Review: Crush + Color: Twentieth Century Foxes

Illustrated by Maurizio Campidelli

Available now from Castle Point Books

Review copy

I think all of Maurizio Campidelli's Crush + Color coloring books are good fun, but the Twentieth Century Foxes pun in particular cracked me up. I think this is the first book in the series not to cover a single actor. Actors not pictured on the cover include Antonio Banderas, Patrick Swayze, Pierce Brosnan, and more. All have more than one coloring page. An index might have been a nice addition to this one.

Thankfully, the actors are identified on each page just in case I didn't recognize them. Their names are always used in the short fantasy bubble that appears opposite the coloring page. Only one page in a spread is designed to be colored and the pages are perforated, allowing for the pages to be removed and either shared or used for decoration.

The art on these pages goes almost to the edges, but there is a small border. I find most of the images appealing from a coloring standpoint, with a mix of detailed areas for when I want to focus and bigger areas for when I want to zone out. I feel like Campidelli is great at laying out a coloring page. The paper is nice too, much better than a children's coloring book. I used markers on one page without bleed-through to the next coloring page.

I do think that Campidelli's likenesses vary in quality. I don't particularly like his Denzel Washington or George Clooney. But I think his Antonio Banderas and Kurt Russell are great. There is more detail to the faces than the rest of the page, which doesn't always work for me.

Overall though, I very much enjoy this coloring series and think Crush + Color: Twentieth Century Foxes is a fun addition. These coloring books have a fun sense of humor and appealing subject matter.

Review: Just Like That

By Gary D. Schmidt

Available now from Clarion Books

Review copy

Just Like That is a companion novel to The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, both of which I haven't read. I thought it stood well on its own, although I did get the sense at the beginning that I was reading the sequel to a book I hadn't read.

Meryl Lee Kowalski is struggling with grief, or the "Blank," as she calls it. Every night on the news, she sees reports of soldiers killed in Vietnam who never got to say good-bye to their loved ones. She struggles to handle the weight of it and the way it mirrors her feelings about her best friend Holling Hoodhood, who died suddenly in a car crash. She never got to say goodbye to him. Her parents don't know how to handle her feelings and are secretly dealing with their own issues, and choose to send Meryl Lee to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls. 

Meryl Lee struggles to fit into the boarding school culture, which involves things like not talking to the girls who work around the school. It also requires doing a sport, which Meryl Lee had never considered before and initially fails at, until finding something strangely compelling about the violence of lacrosse. She also starts to notice a power struggle between the headmistress and some teachers with different political views.

In a parallel story line, Matt Coffin moves into a shack on the coast. He's on the run from someone, and dealing with his own grief. He starts to carve out a life for himself, a storyline that appeals to the part of me that loved rugged domestic stories like Hatchet and the first Boxcar Children. He also encounters some helpful adults that give him room to approach them - one of whom happens to be the headmistress of St. Elene's.

The eventual meeting of Meryl Lee and Matt is inevitable, but the path to that point is an enjoyable one. Just Like That is stuffed full of incident and ideas and interweaving stories. I never felt like Gary D. Schmidt had lost control of the plot, however. He masterfully balances the disparate elements of Just Like That, tying everything together with the themes of grief and the struggle to heal. Just Like That is  deeply sad novel, but also a very funny and hopeful one.

Review: U Up?

By Catie Disabato

Available now from Melville House

Review copy

I am a firm believer that protagonists do not have to be likeable. For me to be interested in their story, there must be something intriguing about them, but they don't have to be likeable. U Up? has a protagonist that tests my patience. Eve is relentlessly self-centered, judgmental as hell, and the sort of lesbian who throws around a slur every two seconds like her personal reclamation is activism. (It's a trait that made me wince multiple times a page, on average.) Reading her stream-of-conscious narration was often hellish.

This narration is only broken up by text messages. The poor decision was made, either by publisher Melville House or author Catie Disabato, to print a full-screen of text messages every time instead of just the new texts, often wasting entire pages with repeated texts. In other words, it isn't much of a relief.

In U Up?, Eve is on a rampage because it is the anniversary of her best friend Miggy's suicide and her other best friend Ezra is ghosting her after telling her that he broke up with his girlfriend the night before. Everyone they know tells her to cool it and let him lick his wounds in private, but she's determined that something must have happened to him since he's not answering her calls, and their friendship is extra special.

Oh, and Eve can talk to ghosts. The cover copy mentions that she texts her dead friend Miggy, but I thought that meant she sent texts to the void, saying things to a friend who could no longer speak back. No, she holds conversations with her dead friend Miggy, who also thinks she should cool her jets. Ezra's ex Nozlee can speak to ghosts too, and she and Eve were actually buddies back in New York before they met all their LA friends, because they met in witch school. 

Since U Up? is more literary fiction than speculative fiction, this aspect of the novel tends to recede into the background even though it is the most fascinating thing happening. It's an underbaked element that I kept wishing would be explored more, until it becomes integral to the climax.

I enjoyed the end of the novel more than beginning, partially due to the nature of story about the protagonist going on a journey means that Eve is more bearable by the end. But also because the end has a bunch of weird ghost stuff and that's the best part. 

I found Eve to be a very believable character, but she grated on me too much for me to vibe with her story. I might've enjoyed the full on crazy ghost version of this story, but the one I got dragged for far too long.

Review: Kit: Turning Things Around

American Girl Historical Characters

By Valerie Tripp

Illustrated by Walter Rane

Available now from American Girl

Review copy

Kit: Turning Things Around is an abridged collection of the final three core Kit books. (Kit also had a mystery series.) This second volume has more action than the first, but continues to be mostly character driven. These three books don't flow as smoothly together as some of the others.

The first part involves on of the most memorable characters in the series, Kit's Aunt Millie. Aunt Millie is an expert at thrifting and making the best out of what they have. As much as Kit loves her, she still lashes out when Aunt Millie demonstrates how poor she is to her classmates. In the second part, Kit and her friend Stirling visit a hobo camp with their new friend, the homeless Will Shepherd, and end up getting arrested when they ride the rails together. These two misadventures do help Kit in the climax. Her Uncle Hendrick keeps writing editorials criticizing the New Deal, so aspiring journalist Kit writes her own editorial based on her experiences with the people living and working through the Great Depression.

The aforementioned second part struck me as pretty over the top compared to everything else in the Kit books, but I probably would've loved the excitement as a young reader. Overall, this volume brings Kit's story to a satisfying conclusion. The first bit of news she writes in Kit: Read All About It! is a bratty complaint about her mother; in the end, she's using her writing to give a voice to children who are truly in need.

I do feel like abridging this set of books didn't do them many favors since the focus is so different in each that it feels like the book really hops around. At the same time, Kit: Turning Things Around is a pretty quick read with a lively heroine that I'm sure bookish young girls will love.

Review: Kit: Read All About It!

American Girl Historical Characters

By Valerie Tripp

Illustrated by Walter Rane

Available now from American Girl

Review copy

Kit: Read All About It! collects what were the first three core books in the Kit series in a single abridged edition. (Kit also had a mystery series.) Kit was added to the American Girl lineup in 2000 and was the first girl whose books I never read as a child because I considered myself too old for them.

It's 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Great Depression is in full swing. So far, Kit Kitteridge has been insulated from the worst. But suddenly, her family has to take in boarders and she has to live in the attic. Her brother Charlie reveals the truth: their dad is losing his car dealership. He'd tried to hang on, not firing any employees and paying them from his savings, but now he has to close the dealership and the family must make money in other ways to keep their house. Kit is still better off than many of her contemporaries due to her family's home ownership, but they're teetering on the edge of poverty.

Kit: Read All About It! takes a dramatic period of American history and makes it personal and child friendly, as all the American Girl books did. Kit is motivated by her ambition to become a reporter, and writing her newsletter is also a good way for her to hang out with her friends. There's friction between her and her old friend Ruthie, since Ruthie's family is better off than Kit's. There's also tension with the only boarder Kit's age, Stirling, until they learn how to deal with his overbearing mother. Even though Stirling is her friend, Kit is often frustrated by all the boarders. She doesn't like the chores that come with them and wants more of her own space. Her feelings on the situation are very relatable.

The Kit books aren't as dramatic as the Abby books, but they're still fun, quick reads. Real history is woven into stories of friendship and community. There's also a short nonfiction section at the back of the book. I think this is a good read for about the third-grade level.

Review: The Eternaut 1969

Written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld

Illustrated by Alberto Breccia

Translated by Erica Mena

Available now from Fantagraphics

Review copy

The Eternaut, serialized from 1957 to 1959, is a seminal work of Argentinian science fiction. The Eternaut 1969 is a reboot that never quite found its audience and was canceled and quickly finished in a few breakneck chapters. In 1976, the author Héctor Germán Oesterheld, would write a sequel to the original, shortly before his works were banned in Argentina.

I appreciate the work Fantagraphics put into this volume. There's explanatory material before and after the story to help place The Eternaut 1969 in Argentinian culture, including the political background of the story. It also discusses its place in the ouevres of both Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia, who did not draw the more famous version. (That was F. Solano López.) This material helps explain why the comic was cancelled and why it still deserves to be remembered as a work of art.

I can understand why it failed. Apparently, many of the complaints sent to the magazine it ran in (Gente) said that Breccia's art was impossible to follow. Breccia's art is often abstracted; when the aliens appear, their form is more suggestion than depiction. There's an intriguing textures and bold use of white. Artistically, it is compelling. But easily comprehensible, it is not. I'm sure the magazine printing also wasn't as neatly done as Fantagraphics' presentation.

The story of The Eternaut 1969 is quite compelling. A time-traveler (traveling through eternity instead of space) comes to tell his tell to a comic-book artist. One day, snow begins to fall in Buenos Aires. It kills. Juan Salvo, his wife, daughter, and friends survive, but soon discover that South America has been sacrificed to alien invaders by the rest of the world. Their small steps toward survival are interrupted when the military presses them into service. The Eternaut 1969 is pessimistic about both world and local governments.

At the time, it made Oesterheld controversial. But seven years later, he would become one of the desaparecidos. Over 30,000 people were forcibly disappeared by the Argentinian government when a U.S.-backed junta took over the country. It's a chilling ending to his biography that adds weight to the hastily finished, imperfect The Eternaut 1969. It's not a popular story, but it is an honest one. In the end, this graphic novel is as compelling for the story of why it failed as well as the art within.

Fantagraphics recommends pairing this work with the original The Eternaut. Their English version is currently sold out, but being reprinted. I do think it is fascinating to be able to compare the two.

Review: The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book Ever

Available now from Highlights Press

Review copy

 

I can remember Highlights magazine from my elementary-school days. Decades later, Highlights Press is still publishing books for children. The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book Ever is an activity book for ages eight through twelve, approximately. There are hidden-picture activities on every page, as well as an overall hidden picture activity for the whole book. In the back are the answers.

 

There is an appealing mix of puzzles in The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book Ever. Some art is in color, some black and white, some photographs. Some are small and fit four to a page, some fill a whole spread. In some the objects are identified for you. Others have clues and you have to identify the objects. This book might be mostly full of visual puzzles, but there are some verbal skills involved as well. The hard puzzle has no clues, except for stating how many objects are hidden.

I think a twelve-year-old could easily do these puzzles alone, but an eight-year-old might need a little help. Either way, with more than 80 puzzles, there's enough to keep kids occupied for a while and coming back for more. I also like that the pages are slightly thicker than a basic coloring book so there's less chance of a pencil poking through the page.

The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book ever is a good choice for the child who likes hidden pictures puzzles. This is a nicely made, thick activity book.

Review: Cells at Work! Baby Volume 1

Written and illustrated by Yasuhiro FUKUDA

Based on Cells at Work! by Akane SHIMIZU

Translated by Dean Leininger

Available now from Kodansha Comics

Review copy

Cells at Work! Baby is one of many spinoffs from the original Cells at Work! In this manga by Yasuhiro FUKUDA, the main character is a red blood cell going about her work, when the body she resides in is born. From there, the cells have to learn how to do their jobs and keep the baby healthy now that it is no longer a fetus supported by the mother's body.

Fukuda's art is adorable. It is very in line with the established style for types of cells from Cells at Work!, but using a chibi style to suit the fact that these are all baby cells. The red blood cell and her best friend, a hemoglobin-F red blood cell, also have very sweet adventures as they look out for each other and their body. The stories are all based around biological fact, with extra informational asides to provide more in-depth facts. Pediatrician Naoyo HASHIMOTO did serve as a medical editor to ensure that the facts in Cells at Work! Baby are accurate to current medical knowledge.

If I have one complaint, it is that generally the female characters are less competent than the male characters. (With the large exception of the mother's grown-up cells, seen shortly before the baby is born.) It's such a small thing that would have been easy to fix.

But overall, Cells at Work! Baby is a charming read about the intricate biology behind a baby taking its first breath and  developing an immune response to antigens. There's plenty of action in a baby's first days!

I think this is an adorable spinoff that is sure to appeal to fans of the original.

Review: Cute Little Lenormand

By Sara M. Lyons

Available now from St. Martin's Essentials

Review copy

A few years ago, a friend turned me on to tarot as a writing tool. From there, I learned techniques to use tarot to help myself make decisions. Lenormand is not tarot, but it is a similar fortune-telling card game. Cute Little Lenormand has been my introduction to this type of cards, and I think it has served well in that capacity.

Author and illustrator Sara M. Lyons endeavored to make a modern Lenormand, with gender-neutral cards and depictions that would be intuitive to modern life. The guide book covers the history of Lenormand, techniques to learn the cards and spreads, and detailed information about ways to interpret each card. There's also recommended further reading. One thing I liked throughout the guide book is that Lyons is very clear that she has her own biases and preferred way to read the cards and her deck is based on her preferences. 

There were very few things I didn't like. I did pick up that Lyons calls card 30, the Lily, "the feminine consort to the Whip's masculine energy. If the Whip is bondage and black leather, then think of the Lily as rose petals, satin sheets, and pink champagne." Lyons went through a great deal of effort to approach the deck in a gender-neutral manner, so throwing in that one random instance of gendering objects threw me. I also found Lyons' approach to card 14, the Fox, slightly odd. She focuses on it entirely as a career card throughout the book, with only a small mention in its write-up that it can refer to a person. This does tie back to her open preferences (she likes to read it as a job significator), but as someone new to reading Lenormand, I could have used more guidance in using it in other situations. Lyons usually provides more information on cards with multiple readings.

I found Lenormand easy to pick up based on this deck and had fun doing simple practice readings and working up to bigger ones. This is an extremely intuitive deck for me. Plus, the art is just cute.

As a physical object, the cards are well made and the mostly pastel pink and blue palette fits the cute theme. I do wish the deck came with a tuck box instead of an envelope in the back of the book. It would be more portable, and I don't like how the envelope looks pushing on the pages.

I think Cute Little Lenormand is a great choice for beginners. It's definitely easy for me to turn to when I'm having trouble making decisions.

Review: What Big Teeth

By Rose Szabo

Available now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review copy

A boy runs through the forest, pursued by monsters. He has no chance of escaping; they're toying with him, having fun. I know how fun it is because the narrator is telling me so. In fact, she thinks he looks rather delicious. So begins What Big Teeth. It's an electric, perverse opening, and the book struggles to regain that feel.

After that fateful night, Eleanor Zarrin was sent away from her wild family. Years later she returns from boarding school, fleeing the consequences of an incident with a schoolmate. She returns home a total stick in the mud. She's forgotten her family in those years away and struggles to handle their monstrous nature. She wants them to be polite and mannered and fit in, like she spent so long doing.

For quite a while, What Big Teeth builds mystery after mystery. There are the mysterious incidents that drove Eleanor away from her family and then back. There are questions about Eleanor's nature, who she truly is inside. There's her grandmother's mysterious accountant, who all the Zarrin's are mysteriously in love with (including Eleanor's father, cousin, sister, and self). So much is kept mysterious for so long that I'd find myself startled by facts, like Eleanor's sister Lucy being about five years older than her. 

What Big Teeth is not short on atmosphere. Rose Szabo has a way with creepy imagery and haunting emotions. But this is Szabo's debut novel, and it very much feels like it. The ending of the novel is filled with several chunks of exposition, some of which Eleanor could have figured out much earlier to get the plot moving a little more quickly. When characters are horribly maimed I had little reaction, because outside of Eleanor and Arthur the characters are extremely flat. This is the kind of debut novel that makes me want to read what the author writes next, even if I don't want to read this book again.

What Big Teeth is a defiantly strange novel. It is often deliberately off-putting, which is what makes it appealing to weirdos like me. I'd recommend it to fans of Hannah Moskowitz. A faster pace and more characters to be invested in would have served the story well, but Szabo has shown a strong sense of style.

Review: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (Take Along Storyteller)

By Scarlett Wing
Available now from Cottage Door Press
Review copy

The legacy of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood lives on with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. This Take Along Storyteller set also reminds me of my childhood in the 90's since I had a set of books that came with tapes I could put in the cassette player and read along with. I loved those books.

This set contains nine books and one book of songs:

• Daniel Goes to the Dentist
• Daniel Learns to Ride a Bike
• Daniel Goes to School
• Potty Time with Daniel
• The Baby is Here!
• Visiting Grandpere
• Neighbor Day
• Pajama Day at the Library
• Daniel Meets the New Neighbors
• You Are Special

The books are thin hardcovers. They aren't super durable for young readers. The stories themselves are simple and perfectly suited to the age group with nice messages. The words are simple to better help kids follow along as they learn to recognize them. The pictures feature the familiar characters from the show. I know parents really appreciate "Potty Time with Daniel" and the potty song. 

The included storyteller does require 3 AAA batteries. There is a screw to keep kids from removing the batteries on their own. There's a dial to select narration for one of the books and a dial to select a song. The song dial was stiff at first, but then moved along smoothly. There is a low and high volume, but even the low is pretty loud. I found the narration and songs both to have reasonable audio quality.

I do wish this set had something to keep int all together. It comes in a cardboard box that clearly isn't meant to be kept.

But this is a wonderful little set for preschool Daniel Tiger fans, carrying case or no.

Review: The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond

By Troy Benjamin
Available now from Epic Ink
Review copy

I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I eagerly dived into The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond. The conceit of The Wakanda Files is that Shuri has ordered the publication of Wakanda's intelligence files regarding the Avengers technology. Through this conceit, various aspects of all the MCU movies so far are explored.

Illustration of Maya Hansen's badge

There's also a fun gimmick. The Wakanda Files also includes a Kimoyo bead–shaped UV light. Some pages have Shuri's commentary written on them, which can be revealed by the UV light. It is a pretty small beam that needs to be held close to the page, but the words can be read even in full light. I also like that effort was put into ensuring the small Kimoyo bead light wouldn't be lost. It magnetically attaches between two other Kimoyo beads, and a clear plastic slip case ensures that everything is kept together.

Troy Benjamin's writing is pretty workmanlike, given the point of view of the text, but it does pay attention to detail. It is also accompanied by cool illustrations and renders made by a variety of artists and studios, including a pull-out on the Iron Man suit.

Blurred screenshots of the Hulk

However, The Wakanda Files does have one big failing. When it includes photos from the movies, it applies a heavy Gaussian blur over them. It looks terrible, especially when those photos are huge and cover half a page or more. I suppose the intention was to make them look like the illustrations, but they don't. They just look back. This is a huge detraction in an expensive table book meant to be nice to thumb through.

This odd decision keeps me from recommending The Wakanda Files. The text isn't interesting enough to make up for the horrible quality photos.

Review: The Nocturnals Adventure Activity Box

By Tracey Hecht
Illustrated by Kate Liebman
Available now from Fabled Films Press
Review copy

The Nocturnals Adventure Activity Box looks something like a subscription box (and I do know there are similar ones for books). Inside is the first hardcover chapter book in The Nocturnals series, The Mysterious Abductions, The Nocturnals Activity Book, and a plush of Dawn the fox. There's also a bookmark. The book and plush can be purchased separately, but the activity book is unique to the box.

The Dawn plush is extremely cute. Mine arrived with the fur needing some fluffing, but that's typical for shipped stuffed animals. The neckerchief she's wearing comes right from the first chapters of the book, a detail that will delight kids who are sticklers from accuracy. It is stitched on, but a parent can cut it off if desired.

The Nocturnals Activity Book is a black and white and has several different versions of a few activities rather than several different activities. There are word searches, crosswords, matching animals to facts, and some arts and crafts. The cut-out sections are printed so that no activity on the reverse side is destroyed. There is a bingo that needs multiple players, kiwi birds that can be cut out to play hockey (like in the book), masks of the main characters, and hearts that can be made into the main characters faces. The activity book notes it is for fourth and fifth graders, but I would say a third grader could definitely do the activities, especially since the crossword includes a word bank. (Weirdly, words are repeated between the crosswords.)

The centerpiece, of course, is the book itself. The Mysterious Abductions is the tale of three nocturnal creatures: Tobin the pangolin, Bismark the sugar glider, and Dawn the fox. They come together to form a brigade to protect their fellow animals. Their first case involves a series of strange disappearances.

The chapters in the book are short and filled with action, propelling a young reader along. There are lessons about teamwork and standing up to bullies. The characters themselves mostly have surface traits. Dawn is the stalwart leader, and has an intriguing past with a coyote. Tobin is steady. Bismark is an insecure show-off.

Kate Liebman's sugar glider

Bismark, unfortunately, is the most talkative of the Nocturnals and the worst part of the book. His dialogue is super annoying, speaking in triplicate and peppering his speech with languages such as Spanish and French. I think it is supposed to be a fun way to introduce common non-English phrases to kids, but it irritated me, especially coming from Bismark. He hits on Dawn constantly, even though she shows no interest in him. This sort of lothario used to be a stock comedy character, but it isn't cute, especially in a kid's book.

Also, in a series with a running message against bullying, Bismark is one of the biggest bullies of them all. Throughout their adventure, the brigade meet up with other nocturnal animals who join the team to help out. In The Mysterious Abductions, this includes a trio of bats. Bismark insults them constantly, including calling them dingbats and mocking the way they speak in threes (look whose talking). Weirdly, no one seems to have an issue with how he speaks to their allies. 

The narrative even seems to agree with him at one point, when Dawn notes, "But upon inspecting the creatures before her, she understood what he meant. The fur on their chests was matted and mangy, and their rickety wings were covered in scrapes. (37)" There's no reason for the bats to be in such poor shape, and the other animals aren't treated so rudely or remarkably dirty. Bats are cool! I found their treatment egregious and contrary to the book's message.

Kate Liebman's art is featured in full color at the beginning of each chapter. Some of it is cute, in a slightly askew way. Some off-putting.

I think this activity box is a super cute idea to turn the first book in a series into a gift. But I don't think I can recommend this series.

Review: The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns

Translated by Matty Weingast
Foreword by Bhikkhuni Anandabodhi
Available now from Shambhala
Review copy

The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns is a new translation of selected poems from the Therigatha, or Verses of the Elder Nuns, a Buddhist religious text from about 80 BCE, written shortly after the life of Buddha. The women who wrote it had once been rich, poor, mothers, daughters, wives, sex workers, but all came to walk the Path and become Buddhist Nuns.

I have not read any prior translations of this text, though I am now curious about picking some up to compare the renditions. Weingast's goal, as laid out in his introduction, is not to provide an academic translation, but one that maintains the poetry of the originals for a contemporary audience. I appreciate that he is up front that this is a translation that takes liberties. He did consult the Buddhist Nun Bhikkhuni Anandabodhi (who wrote the foreword) in his work.

Though The First Free Women is a slim volume of less than 200 pages and most of the poems fill a mere fraction of the page, this work took me several nights to read. These are poems that spoke to me, and made me think. Few sophisticated literary techniques are used, but poetry can be plainspoken and still ignite the mind with its ambiguities.

I am not Buddhist, but I feel there was still much for me to find within these pages. These women are focused on their religious journey - how they came to it, whether they questioned it, their advice - but each poem offers a fascinating glimpse into their lives.

Weingast's introduction notes that Buddhist Nuns still aren't accorded the respect of Buddhist Monks and that they have had to fight for ordainment that sometimes isn't recognized. I do not know who could read these words and think women less than men. But I know the world, and I do not doubt it.

The First Free Women is a fascinating read, and I am quite glad it found me.

Review: Anti/Hero

By Kate Karyus Quinn and Demitria Lunetta
Illustrated by Maca Gil
Available now from DC Comics
Review copy

DC Comics might annoy me frequently, but they are killing it with their DC Kids line. Anti/Hero introduces two young heroines from East Gotham who are set up to appear in further adventures, either other graphic novels or comics, though Anti/Hero does tell a complete story.

Piper Pájaro has super strength and is determined to use it to be a superhero. Unfortunately, she has a reputation with the cops as the Wrecking Ball due to the accidental damage she causes. Piper is also struggling with her school life since she has trouble paying attention to school work. Sloane MacBrute is a thief known as Gray, armed with drones and working for local crime lord the Bear to help pay her mother's medical bills. At school she whizzes though assignments but struggles in gym. But both girls need academic and athletic skills to make it through a competition Bruce Wayne is holding - one that would reunite Piper with her scientist parents and allow Sloane to work with real scientists.

When the girls get in an altercation over a super-secret device, they find themselves switching places. Stuck in each other's shoes, they're forced to empathize with each other's struggles. The girls also find that they can learn from each other and be stronger together. The overall arc of the plot and character growth isn't surprising, but that doesn't mean it isn't appealing. (And there is one reveal that made me gasp!) Piper and Sloane are both great kids with wonderful families, and I loved spending time in their world.

I find it amazing that this is illustrator Maca Gil's first published work. The action is easy to follow and the character designs are fantastic. Piper is as bubbly as her personality, while Sloane is more sleek and as angular as her defensive personality. I could almost believe there are two artists as well as two writers. Sarah Stern's bright colors are the perfect compliment to Gil's art. Wes Abbott's lettering is easy to read and suits the feel of the book, too.

I think young readers will devour Anti/Hero and be eager to read more.

Review: The Bitterwine Oath

By Hannah West
Available now from Holiday House
Review copy

I haven't been keeping up with new YA releases the way I used to just a few years ago, but I've paid attention to know that witches are one of the current hot trends. The Bitterwine Oath slots right in, as the story of a young woman in her last summer before college who learns that she has magic and falls in love.

I read the entirety of The Bitterwine Oath on a lazy Sunday morning, a milieu that suited it well. Natalie Colter lives in San Solano, Texas, the home to a century-old massacre and a copycat massacre enacted fifty years after the first. It being the second fifty-year anniversary, everyone in town is on edge that it might happen again. Nat has even more scrutiny to worry about than most, since one of her ancestors was the leader of the group that caused the original massacre. Of course, she's also worried about the return of Levi Langford, who kissed her and then left for college.

I loved the atmosphere of The Bitterwine Oath. It captures small-town Texas well. I could tell that author Hannah West lives in Texas by the way the characters spoke, and I appreciated that she didn't go overboard with the folksiness. I also liked how West portrayed the way the local church is woven through almost everything happens in the town, and that the witches balance their beliefs around their powers with their Christian beliefs. It felt realistic - aside from magic being real.

As is tradition in these stories, Nat is kept ignorant of her power until it is almost too late, and she is actually the most powerful witch of all. (At least, among those still alive.) But she was kept ignorant for a reason, one that makes her mistrust the other witches and try to seek out her own path. Of course, the clock is ticking, and twelve men's lives hang in the balance. Nat has to decide whether to bow to tradition or strike out.

There's nothing too unpredictable or unfamiliar in The Bitterwine Oath. I was entertained that the male love interest was the one always getting himself in danger when he tried to charge in to find answers. Still, I found it fun. I liked the setting, and I thought Nat and Levi were sweet together. I'm sure fans of witchy YA urban fantasy will enjoy The Bitterwine Oath.

Review: 30 Great Myths About Jane Austen

By Claudia L. Johnson and Clara Tuite
Available now from Wiley-Blackwell
Review copy

I appreciated that the introduction to 30 Great Myths About Jane Austen defined what a great myth is, because I was not sure. Myths are accepted beliefs about Austen, true or false, and great myths are those that affect how readers approach her work.

Each selected myth is covered in a short essay about five pages long. While both Claudia L. Johnson and Clara Tuite are professors and write in an academic style (complete with thorough citations), the briefness of each part keeps this work approachable for the non-academic who is interested in learning more about Jane Austen.

I did find that there was some repetition between parts. Expect that famous first line of Pride & Prejudice to come up multiple times. Usually, these quotes that come up repeatedly are analyzed in a different way each time. This could be a result of the book having two authors, or another example of how complicated it can be to glean meaning from a playful sentence.

30 Great Myths About Jane Austen is filled not only with literary analysis, but facts from the latest scholarship about Jane Austen's life. I've studied Austen in an academic setting, but that was ten years ago. There's still new research being done into her life and work. Although one factoid I found interesting was from a much older article. Did you know Austen mention more than a hundred named servants (Lady Balfour, "The Servants in Jane Austen," 1929).

To me, 30 Great Myths About Jane Austen was an interesting read, although a bit slight since the book only has room to provide introductions to the 30 topics. Its true value, I think, is that it is an introduction to a world of deeper research. But even if a reader goes no farther than these 30 essays, I think they'll know more about Austen and her fiction than when they started.

Review: The Magical Unicorn Activity Book

By Glenda Horne

Available now from Castle Point Books

Review copy

Unicorns are having a moment, and The Magical Unicorn Activity Book is a great choice for any young unicorn fan bored at home. (Can I say that author Glenda Horne has the perfect name for writing about unicorns?) This is a thick book with heavy paper and a wide range of activities.

In The Magical Unicorn Activity Book, there are images to color, paths to follow, dots to connect, shadows to match, crosswords to fill in, and more. Most of the activities are on the simpler side, since the age range of this book is four to eight, but some might cause an eight-year-old to stretch themself.

What I don't like is that there are several activities that require cutting and pasting. These can't be easily done on the go, and they destroy the activity on the opposite side of the page. I didn't like these sorts of activities as a kid, and I still think they're lower in appeal than the others included in the book.

The included stickers, however, are a great bonus. They're super cute, and there's some nice bigger ones as well as plenty of small ones.

The Magical Unicorn Activity Book includes several styles of unicorns, from very cartoony to looking more like a realistic horse with a horn. None of the designs copy My Little Pony, but I think young MLP fans would enjoy this book.

Review: My Video Game Ate My Homework

By Dustin Hansen

Available now from DC Comics

Review copy

Dustin Hansen wrote and illustrated My Video Game Ate My Homework, a graphic novel from the DC Kids line meant to appeal to younger readers (about 8 to 12 years old). Hansen draws on his own experience to write protagonist Dewey Jenkins' dyslexia. I think his trouble with reading will ring true with reluctant readers, even if dyslexia isn't the cause of their difficulties.

My Video Game Ate My Homework is not long, and there isn't much text per page. The dialogue tends to be fairly short and direct. The pictures do a good job of helping to tell the story in combination with the text. I particularly love one shot of small spider monsters descending the stairs toward our heroes, where a larger spider can be seen lurking beneath the stairs.

In My Video Game Ate My Homework, Dewey is desperate to get a good grade on his science project to pass his class. He's a smart kid, but his troubles with reading make it difficult for him to do well on day-to-day assignments. Of course, he also wants the first-place prize of an early release VR platform. But his best friend Ferg (the principal's son) accidentally breaks the machine when he finds it in his dad's office. Soon Dewey, his sister Beatrice, her best friend Kat, and Ferg are journeying through the levels of the VR game to rescue Dewey's science project from the malfunctioning machine.

The plot in My Video Game Ate My Homework progresses like a game, with power-up items received and more dangerous monsters on each level and limited lives. The familiarity of this progression will help out readers who are better at games than reading.

I liked the gender balance of the cast, although all the characters are pretty thinly sketched given that it is a short book with lots of action. I disliked that Kat was given lots of good fighting equipment but died quickly in all the fights. The other fighter, Ferg, was given more to do. There are a few nice sibling moments between Dewey and Beatrice.

I don't think My Video Game Ate My Homework will keep more advanced readers occupied long, but I think it is an excellent choice for beginning readers and readers who struggle with denser texts. It is a fun, appealing read that isn't dumbed down but is approachable due to its structure and format. The art is bright and fun, too.

Review: What Can I Draw Today? Daily Drawing Prompts for Young Artists

By Andrea Mulder-Slater

Available now from Rockridge Press

Review copy

What Can I Draw Today? Daily Drawing Prompts for Young Artists contains a variety of drawing prompts printed on blank pages (except for finish this line prompts). Sometimes two prompts share a page. Sometimes an inspirational quote is added to a prompt. Each type of prompt (concrete, abstract, sensory, get thinking, finish a line) is color coded. If you prefer one kind of prompt, it is easy to flip to each of those.

Personally, I think having fewer prompts so that all of them could have a full page would be best. The half-pages are somewhat cramped, allowing for less free-flowing ideas. The paper is a nice bright white, but fairly thin. Designs do show through to the reverse page. I think the book is best for pencil and colored pencil, but crayons work well, too.

I think the prompts are suited to the full age range recommended on the cover. Eight-year-olds might prefer the concrete prompts (such as "a row of crooked, colorful houses"), but twelve-year-olds will be challenged by more advanced prompts like "design a set of musical instruments for a band of punk rock giraffes" or drawing what a cake that represents the sunset might look like. There are lots of fun starting points to help kids develop creativity and start drawing their own creations.

I think What Can I Draw Today? is a fun choice to keep kids busy. It is a little more free-flowing than a coloring or activity book, but still offers some structure so they aren't left adrift. It might be fun to pair with a sketchbook as a gift, for when the kids what to draw their own ideas with no guidance.