thompson grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family, where all media was heavily censored or banned by his parents. He was, however, allowed to read the comics in the paper, which is when he probably grew to love the comics medium.

When he went to college at University of Wisconsin - Marathon County, he produced a comic for the school's paper, solidifying his love of comics. He switched to the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design for a semester, then moved to Portland, OR.

Thompson worked at Dark Horse Comics for a while, creating ads, logos, and packaging for toys, and he worked on personal projects in his spare time. He developed tendinitis, and left DHC to focus on his personal work.

     

His first published book was the semi-autobiographical graphic novel Goodbye, Chunky Rice, in 1999. Later that year, he began work on Blankets, which was published in 2003. Blankets is also autobiographical, serving as a tool to explain to his family that he was no longer a Christian. It was a huge hit, which Thompson partially credits to the fact that he wrote something that was neither a punch-em-up action hero comic nor cynical and nihilist, two things the graphic novel and comics market was absolutely saturated with at the time (and, in my opinion, continues to be today, to a slightly lesser degree).

     

In 2004, Thompson published Carnet de Voyage, a travelogue and collection of sketches from a trip to France. Then he began work on Habibi, published in September 2011. Habibi is set in a beautiful Islamic fairytale landscape, telling a love story and also acting like a parable. It has been met with a great deal of praise, but also with controversy, mostly because of its frankness about sexuality and its treatment of Arab culture, calling Thompson's use of Arabic without fully understanding it "cultural appropriation."

He is currently working on Space Dumplins, to be released in 2014. He calls it an all-ages book that he wants to work like a Pixar film (something for everybody). To see what else he's up to, or to read more about him and his work, check out his website: dootdootgarden.com

Multicultural Favorites

Inspired by our read this week (which is all about Eskimos and Indians), Alex and I have decided to tell you about our favorite books that have a main character of a different ethnicity.  There were a lot of books I was considering for this post, but inevitably, I decided to tell you about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

I know it's a cumbersome name, but it's a great book.

This book was Diary of a Wimpy Kid before Wimpy Kid was a thing.  Plus, it MUCH better written.  There are comics intersparsed with story and the main character, Junior, is much smaller than his friends and school-mates.  He also has disabilities from too much fluid in the brain as a child, making him even more of a target.  However, he has a friend, Rowdy, who protects him.

The big controversy with this book is that Junior decides to leave the reservation and go to a rich, all white school.  He does it to better his education, but a lot of Indians resent him for it.  Even his best friend, Rowdy, doesn't understand why he's going.

It also says a lot about the social norms of Indians on a reservation.  They're expected to never go anywhere, most of them becoming drunks and dying at an early age.  Both of Junior's parents are alcoholics, though his mother has been sober for awhile.

My favorite part of this book was probably the illustrations.  As you can see below, some of them are very poignant.  They make incredibly social commentary, without really trying hard.

I just liked the writing in the book, how much of an insight you get into reservation life and, also, the fact that it's largely based on Sherman Alexie's life.  



My multicultural favorite is The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It is a silent (wordless) graphic novel published in 2006.

The Arrival tells the story of a man who leaves his family behind in their poor town to cross the wide ocean and seek a better job in a country that is completely foreign to him. He does not speak the language there, and so the book does not give us words, to help us identify with the alienated feeling the man has in this strange and unfamiliar land.

I like that Shaun Tan built a majority population that none of his audience could possibly identify with, because they aren't even human. Anyone who picks up this book can understand how the protagonist feels, because none of us would be comfortable in that place.

I also think graphic novels are a great way to approach multicultural literature, particularly when there is a more obvious language gap. (Not necessarily between author and audience, but between the protagonist's minority group and the majority they are trying to conform to.) This example takes it more to the extreme, with no words to help you understand what's going on. You must interpret confusing things (such as unfamiliar customs, foods, dress, manners) as an immigrant who doesn't speak the native language must struggle to understand them.

Not to mention... the illustrations are just beautiful. Look at these:

Much of multicultural literature (especially in America, where the chasm between the expected "melting pot" and the reality of the "salad bowl" - where different cultures coexist but remain distinct - is emphasized) discusses the sense of the "other," usually in a way that is central to the plot. The protagonist (who is Chinese or black or Jewish or Russian or anything other than an English-speaking white American-for-many-generations person) senses that he/she is not like the people around him/her, and the differences seem insurmountable. Usually, the protagonist makes a friend from the majority group - or someone who bridges the gap in some way (perhaps someone who has already figured out how to find similarities with the group at large and demonstrate that common ground, not differences, should matter more) - and everyone learns a lesson about how the "other" or anything foreign/alien to them is not necessarily bad. The Arrival doesn't throw this lesson in your face like so much multicultural literature does, and I like that. It just expresses the feelings brought about by a particular type of experience.

I haven't read Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing, but it seems to bear mentioning. It is about an unusual creation that is lost in the city and nobody will help it find its owner. It shares some themes with The Arrival (mainly the problems that come with being a "stranger in a strange land") and is also beautifully illustrated.