Signed By: Zelda, by Kate Feiffer, 232 pp, RL 4

SIGNED BY ZELDA is now in paperback!

Kate Feiffer's Signed by: Zelda (with wonderful cover art by Kelly Murphy) is her second novel for young readers and comes on the heels of nine pictures books, four of which are illustrated by her father, the great Jules Feiffer. Besides her own great track record as a children's book author and her wonderful lineage, I was intrigued by Signed by: Zelda because one of the main characters is a budding graphologist!

Feiffer brings together two very different eleven-year-olds, a talking pigeon and Grandma Zelda who has lived an amazing life all over the world but has not left her apartment in over a year. Lucy, the graphologist, is the daughter of a surgeon and a teacher and she and her parents have moved from Savannah, GA to New York City for her mom's "great job at a great children's hospital." Lucy immediately notices that "great" has become a throwaway (a word that you use when you don't want to say what you really want to say) word for her parents. Lucy moved into apartment 6D. Directly above her (and much to her annoyance as he practices flying every night which is not much more than jumping off his bed and making loud thuds on the floor - Lucy's ceiling), in apartment 7D, is Nicky Gibson, his older and usually mean sister Stella and his dad. Two years ago his mom got on a plane to India and has not come back and Nicky has not grown at all since then. Things have gotten pretty and he finds that his TOA (Time-out-average) has risen significantly - both at home and at school. In apartment 8G lives Zelda who bakes Zeldaberry pie, spends as much time with Nicky as she can and talks to Pigeon. And Pigeon talks back. In fact, Pigeon is the flying link between these three characters when, on April 1, Zelda disappears. 

Lucy yearns to use her skills as a handwriting expert (and her well outfitted laboratory) to solve a crime. She gets that chance when a few mysterious notes come her way and she finally has a reason to go upstairs and talk to Nicky. The two uncover some pretty dastardly, Roald-Dahl-esque deeds by Mr Gibson, Stella and Nicky's dad and Zelda's son, who seems to be a pretty mean guy a few thin excuses for his shameful treatment of his kids and mother. The plot didn't quite hang together for me throughout the entire book, but I was so excited to read about a character who analyzes handwriting and I grew to love Nicky's bad luck and bad decision making that it was easy to overlook, as I'm sure it will be for young readers. Feiffer includes some great extra information, including a handwriting analysis test and notes about writing the book. Signed by: Zelda reminded me often of a less intense, less socially complex version of Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy that also came out this year and took place mostly in a New York City apartment building and involved the solving of some possible crimes.

Other books by Kate Feiffer

Picture books by Kate and Jules Feiffer

 My Side of the Car (click for my review)

Picture books by Kate Feiffer and Diane Goode

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, 218 pp, RL 4

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garica, as you can see by crowd of awards (Coretta Scott King Award, Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Medal, Newbery Honor and National Book Award Finalist - basically the most prestigious awards for children's literature there are), has been very read and loved since it was published in 2010. I have not read the gold medal winner for 2010, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, but I think it must have been EXTREMELY hard to be a Newbery judge that year... Before I write another word, I listened to the audio book of One Crazy Summer and I need to acknowledge the supreme narration skills of Sisi Aisha Johnson. As someone who listens to copious amounts of audio books, I have my favorites, usually narrators who can create voices for a range of characters. Johnson masterfully created distinct voices for the three sisters, including that of Fern, the seven-year-old, as well as several male characters who were part of the story. Delphine, the oldest sister, has a powerful narrative voice that Johnson coveys magnificently and movingly. She also narrates The Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, feathers by Jacqueline Woodson, as well as Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper and books by Octavia E. Butler, Sharon G. Flake and Julius Lester, all of which I plan to seek out in the future.

The "crazy" in the title of One Crazy Summer doesn't refer to wacky, fun times but rather the perceived mental state of Cecile, the mother who left shortly after the birth of her third daughter some seven years earlier. It is the summer of 1968 and Delphine, Vonetta and Fern's Papa has decided that it's time for his daughters to spend time with their mother. He and Big Mama, his mother, take the girls to the airport and put them on the Boeing 727 headed to Oakland. Eleven, nine and seven, the sisters have spent most of the previous night dreaming and talking about the oranges and apples they will pick off the trees in California, the trip to Disneyland they will take, the surfing they will do and the movie stars they will ask for autographs in soda shops. When they land in California, they wait and wait for Cecile. Delphine finally spots her lurking behind a cigarette machine, wearing big sunglasses, a big hat and man's pants. Gruffly and almost wordlessly, she herds the girls from the airport to her green stucco house in Oakland with the leaning palm tree in the front yard. When Delphine hands over the $200.00 her father gave her that she has been keeping in her shoe, Cecile sends the girls down the block to get shrimp lo mein, egg rolls and Pepsi and they sit on the floor of the living room on a table cloth. Cecile bans the girls from the kitchen where she has a printing press and where Delphine catches a glimpse of "white wings hanging," her mother's poetry, printed and drying on lines crisscrossing the room. Delphine has memories of her mother writing on cereal boxes and even on the walls when she still lived with her family, her urge to write was so powerful. The next morning, Cecile makes it clear she wants the girls out of the house from morning to night and sends them to the People's Center. Twenty-seven more days before the sisters can go home.

While One Crazy Summer is ultimately a story of mothers and daughters, Rita Williams-Garcia weaves so much more into her powerful, moving novel. The girls have been raised, in part, by their grandmother who is from a town in the South that is so small, she says she's from the larger, neighboring town. She is raising the girls to be polite, well groomed and above all else, to never create a "grand Negro spectacle" in public. Delphine, the only one of the sisters with memories of her mother, is a serious, insightful, responsible child who takes care of her sisters as well as she takes care of her beloved Timex watch with the brown band. She understands that Vonetta, who is "always sticking herself onstage for everyone to see her," is also more likely to get her feelings hurt from this behavior. She understands that Fern, who was just a "loaf of bread" when their mother left, needs her Miss Patty Cake doll with her yellow hair and pink skin, to comfort her still, even though she is seven. Delphine spends most of her time taking care of her sisters emotionally and physically, but she takes a chance and ruffles their feathers in an effort to get a good look out the window of the airplane at the Golden Gate Bridge as their plane descends. Both girls screech. Heads turn, a stewardess rushes over to shush them and, even though "there were only eight Negroes on board, counting my sisters and me, I had managed to disgrace the entire Negro race, judging by the head shaking and tsk-tsking going on around us." Delphine has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders and her challenge is to take care of her sisters in this strange new place but also to navigate the shifting cultural and social environment around her that she is thrust into. Black Panthers, Sister and Brother, new, African names and the questions "What's wrong with this picture?" and "Why are you carrying your self-hatred in your arms?"that come from one of the Black Panthers on their first day at the People's Center make up this new world. Days at the center are spent making protest posters and learning about Huey Newton and the teenager Bobby Hutton, the first Black Panther after the leaders, who was shot by police during a protest in Oakland and hearing Cecile called Inzilla. Amidst these changes, Delphine learns some new things about herself and her mother.

Despite the change and turmoil, Williams-Garcia keeps One Crazy Summer relevant and entertaining for young readers. The girls make friends at the People's Center, including Hirohito Woods, Vonetta does something really awful to Miss Patty Cake in an effort to fit in and Delphine stands up to Cecile and sets foot in her kitchen when night after night of take-out gives Fern a belly ache. Anticipating the assignment of writing an essay about her summer, Delphine vows to make sure she has something to write about and plans an excursion into San Francisco for the sisters with the last of their money. While Cecile never even approaches warming up to her daughters, referring to Fern as "little girl," because their father wouldn't let Cecile name her what she wanted to," and saying on their first night that she should have gone to Mexico to get rid of them when she had the chance, she does thaw enough to tell Delphine about her own childhood, telling her daughter, "Your life seems hard, Delphine, but it is good. It's better than what I could have given you," and finally, "Be eleven, Delphine. Be eleven while you can." Rita Williams-Garcia weaves together all these compelling, powerful, historical, social elements, making them memorable and moving through the creation of the distinct characters and voices of Delphine, Vonetta and Fern. Long after the last page of One Crazy Summer had turned, Fern's plainspoken, "Surely do," still echoes in my head.

In the sequel to One Crazy Summer, the Gaither girls are back home in Brooklyn and have a newfound sense of independence after their month in Oakland with Cecile and the Black Panthers. As Delphine struggles with the changes in herself and her family's life, she writes letters to Cecile who reminds her to...

Source: Purchased, book and audio

Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe, 216 pp, RL: MIDDLE GRADE

Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe is a gem! I am a tremendous fan of Smile and Drama by the exceptional Raina Telegemeier but have been frustrated by the fact that I have yet to find graphic novels that are similar to her work. With Peanut, I have finally found that book! Halliday and Hoppe tell the story of a girl who finds herself starting sophomore year of high school in a new town. Like Telgemeier, Halliday and Hoppe create characters who feel very real and has quirks and qualities that enrich the plot and I hope there are more graphic novels from this team coming in the very near future. Although this story is set in a high school, I have given the book a MIDDLE GRADE rating. There is a romantic relationship, but it is very sweet and chaste in nature with only one on-page kiss. And, there are two mean girls who make some pretty snide comments, but there are no obscenities.

Sadie and her mom move often and when she learns that she will be starting her sophomore year at Plainfield Community High School, Sadie decides to look at it as a fresh start and a chance to reinvent herself. Unfortunately for her, she decides to reinvent herself around a lie. At the start of the summer before sophomore year, Sadie is in line at a restaurant when she comments on the bracelet of the girl in line ahead of her. The girl explains that it's not really jewelry, but a necessity as it is a medical alert bracelet indicating her severe peanut allergy. Intrigued, Sadie goes home and does some research into severe peanut allergies and decides to order a medical alert bracelet for herself. On the first day of school she does her best to make friends and drop hints about her "condition."

Initial attempts to make friends with the mean girls fall flat and, rather than take interest in Sadie's allergy, they use it to make fun of her behind her back. On top of that, Sadie's best friend from her old school seems to have moved on. But, Sadie does manage to make friends, including Zoo, a bike riding, cell phone eschewing guy who communicates by writing notes that he folds elaborately and delivers to the doors of his friends. As things begin to improve socially, Sadie realizes that keeping up her lie is not nearly as easy as she had thought it would be. Soon the her mom is asking questions and so is the school nurse, and Sadie is frantic to hang on to what she has. I need to add here that Peanut actually also provides a fair amount of pertinent information about peanut allergies and related issues as Sadie researches her "medical condition."

How the truth comes out and what happens when it does is, especially from a teenage perspective, pretty intense. The epilogue, in which Sadie talks about the aftermath of her lie feels very realistic and, in the end, hopeful. Halliday and Hoppe do a fantastic job conveying the angst and agony that Sadie that suffers as she struggles with her lie. And the supporting cast of characters, from Sadie's mom to Mr Larch, her dramatic homeroom teacher, and Miss Anderson, the easy going, motherly school nurse, are well drawn (literally and texturally) and genuine. My favorite character, though, is the thoughtful, creative, understanding Zoo, Sadie's boyfriend. Every girl should be lucky enough to have a guy like him in her life at some time!

Hoppe's illustrations, black, white and grey with only Sadie's top (which changes from tank to tee to jacket as the seasons change) in color, are perfectly suited to the story. While Telgemeier's graphic novels are colorfully inked, the more austere palette of Peanut feels better suited to the slightly more mature themes of the novel and ages of the characters. 

Source: Review Copy

Primates : The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, by Jim Ottaviani, illustrated by Maris Wicks, 144 pp, RL 3

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas is written by Jim Ottaviani, who's very cool website, G.T. Labs, has the tagline, "Comics about scientists? What a dangerous experiment!" Ottaviani, among other books, is the author of Feynman, a biographical graphic novel about the Nobel Prize winning scientist who did stuff with quantum mechanics and electrodynamics and other things I can't even begin to understand, as well as work on the Manhattan Project (he makes an appearance in Ellen Klages's amazing book about this time, The Green Glass Sea, told from the perspective of the daughter of one of the scientists working on the project). Primates is wonderfully illustrated by Maris Wicks.

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas was called "Trimates" at one time and I think that is important to keep in mind when reading this unique biography. As a completely ignorant reader - I have read Patrick McDonnell's Caldecott Honor winning picture book Me . . . Jane about the young Jane Goodall and I know that the 1980s movie "Gorillas in the Mist" is about Dian Fossey and I have no idea who Biruté Galdikas is - I think it's safe to say that I read this book mostly from a child's perspective. I read Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas with great excitement, thinking that I would learn a lot about our next of kin. But, this graphic novel is not your typical kid's biography that lays out all the facts in chronological order so readers can write the book report, which, let's be honest, is usually the singular reason kids real biographies. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas, while providing pertinent facts that create a framework for the narrative, works more to create an impression and feeling of what these women were up against in their professional lives which, for all intents and purposes, seem to be synonymous with their personal lives. This is most evident near the end of the book, which, interestingly, is comprised of three prologues that show moments from the lives of each of these great women, not at the beginning of their careers, but at the points at which each of them had become respected enough in their fields that their voices were really heard, respected and valued. In her prologue, Gladikas tells the story of a colleague who, years earlier, told her that all he could think of was gathering his data, finishing his thesis, earnign a PhD and getting a tenure track job - "Veni, vidi, vici," Galdikas says to him. Reflecting on this, she realizes that she came, she conquered, but she has stayed and does not want to conquer - or to leave the orangutans.

I realize that, despite my ignorance of the subjects, I do bring an adult need to organize and make sense of what I read to this book. Kids won't necessarily do that. As Ottaviani says in his afterword, "What kind of person does it take to to this kind of work? How hard is it? When did our understanding of what it meant to be a primate begin? And why is it important? These are the questions we hope you had when you started the book, and hope you've gotten some answers by the end. But by now you've guessed that the end of this book isn't the end of the story." I'll confess, I did have those questions, if not at the start of Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas,  then definitely as I made my way a few pages into the book, and they were not necessarily answered by Ottavani in the text. But, my interest is DEFINITELY piqued and I do want to read more about these women and I do want my questions answered. Happily, Ottaviani provides a fantastic bibliography.

The book begins with Goodall, the oldest of the trio, and her love of Africa. The one thing all three women have in common, besides a passion for primates, is Dr James Leakey, archaeologist and naturalist who established human evolutionary development in Africa and was essential for getting Goodall, Fossey and Galdikas started in their initial observations of primates. In fact, the three scientists are referred to as "Leakey's Angels," although I'm not sure if that is really worth repeating. As presented in Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas, Dr Leakey has a knack for picking just the right people (women) to observe primates and a fondness for them could actually be better described as a bit of a wandering eye. Ottaviani captures significant moments in the scientific observations made by each woman, noting the previously unseen behaviors that their patience and skill allow them to observe. For Goodall and Fossey, he also shows how Leakey was instrumental in sending them to Cambridge to get their degrees after they had spent time in the field, allowing the scientific community to take their findings more seriously. Galdikas first met Leakey in the early 1970s while studying at UCLA.

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas, DOES show what kind of person it takes to do this work and just how hard the work is by showing days spent in the rain, climbing mountains with a broken ankle, picking leeches off legs, accidents with machetes, and suffering tropical illness after illness as well as the social and political maneuvering that each woman had to to to keep poachers away from gorillas, funding coming in and tourists away from the primates once their work became widely known. There is a reason that the word FEARLESS is in the title. But, Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas is also just a really great story with fantastically appealing artwork by Maris Wicks that simplifies the story in a way that will appeal to young readers. Goodall, Fossey and Galdikas's stories are important for so many reasons, on so many levels. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas is a brilliant entry into their lives that could, like Tarzan of the Apes did for the young Jane Goodall, inspire the life path and passion of a reader... 

Under the dust jacket of 

Primates: The Fearless Science of 

Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas

Maris and Jim, as drawn by Maris

Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and Biruté Galdikas

Source: Review Copy

Tune : Vanishing Point by Derek Kirk Kim and Les McLaine, 160 pp, RL TEEN

Derek Kirk Kim, two-time Eisner winning author of the fantastic Same Difference, brings us this first in a new series, TUNE : Book 1 : Vanishing Point. Kim has a way with characters on the cusp of adult life and a great sense of humor and both of these in abundance in TUNE : Book 1 : Vanishing Point. 

Chapter One begins with a bit of a mystery. After a strange and profoundly deep sleep, Andy Go wakes up and stumbles into a very strange situation. Chapter Two finds Andy and his art school buddies in a bar full of college students talking trash. We meet Yumi, fellow student and secret, longtime crush of Andy's. The chapter ends with Andy telling his friends that he's dropping out of art school a year shy of getting his degree.

Chapter Three we see Andy at home, causing his Korean mother to wail hysterically (which we learn is called aigoo, in Korean, a cry of lamentation) and his father to issue an ultimatum from behind his news paper. Andy starts his job search to some pretty hilarious results and a pretty good jab at mainstream comics when Andy endures a lecture on the importance of learning realistic anatomy from an editor while the walls behind him are covered with posters of super hero women smuggling watermelons under their spandex. Just when things are at their lowest (Andy loses a job at McDonald's to a homeless guy) he runs into Yumi in the park. A hopeful chat on a park bench ends with her rushing off for a meeting and leaving behind her sketchbook/diary. Of course Andy readers it. And, just when he learns Yumi's true feelings for him, his life and the story takes a big left turn. I don't want to give too much away, but Andy applying for a job that turns out to be an audition to be a human exhibit in an alien zoo on another planet...

Coming November 2013 : TUNE: Book 2 : Still Life

Source: Review Copy

Manga Man by Barry Lyga, illustrated by Colleen Doran, 125 pp, RL: TEEN

Mangaman, by Barry Lyga and Colleen Doran is just brilliant! And, while Lyga provides a fantastic glossary at the end of this book of terms, telling readers that manga, "uses a lot of symbols as shortcuts for portraying emotions," I think you really do have to have a basic knowledge of the genre to appreciate what is going on in Mangaman. That said, I had plenty of experience shelving manga when I worked as a bookseller, but I was never able to read one from cover to cover. Even though I'm left handed, or maybe because I'm left handed, I just couldn't get the hang of reading right to left, which is how these Japanese comic books are read.

The premise of Mangaman finds our hero and title character, Ryoko Kiyama, ripped out of his world and thrust into ours. Ryoko is taken in by the government and finds himself ensconced in a government warehouse with Major Dr. Louis Capeletti, a manga expert who is constructing a machine that will return Ryoko to his world. In the meantime, Capeletti and the government think that, after three months on earth, it's time for Ryoko to get to know kids his age. He is going to go to the annual "homegoing party" in town, a rager that kids throw the week before high school homecoming week. Also going to the homegoing party, if reluctantly, is high school senior Marissa, who has just broken up with Chaz, the most popular guy at school. While it's not clear if Marissa reads manga, she is clearly a candidate for cosplay, short for costume play, which is basically adults dressing up like their favorite characters from anime, manga, comic books, video games and film, on days that are NOT Halloween. When we first meet her, we see her trying on a variety of outfits as her best friend Lexa tries to convince her to go to the party.

A ripple runs through the party when Ryoko arrives and Marissa is clearly smitten. The humor of Mangaman comes from the juxtaposition of the oddly proportioned, slightly effeminate Ryoko, who has actual hearts pop out of his eyes and flames come out of his head when he first sees Marissa, and the coarse, rowdy, Lord of the Flies-type hothouse atmosphere that high school can generate. All the manga emotional shorthand that Lyga defines in his glossary are REAL in our world. The lines that represent movement and action, as seen in the image below where Ryoko is preparing to fight Chaz at the homegoing party, are real and dangerous, knocking Chaz to the ground before Ryko can even land a punch.

High school drama proves to be the least of Ryoko's worries. Kaiju monsters from his world are pursuing Ryoko, who discovers that he can see our world as a series of frames, just like in a manga, allowing him to make impossible movements within this world. The Kaiju monsters, a dragon-like mass of tentacles, appears in our world when Ryoko travels between frames. Ryoko shows Marissa how to move between frames and the experience is life changing for her. The two find they have some difficult decisions to make as the government orders Capeletti to finish his transportation machine immediately, and one of Chaz's buddies comes after Ryoko with a gun. A really fantastic Romeo and Juliet situation emerges in which Ryoko thinks Marissa has gone through the machine-portal and he goes after her, only to learn she is still in this world. 

There are a few interesting moments in Mangaman that definitely make it a teen novel. Ryoko reveals a strange and kind of sadly funny event from his world that happened just as the rip emerged and sucked him into our world. This is more strange than disturbing, while the make-out scene between Ryoko and Marissa is more disturbing than strange. Although this is a graphic novel, the scene stops short of being graphic since, as it turns out, manga guys have a pixelated patch where a fig leaf in our world might go...  Marissa is cool with this, though, and the two agree that they are moving too fast anyway. The ending of Mangaman is SO COOL and a brilliant set up for the next book in the series, if this is going to be a series. If not, Mangaman is still an amazing story that is so fun to read then think about after.