This was a fun simple read. It almost feels like a board book but is probably standard a hardcover picture book. There is probably 30 words in the entire book. There is 2 to 4 words per page such as blue, baboon, find, bassoon. And while the words don’t necessarily rhyme, they go together to form a singsong pattern that just works. What is really amazing are the illustrations. They’re bright, and colorful, as well as a unique style of art. That isn’t normally find in books.  

 I really wanted to like this book. Part of it remind me both of Dennis the Menace and Calvin and Hobbes but just parts. Billy Bang Bang is a precocious little girl who doesn’t believe in princesses. Precocious might be too precious of a word. She’s a brat. And not in a Junie, B Jones way where she’s got a good heart underneath the sass. There are times it feels like Billy is making trouble to make trouble. She plays her parents against each other, purposely causes problems, makes jokes that are inappropriate etc. This is supposed to be a children’s comic but I find the actions to the children inside of it annoying most of the time. There are parts where you find the humanity within Billy that makes you really want to love them as a character but then it’s surrounded by blackmail and getting her parents fight.  This type of thing sickens me and takes all enjoyment out of the read. 

 Elementary graphic novels that are both fun and educational are right up my alley. Rover crash lands on Mars and discovers Speck buried under some rocks due loss of power from buried solar panels. The two become friends, go exploring, and find rock formations that have life. Throughout this friendship tale are real life facts about both rovers, other planets, rocks, minerals, etc. Overall, this book just works. Kids are going to find it fun and entertaining and they’re going to learn something at the same time. I can’t wait for book number two.
 
 

 

This was a fun romcom of a vampire novel. There are things that I do find annoying. Our protagonist is a plus size lady like myself. She is constantly worried about her image and her size in particular. She believes that she needs to be thinner. This becomes a blockage in her mind for most of the story. Whether it’s because someone couldn’t like her for her size or how getting down on herself for her own size, harms other people.   Those portions of the story really annoy me. I was hoping this would have good fat representation, but the character is just so down on herself that it gets annoying with how often it happens. She does come to accept herself in the end because she’s a vampire and will never be able to change the way that she looks but her size is mentioned, commented o,n made aware of, its just too much. Take all that stuff away and this book is otherwise pretty fun. She is made a vampire by her own accidental, exuberance and fooling around. This brings the vampire council to her door to tell her. Hey that’s illegal. They do this by stealing her mother. While that is more the end of the book, the rest of the book is this hot guy who happens to write romance novels can never love her because she doesn’t love herself. Overall, I liked the book and would be happy to read a sequel as long as they cut half of it out. I like this book when it focused on the romcom story. I didn’t like this book when it focused on the weight of our main character. 

 

This graphic novel is a rehash of David Bowie‘s first movie by the same title. This movie was originally a book from a few years before the movie. This comic book claims to go past where the movie ends and provides more ending to the story. This was an interesting read. It is about a man who falls to earth purposefully, because there is no longer water on his planet, and he must find water and get it back home to his family. However, he falls first into the lust of earth, both drinking and sex, and then once people realize he’s not human he falls into scientific lab hands. He never makes it home. This is an odd little graphic novel and the story. I guess I’m just a sucker for happy ever after which you do not get in this book. What I found much more interesting was the back matter all about the making of the original movie along with the still pictures from the side. The artwork is nice and the storyline OK, but when your extra material is better than the rest of the story that’s not a good thing. 

 

This was a fun graphic novel aimed at upper elementary and lower middle school. It is about a girl who doesn’t feel like herself. Every Sunday her mom drags her to a salon to have her hair straightened. You see her natural hair is as frizzy as frizzy can be, and to some it’s shameful. However frizzy hair isn’t shameful. It’s just not taken care of well. Our main character learns how to take care of her natural hair from her aunt, who constantly bucks the family rules. This book is a great way to talk about lessons and ideas that are passed from generation to generation within a family, as well as talking about how it’s OK to be yourself, and that traditional beauty standards are very white centric and not true beauty standards. The only beauty standard anyone should have are the ones they set for themselves, not ones others set for them. I love the message of this book the ease of the read, as well as the illustrations. Altogether, it’s a fantastic read for any collection, either a library, a classroom or a personal one. 

 

This book is racist. There’s no other way to say it. Tintin has been an enduring loved comic book character for decades. These adventures brought the bumbling detective to life and made them a part of our lexicon. But sometimes classic characters in fall to the changing of time. The illustrations are in typical black face. Not drawing a black person is a black person but drawing them as a monkey painted black as you would see in old vaudeville acts. Completely inappropriate. Then add the language barriers, and how none of these black characters speak proper English. It’s all broken or comical, or made to show more differences then should be relevant. Then add the white saviorism. Tintin has gone to the Congo to write about his adventures with the great apes and acts like an unneeded hero. Whether it’s fighting lions, riding crocodiles, or saving a group from a different man, Tintin wants to be the hero. I know this book is a product of its time, but this is not one a library should have on their shelves, unless the library specifically keeps collections of old children’s books for purposes of study. Tintin can do better. This book has been banned. I agree with the ban in this case.  There are better books and better characters. 

 

What a marvelous update to an old sing something rhyme. The old rhyme was what are little boys made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, and just all these things that we considered so vehemently boy. This book says boys are made of everything and can be anything. They can be happy. They can be sad. They can be in touch with their feelings. They’re helpful. They’re kind. You name it boys can be it.  It works quite well, and illustrations are lovely. 

 

This just might be a new story time favorite. A child is headed to bed, but he cannot find Ted his bear. He goes looking and he finds the monster under the bed, and he finds the alien in dresser, and he finds the dragon in the closet, but still no Ted. At no time is he afraid of any of his strange new friends, but they all insist that they will help find Ted.  When Tec can’t be found, the monsters lend them their best stuffed pals. The book rhymes and the illustrations are simply perfect. This was just all over a joy to read. And I think kids story time would really have a blast with it. 

 

I’m not sure which I like more the story, or the illustrations. Both are so much fun, and I want to add these to my personal permanent collection. The sing song rhymes in this book are about a giant croc sitting on his log who chases everybody away.  Come to find out that when he has the river all to himself it’s boring and he misses his friends. This is one of those croc books that you find yourself talking about repeatedly. This get out of my River. It very much reminds me of “I’d Really Like to Eat a Child”.