Smile written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier, 213 pp, RL 4

Smile, written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier with color by Stephanie Yue, has been on the shelves since February of this year.  It caught my eye because it kept bouncing back and forth between the Young Readers section and the Graphic Novel section in the kid's department while corporate decided how to classify it and, while it bounced back and forth it kept selling.  Selling very well for a graphic novel, and a one with a girl main character at that.  So, I mentally added it to my To-Be-Read-Pile. Then Smile started popping up on book review blogs that I read.  Finally, Barry Deutsch, author of the superb graphic novel Hereville:  How Mirka Got Her Sword mentioned the book among his list of favorite graphic novels in an interview at books4yourkids.  One in December, as I snuck a few of my favorite graphic novels onto the Diary of a Wimpy Kid display at work (really, does this book NEED a second display in the bookstore???  It sells itself!! Let's get some lesser known books on the endcaps!) I decided it was time to buy  Smile.  That night I intended to only read a few pages but ended up reading it from cover to cover and staying up WAY past my bedtime...  It was well worth the loss of sleep.

Telgemeier got her start adapting Ann M Martin's beloved Babysitter's Club (which recently got an  update and prequel by Martin) into graphic novels now known as  BSC Graphix.  Her first original novel, Smile is an autobiographical comic.  As Telgemeier says on her website, the comic as "born out of a need to get the whole experience down on paper, since I spent so much time telling people about it."  Part of the reason that I put off reading  Smile for so long is that I was judging this book by it's cover.  I assumed that it was a graphic novel about a girl who gets braces and, while it is, it is so much more and so completely compelling, immediate and entertaining that I am going to be recommending Smile, along with another new favorite of mine, The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow to all the preteen girls and their moms I see reaching for Wimpy Kid and it's female cousin, The Dork Diaries.

Smile has a fabulous title page that shows the view from the top of a mountain overlooking San Francisco.  The next page shows cars zooming down the freeway, as we later learn, taking sixth grader Raina to her first orthodontist appointment where she'll get prepped for braces.  Later that night, running with her friends after a Girl Scouts meeting, Raina trips.

When she pulls herself together, she realizes that she has knocked out her two front teeth.  Telgemeier does a fabulous job capturing the fear that she and her parents felt as well as their response to the situation.  One of the things that I love most about  Smile is the role that Raina's parents are given in the graphic novel.  They are calm and loving, sometimes make goofy jokes, and always there for Raina, whether it's her mom driving her to various doctors or chewing out the periodontist who, during a deep cleaning of Raina's gums, neglected to anesthetize her properly, causing Raina to faint on the way out of the office, or grudgingly allowing Raina to get her ears pierced on her thirteenth birthday.

What follows over the next four years is Raina's journey to regain her front teeth, cope with the pain of the procedures and the general pain (physical and occasionally emotional) of wearing braces and the accompanying gear while at the same time dealing with the usual middle and high school dramas from frenemies to crushes to finding something you love.

At first, the orthodontist thinks that Raina's front teeth can be jammed back into their roots and heal, leaving stumps to reshape into front teeth.  The stumpy front teeth make for an odd look.  However, the teeth don't take properly and have to be pulled. OW!!!  Then, with braces, the orthodontist begins to move Raina's remaining teeth to towards the center of her mouth to close the gap.  During this time, Raina wears a retainer with false teeth on it.  She also experiences the regular middle/high school experiences of getting crushes on boys, being socially awkward and not always being your best self.

Raina also sees the movie The Little Mermaid and, despite her initial belief that it will be boring, is wowed.  I love the graphic for this section of the novel and am sorry I couldn't find a copy of it to share. It's very cool to see an inspirational moment of origin for this wonderful author & artist's career!  By the end of the novel, we see Raina at her final orthodontist visit, painting a giant poster for a sophomore school dance and smiling for a picture with her friends and it all feels so amazing when you think about what she has been through.  I just can't imagine Telgemeier telling her story any other way - the experience of having no front teeth, or abnormal front teeth, during one's adolescence is such a  visual one.  The graphic novel format takes the edge off of some of the gore and pain that must have been an intense experience for Telgemeier, and her wonderful, crisp, detailed and, ultimately cheerful (I really couldn't think of a better adjective) illustrations make the story and images in Smile so easy to read and lose yourself in right from the start.  Above all else, I think that Raina's story is the kind that girls will read and think, "Maybe I can do this, too?" and, "Maybe this thing that seems horrible that I am dealing with right now won't be the end of me." There is a smile at the end!

Raina in Smile and today.  

This photo, which I love, is from an interview with Raina at NYCgraphicnovelists

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 217 pp, RL 4

When Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes came out in August I felt pretty sure that I wasn't ready to read about a young girl's experiences with Hurricane Katrina, despite the alluring cover art by Shino Arihara.  Eventhough I always tell people that I only read kid's books because they always have a happy ending, and they do, it's still sometimes hard to read about the trials the characters experience. On the other hand, the amazing, wonderful, beautiful thing about a book, a good book, a really well written book, is that it can open you up to the difficulties then carry you through the sadness and the pain to the happy ending, especially when it is layered with metaphors and narrated by a character with a remarkable outlook on life as the Ninth Ward is.  Jewell Parker Rhodes' poignant novel does all of this and more.  Happily, the Ninth Ward is getting a lot of well deserved attention now that the 2011 Newbery awards are right around the corner.

Ninth Ward begins on Sunday, August 21st, narrator, Lanesha's twelfth birthday.  As always, Lanesha and eighty-two year old Mama Ya-Ya, the midwife who delivered her and raised her after her teenage mother died giving birth to her, celebrate by spending the day together gardening, cooking and having a good meal and as much cake as they can eat.  Despite the fact that Lanesha has wealthy relatives who live less than eight miles away, they want nothing to do with her and the childless Mama Ya-Ya, living  on a fixed income, has gladly raised her.  The  deep love between the two, as well as the wisdom and intelligence that is passed from one to the other, is evident right from the start.  Mama Ya-Ya has been teaching Lanesha all her life, whether it is about the symbols used in math or the symbols that exist all around them, from the meanings of colors and numbers to the interpretation of dreams.  Besides being a midwife,  Mama Ya-Ya is a mystic and a healer, a practitioner of the old ways that crossed the oceans from Africa.  Mama Ya-Ya is especially well suited to love and care for Lanesha and appreciate a special gift she was born with.  Covered in a caul at birth, Lanesha can see ghosts.  This fact, and her light green eyes, make her an outcast in her neighborhood and school.  However, having started her new middle school without her reputation preceding her, Lanesha is beginning to feel less alone in the world, especially when her young Teach for America math teacher, Miss Johnson, praises her and gives her extra attention because of her superior math skills.  For Lanesha, everything is math (and this outlook serves her well when she figures out how to calculate the rate at which the water is creeping up the stairs of her house), and Miss Johnson inspires her to set her sights on becoming and engineer who designs bridges.

On her birthday, Mama Ya-Ya tells Lanesha that 8 + 4 = 12 and 12 means "spiritual strength. Real strength, Lanesha.  Some people doubt it because they can't see it on the outside. Like butterflies. To most folks, they seem delicate. But the truth is, butterflies keep changing, no matter what, going from ugly worm to hard cocoon to strong wings."  The image of the butterfly is one that Lanesha carries with her as the days progress, and she will need it. A week later, Hurricane Katrina hits.  Mama Ya-Ya has seen the storm coming and knows that the city will survive, but there is something about her vision that confounds her. Although she has told Lanesha not to talk to the ghosts because once you start it is hard to stop, she asks her to speak with them about the approaching storm. The ghost of Lanesha's mother, still nine months pregnant, has been a constant in Mama Ya-Ya's home, although her eyes are always distant as if her thoughts are far away. She has never spoken to Lanesha, despite many attempts. With Mama Ya-Ya's urging, she tries again but still has no luck. Lanesha watches as some of her neighbors pack up and leave the city while other neighbors carry on like it is Mardi Gras, ghosts filling the streets.  Knowing that there is not room in the car despite the offer of a neighbor for her and Mama Ya-Ya to join them, that they have no way to get to the Super Dome with TaShon's family and that there will not be money in the bank until the Social Security check arrives on the first of the month, Lanesha decides that she will take care of her family and her home. Lanesha boards up the windows as best she can, stocks up on clean water and moves the television and a cooler full of food up to Mama Ya-Ya's bedroom.  When quiet TaShon, a neighbor boy who is Lanesha's age and is also an outcast having been born with the stumps of a sixth finger on each hand, comes to the house begging Lanesha to take in a stray dog he has found, they don't say no.  

The description of the of the storm hitting the house is intense and I would be very surprised to learn that Rhodes had never been in one. Lanesha exhibits strength and fortitude (a word that she and TaShon were taught in class, a word they both have come to love) and pulls herself and the fading Mama Ya-Ya and Spot into the bath tub as the eye of the storm passes over them.  When the morning comes Lanesha observes the devastation but feels hopeful that they have made it through the night and the house is still standing. TaShon appears at their door. Having been separated from his parents after a terrifying night in the Super Dome, he makes his way back to the Ninth Ward, walking and getting a ride from a woman looking for a lost loved one. Things seem to be getting better until Lanesha notices the water creeping across the yard and into the house.  Mama Ya-Ya tells Lanesha that she has been talking with her mother and they have decided "we're going to help you get birthed" and tells Lanesha to move everything up to the attic.   Finally allowing herself to know that Mama Ya-Ya is dying, Lanesha shares a final exchang of loving words. Before the night is over, Mama Ya-Ya has passed and the water has made it's way to the attic.

Being a kid's book, I knew Lanesha and TaShon would survive, but I had not idea what they would have to go through first.  Breaking through a window in the attic, the two climb onto the roof, hauling Spot with them, leaving the last of their food, water and the remains of Mama Ya-Ya floating inside.  They spend two days baking in the hot sun waiting for help, watching helicopters overhead and listening to other stranded people and families screaming from their rooftops.  Lanesha says she never knew black people could get sunburned.  TaShon's foot slips into the murky, debris filled water at one point and is read and itchy for the rest of the day.  Neither child knows how to swim, adding to the fear.  When Lanesha notices a row boat wedged between the houses, she knows that this is their best hope yet she has no way to free it.  Thinking about math and angles, she snags a passing tree truck and, with TaShon's help, the two teeter on the edge of the roof and attempt to use the trunk as a battering ram in the hops of freeing the boat.  When it doesn't work, Lanesha knows that their only hope is for her to take a running jump at the boat with the trunk and hope it works.  As she is about to leap she tells herself, "I am strong.  I am not scared. I think this in a blink of a butterfly's eye."

Lanesha frees the boat but sinks into the black waters, her foot caught on a branch.  Trapped, she begins to think about facing her own death when she sees her mother's ghost in front of her.  Her eyes "aren't dull and black. They're seeing me. But it's her eyes that make all the difference."  After years of wanting to connect with her mother's ghost, wondering why she staying in the house, always pregnant, Lanesha begins to understand what Mama Ya-Ya meant when she said that she and the ghost were going to help her "get birthed."  Freed from the branch, Lanesha, with the help of her mother, finds herself shooting toward the surface of the water, propelled into the boat where TaShon and Spot are waiting for her.  The two begin the hard job of rowing the boat toward people, toward help, singing with relief and joy.  Lanesha sees the hoards of ghosts on the shore ahead and thinks, "I sense, if they could, the dead would build a bridge. Help the living. If their spirits were concrete, we, and the rest of the Ninth Ward (all of New Orleans), would be forever safe. Ghost levees. Ghost bridges."

The final paragraph in the book is so beautiful, so uplifting and hopeful and exemplary of the person that Lanesha, who is now alone in the world, is and the place that she came from that I have to include it here.

I've been born to a new life.  I don't know what's going to happen to me.
I just know I'm going to be all right.
I'm Lanesha. Born with a caul. Interpreter of symbols and signs. Future engineer. Shinning love.
I'm Lanesha.
I'm Mama Ya-Ya's girl.


A truly remarkable, moving book tucked into 217 pages.  Whether it wins any awards, it deserves to be on the shelves for a long, long time.  Cybils nominee in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Middle Grade/Elementary readers category. For other reviews check out Reading in Color, TheHappyNappyBookseller and at Charlotte's Library.   You can read a fabulous interview with Jewell Parker Rhodes at Through the Tollbooth and TheHappyNappyBookseller.


Readers who enjoyed this book might also like the Newbery Honor book feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.   Although she doesn't face a natural disaster like Lanesha did, Frannie does exhibit the same introspection, thoughtfulness, resilience and intelligence and her story is worth reading.  Another short book packed with big ideas.











Below are pictures of the Ninth Ward after the destruction.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, 259 pp, RL TEEN

This summer, I decided to start reviewing teen books.  I'm not sure what I have to add to the arena of teen lit - there are plenty of great review blogs out there, most of them run by teens, teen librarians or teen authors themselves.  Looking back, I think that what I hoped to do by throwing my hat into this ring was twofold:  to offer up teen books with literary merit for parents to preview before handing them over to their young readers and also to expose the adults who read my blog (and maybe even read kidlit as well) to some remarkable teen books that are worth spending some time with whatever your age.  Really, reading teen books is like dessert for me - something I enjoy wholly but don't allow myself often (dessert: obvious reasons, teen books:  so many young readers books I need to review for my blog.)  But anything that author David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic (and founding editor of PUSH, an imprint of Scholastic, dedicated to finding new authors and voices for teens) puts his pen to is, for me, like a 2lb box of Nuts & Chews from the 90 year old California candy company See's. Scrumtrulescent!  And, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, co-written with the excellent Rachel Cohn, is a 2lb box of See's if there ever was one. Levithan and Cohn are the team who brought us that other 2lb box of Nuts & Chews, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, as well as Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List. 

While I generally do not like teenagers or being reminded of my teenage years, I was a teenager when John Hughes was changing my worldview with his movies and because of that (and the fact that I have a teenage daughter) I have a soft spot in my heart for thoughtful teen movies. I loved the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist so much that I ran out and bought the book right after seeing it in the theater.  Read almost in one sitting, the book was marvelous, better than the movie, but in a good way.  Not the way that you wish the movie had never been made and the real life images of imaginary people and places could be bleached out of you memory, but in the way that you feel like you just got a second chance to spend quality time with people you got to know and like on screen. Happily, for bibliocinema fans, the day Dash and Lily's Book of Dares hit the shelves, sale of the movie rights were announced.  Even better, the film adaptation is to be produced by Scott Rudin (Orange County, Zoolander, Djarleeling Limited, Towelhead among many others) and directed by Lena Dunham, newly famous for the indie movie she wrote and directed, Tiny Furniture.  Should be just as good as the first adpatation of Cohn and Levithan's novel - as long as they find actors as perfectly cast as Michael Cera and the fabulous Kat Dennings were in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist to play the snarly Dash and the fanciful Lily.

So, usually when I really love a book I find myself compulsively retelling the whole story in my review. And, while I am very tempted to do that with  Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, I won't.  This book is best unwrapped on one's own.  I will just tempt you with a few of the delicious details that had me chewing the pages eagerly from the get go.  And, for me, this book was a singularly personal experience for so many reasons.  First of all, besides the  love fest I already have a going on with the authors, I was finally drawn to pick up this book (which has been on the shelves for two months now) because my mother-in-law is generously treating my teenage daughter and son to New Year's Eve in NYC.  On top of that, a close friend just returned from a trip to NYC and a visit to The Strand (18 miles of books is their tagline), the amazing bookstore where Dash & Lily's Book of Dares begins.  The combination was just too perfect to pass up so I bought it for my daughter to read on the plane, hoping she might visit the Strand and other landmarks from the book.  Once I started reading it, I realized that it hit a lot of sweet spots for me, too.  A giant used bookstore, reminiscent of my college hangout, Powell's City of Books, a red Moleskine notebook and my teenage obsession and namesake of my first born, JD Salinger's Franny & Zooey.  From these elements, two unique and endearing (to me, anyway. I have no doubt others would find them annoying, but that's what happens when you aren't an everyman. Plenty of people find Zooey and Franny irritating) characters emerge and, as the book progresses, the journey is almost more compelling than the destination.

A child of an acrimonious divorce, Dash has carefully lied to his parents regarding his plans for the winter break.  Thinking Dash is spending the holidays with the other parent, his mother and father have left town and Dash finds himself happily leading a solitary existence traveling between both parent's empty apartments.  A word lover, Dash is happy to spend time roaming the 18 miles of books at the Strand.  As he says of himself, "I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable.  I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler." Sometimes Dash roams by subject, sometimes he looks for books with green covers only and occasionally the "afternoon was sponsored by a particular letter and [he] would visit each and every section to check out the authors whose last names began with that letter."  Dash has decided to revisit "a particular favorite (he shall remain nameless, because I might turn against him someday)" when he sees "a peek of red." This turns out to be a notebook with a piece of masking tape on the cover inked with the words, "Do you dare?"  From there Dash follows a trail of clues that lead him from one obscure book to another, piecing together a message using pages numbers, line numbers and word numbers from the books.  When Dash gets to the last step in the process, leaving the notebook along with his email address tucked into the book of his choice with the surly bookseller, he decides to keep the game going and leaves a dare to the mysterious author of the notebook.  

The first half of the book is spent getting to know the two main characters as they think up creative places all over the city to hide the notebook for the other to find, all the while narrating alternating chapters.  Besides clues, the two also begin to reveal their innermost feelings in the pages of the book.  Dash is a realist, which can also sometimes read as pessimist, while Lily is an eternal optimist.  She says, 

Since I was eight I have been in literary love with the character Sport from Harriet the Spy.  I've kept my own Harriet-style journal - red Moleskine notebooks that Grandpa buys me at the Strand - since I first read that book, only I don't write mean observations about people in my journals like Harriet sometimes did.  Mostly I draw pictures in it and write memorable quotes or passages from books I've read, or recipe ideas, or little stories I make up when I'm bored.  I want to be able to show grown-up Sport that I've tried my darnedest not to make sport out of writing mean gossip and stuff.

Lily is a truly amazing character, the kind that can only have been born and raised in NYC, the kind that (I think, sadly) can only exist between the covers of a book. Maybe I am the pessimist, or maybe I am just jealous because Lily is the person I always wanted to be.  Lily has lead a  somewhat sheltered life, some of it by choice.  She has a doting (when he is not in love) older brother, Langston, involved parents and an extended Italian family that includes a retired, former corner store owner Grandpa who lives in the flat above Lily's, a cousin who works at the Strand, an uncle who has a seasonal job as one of the Santas at Macy's and a great-aunt who works at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  Turns out the gig at the wax museum is only busy work for Great-aunt Ida, who Lily calls Mrs Basil E, as in, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler (yet another iconic, classic children's book set in NYC) because Ida is a former art gallery owner who made a small fortune in her trade and lives in a brownstone in Manhattan tastefully filled with artwork and antiques.  Also spending the holidays in the absence of her parents who are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with a vacation (and clandestine job search for Lily's dad) in Fiji, Lily is free to roam.  Langston is in love for the second time in his life and taking advantage of his position of head adult and Grandpa has gone to his winter home in Florida to propose to Mabel, his lady love who insists the kids call her "Glamma."  Lily takes the dares and thinks up new ones.  She finds herself at a punk klezmer concert on Christmas night, dancing her shoe (Great-aunt Ida's majorette boots from her marching days in high school) off and looking for clues in the bathroom.  This is where things go wrong and the second half of the story begins.  Instructed to leave the notebook with "two gumshoes," Lily finds that she can't let go of it and runs out of the club, losing a boot in the process.  Now Lily has no way of finding Dash, she doesn't even know his name, but, through the dares he has left for her, she has broken out of her shell a tiny bit and is ready for a taste of more change.  

Even though both Dash and Lily realize that the world of the notebook and the connection they have forged there is not real, they are both attached to it.  As a reader, I too found myself completely immersed in the hide-and-seek chase of the notebook, so much so that the second half of the book set in the harsh light of day was a bit jarring.  I am a romantic, and unrealistic romantic, and I could have read about the chase for another 100 pages.  But, the reality of the two characters and how they do find their way to each other and what they see and learn when they do is essential to the story.  As a parent, I am very happy to have my impressionable teenage daughter read a book with a story that approximates a realistic relationship between two teenagers over something like Twilight any day.  As a reader, I felt a little let down, but I know I would have felt very let down and cheated if Cohn and Levithan had ended the book any other way.  In fact, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares seems to end right where another book could start.  Lame, I know, but it could be called Dash and Lily's Book of Dates and, I have no doubt, would be as highly readable as this book is.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Rachel and David for bringing us yet another pair of interesting, smart, funny, creative people to adore and admire.  I think that, maybe someday in the next few decades, readers might think of and refer to Dash & Lily in the same ways that Dash and Lily think of and refer to Zooey, Harriet, Sport and Mrs Basil E, among other literary greats.  Oh yeah, one last thing.  As a teenage fan of Franny & Zooey, I have read it once or twice as an adult.  In the pages of  Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, Lily sums up Franny's spiritual dilemma in a way that afforded me new insight into Salinger's character.  I think I may go back and read it again - although, as Dash says early in the book, I think I may have turned against my once favorite author over the years...  Or, perhaps it's just the perspective of adulthood.

David & Rachel in the Strand! 

 And, if you are ready to challenge the images you created in your head for Dash & Lily, check out the alternate, international (I think) cover for the book which I think is really cool and captures the tone and characters pretty well.  My daughter, who is now greedily reading the book, has chosen not to look until she finishes.

Big Susan written and illustrated by Susan Orton Jones, 83 pages, RL 2

I'm reposting this review from my Doll Week in June.  At the time, I forgot to add a label for Winter Holiday Stories because I almost forgot that the last half of the story took place on Christmas Eve.  So, if you need a last minute gift for a little girl who likes dolls or just need a good doll story, don't miss Big Susan!

You may recognize the artwork of Elizabeth Orton Jones from her 1945 Caldecott winning book, A Prayer for a Child, written by Rachel Field, winner of the Newbery in 1930 for her excellent book, Hitty: Her First 100 Years. I first learned about Jones' 1947 book Big Susan while perusing the pages of the Chinaberry catalog years ago. For those of you who have never heard of Chinaberry, started by Ann Ruethling in 1982, was once a great resource of personally read and recommended, lesser known children's books, often sold at a discount. Now functioning as a website, they have expanded to offer "books and other treasures for the whole family," and is a bit less easy to navigate than flipping through the pages of a "books only" catalog. However, the quick perusal I did of the side before linking to them here did prove that they still offer a pretty good selection of unique titles (I saw many that I have read, loved and reviewed) as well as some great audios and an outlet. At the time, my daughter was too old to appreciate the book, but, because my 7 year old niece has recently taken up playing with her mother's childhood dollhouse, I decided it was time to read Big Susan.

I am happy to report that Big Susan fulfilled all my nostalgic adult fantasies and then some! I was obsessed with dolls and miniatures as a child (see my review of Holly Hobbie's Fanny books for more on that...) and spent hours making and arranging items for my own dollhouse, which my mother carefully wallpapered with different tiny calico and checked prints. Big Susan, the story of a girl and her doll house, is almost like Ann M Martin, Laura Godwin and Brian Selznick's Doll People series, but for younger children. Notice, I did not say "girls." I read Big Susan out loud to my 5 year old son and I know that there are many a little brother who have listened to The Doll People as it it read out loud to big sisters.

The story of Mr and Mrs Doll, their six celluloid children (yes, celluloid, this might take a bit of explaining to little kids - I just changed the word to plastic when reading it out loud) and the cook and the nurse takes place mostly during the brief magical time between twelve o'clock on Christmas Eve and dawn of Christmas morning when the dolls come to life. The dolls, used to being moved around and given dialogue by Susan, "the Wonderful Person to whom the Dolls belonged," are excited by this time to themselves nonetheless. Although the dolls have never seen all of Susan at one time, they are quite familiar with "part of her face and one or the other of her taffy-colored pigtails" and her hands, which they saw most often. Jones' descriptions of Susan, who is so gentle she can, "lift a whole bed with six children asleep in it right out of the house and put it back without even waking them," are among my favorite in the book. Jones writes of Susan, from a doll's perspective,

Her face was not a bit like celluloid, nor like china. It was soft and warm and alive. And sometimes it smelled of soap and water, and sometimes it smelled of cinnamon toast. And sometimes, especially at night, it smelled sweetly and faintly of tooth paste. And that was the Doll children's most favorite smell in the world. Susan would often peep into the nursery at night, when the children were in bed, to make sure they were nicely covered, as children should be. They could not see her face at all, then, because it was dark; but they knew she was near, for their favorite smell was in the air-the sweet, faint, good-night smell of Susan's tooth paste.

I think I love this passage most because Jones seems to capture, simultaneously, the sensations of being a parent and child. Susan's actions exhibit the tender thoughtfulness of the child playing mother as she tucks in the Doll children, along with the comfort that comes from being tucked in and doing the tucking in. I know we have all had many nights where we have covered up sleeping children, kissed their heads and breathed in their warmth - our children are comfortable and we are comforted.

The drama from the story comes from the six weeks of neglect that lead up to the magical hours for the Dolls. When the Dolls "awake" at midnight their house is a mess and, unlike Christmases past, there are no decorations or presents in the living room of the dollhouse. And, perhaps saddest of all, Susan has not given Mr and Mrs Doll the china baby they had been hoping for. Despite this, the Dolls decide to make the best of the situation. If there are no presents for them, then they will give Susan a present. As Mrs Doll says to her family, "Susan has always done everything for us. This year-why don't we do something for Susan?" And what is the one thing they can do for her during these magical hours? Clean the dollhouse, of course! Jones' descriptions of the dollhouse in a tip are both comical and spot on. "On Mrs Doll's dainty white dresser lay the logs that belonged in the fireplace," the frying pan is on her bed, a big button, a green marble and a big elastic garter are in the nursery, a painted wooden Easter egg is in the bathtub and the nurse is stuck, head first, in the bathroom sink.

The Dolls' hard work, aided by the "pretend light" and "pretend water," does not go unrewarded, however. The china baby is discovered in Cook's room which, having no door, must be reached - at some danger to the Dolls - by stepping around the and onto the open side. Mr Doll and Nurse introduce the baby to the rest of the family and the children decide to name her Little Susan.

The Dolls continue to tidy. As dawn approaches, Mr and Mrs Doll stand in the nursery admiring their children who are asleep on the floor, having given Little Susan their bed and all their toys. The, too, fall asleep and when they awake it truly is Christmas morning for them as well as Susan. For, as Mrs Doll half-dreams, in the hour after sunrise but before waking, a "Wonderful Person, even bigger than Susan, reached into the house and lifted her out, and undressed her, and then - gently dressed her again, and put her to bed, and covered her nicely, as if she were a little celluloid child. And a sweet, faint smell seemed to be in the air - a smell more life flowers than tooth paste." As Susan and the Dolls marvel at their presents, Mrs Doll begins to have an inkling of how the universe might work, that there may be "someone even bigger than Big Susan - someone whose hands..." But she changes her mind.

In 1939, Elizabeth Orton Jones also wrote Twig, the story of a little girl who lives in an apartment building and turns an empty, dusty backyard into magical place when she turns an empty tomato can into a home for fairies.  This book was so popular when it was first published that, during her lifetime, Elizabeth Orton Jones was often called Twig after the character in her book.

Happily for us, the amazing folks at Purple Horse Press are dedicated to "bringing back the finest in children's books" and have lifted this once popular book out of  obscurity.  You can now purchase their paperback edition of Twig for a mere $12.95 or a special limited edition, signed by Jones, for $40.00!   

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword written and illustrated by Barry Deutsch,

Don't miss my interview with Barry that includes lots of great recommendations for graphic novels and webcomics for kids!

There are things you can do with pictures that you just can't do with words.  Ideas and images that you can convey more effectively and quickly, worlds you can create in one page instead of fifty. Graphic novels are brilliant at accomplishing this feat.  However, I often get to the end of a graphic novel hungry for more, feeling like I've had an amuse-bouche, a delicious, gorgeous mouthful of wonderful, when what I think I really want is a five course meal that takes hours to devour. Chalk that up to my being an American consumer who typically thinks more is better.  I have been complaining for a while now about 400+ page kids books while talking out the other side of my mouth about how short and quick to read graphic novels are.  Well, that talk ends here, or, more specifically in Hereville, the fictional world created by Barry Deutsch.  The more graphic novels I read the more I am learning to delight in the taste rather than the full meal, and Hereville:  How Mirka Got Her Sword is flavorful enough to whet my whistle and satisfying enough to keep me from fidgeting too much while I wait for the next installment of the story - if there is to be one...

As the byline informs us, this story is going to be a mix of fantasy and religion, but not religion in the prosthelytizing or dogmatic sense.  In Hereville, the Orthodox Jewish community where children born there have never seen a pig, let alone know what one is, life is lived according to the beliefs that residents hold and the religious laws that they choose to follow.  I could go on about how Hereville seems as fantastical to me as Hogwarts did the first time I read JK Rowling's books, but, like Rowling, Deustch is as master of the world that he creates and he inserts the reader into it instantly and seamlessly.  While the characters use Yiddish words on almost every page and definitions are provided, I found that I rarely needed to look down to see what a word or phrase meant.  The action in the story almost always provided the definition needed.  Deustch never uses Mirka's religion and way of life to propel or explain the plot, even at the climax of the story.  Hereville and the observant Jews who live in it are the setting, much as a a village at the edge of a kingdom or enchanted forest is often the setting for a fairy tale.  And Hereville is a fairy tale, of sorts.  Mirka, after poring over a contraband (non-Jewish) book titled The Big Book of Monsters in stolen moments, has decided that she wants to fight dragons.  When Mirka reveals this to her stepmother, Fruma, her response is, "You want to slaughter innocent dragons? How could you?"  Then Fruma proceeds to argue with Mirka about the true nature of dragons, whether or not they are evil or just the way that God made them and posits that killing a dragon is actually "attacking a symptom while ignoring the root ecological causes."  When Mirka gives up in a frustrated huff, Fruma then shrieks, "Mirka!  You mean you'd let a dragon devour me and the whole town?  How could you?"  The time Fruma spends arguing both sides of a situation with Mirka seem almost as useless as the time she spends trying to teach Mirka the "womanly arts" that will make her a good wife, however, by the end of the story we see that both of these abilities come in to play, one skill serving Mirka better than the other.

The time it takes to get to that final scene is a wonderful trip through Mirka's world and journey into a new one.  The page above shows Mirka's breakdown of the different ways that her classmates follow the rules and bend them.  We get a brilliant look into how Mirka's brain works as she tries to unravel a word problem for her math class.  And, as Mirka waits for just the right time to ask Fruma a very important question, we see the family prepare for and celebrate Shabbos, the most important holiday of the year that takes place "every single week."

When we first meet Mirka, she is trying to argue with Fruma, insisting that God wanted her to drop a stitch in her knitting.  Five pages later, we see her standing up to the bullies who have been tormenting her younger brother, Zindel, as they walk to school.  Mirka is fearless and pretty smart with her moves and, as she hides from the tormenters she discovers a mysterious house with grapes the size of baseballs growing in the garden and a woman floating in the air as she prunes her trees.  Mirka rushes home to tell her siblings and returns to the house with a few of them (she has nine siblings in all) in tow.  This is where her troubles begin.  After plucking and eating one of those huge grapes, she is confronted by a pig (her stepsister, Rochel, having lived outside of the Orthodox community, tells Mirka what the animal is) and hunted down by him for her crime.  Stuck up in a tree, Mirka refuses to give up and her battle against the pig leads her to a near death experience, a rescue, a gratitude and a challenge against a troll that ultimately ends with her earning her sword.  How the magical story unwinds is as compelling as Mirka's struggles to fit in with her everyday life.

A few more scenes from Mirka's adventures...  I just love the artwork in this book and, although they are quite different, in terms of story content and fabulous artwork, I couldn't help but think of Eleanor Davis' spectacular graphic novel for kids, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook.  In both, the characters are strong and have depth, the plots are innovative and fast paced and, in both books, we are taken to new worlds, whether is it the secret lab of three young inventors or a town that seems to exist on the edge of reality and fantasy.

For those of you who feel like the length of time it takes to read a graphic novel may not balance out the price, and I know you are out there because I was once one of you, take some time to read Hereville:  How Mirka Got Her Sword or any of the other graphic novels I mention here in this review.  They WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND FOR GOOD!!!

Other graphic novels that I highly recommend:

Rapunzel's Revenge 

by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale.

The Secret Science Alliance 

written and illustrated by Eleanor Davis.

Amulet written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi.

The Fog Mound Trilogy by Susan Schade and Jon Buller

Interview with Barry Deutsch, creator of HEREVILLE!

  

I am just so completely in love with Mirka and entranced by Hereville that, after checking out Hereville.com and discovering that Barry Deutsch looks like a pretty friendly guy, I sent him some fan mail.  He is a very friendly guy AND he agreed to answer a few of my questions about his amazing first graphic novel!  Also, at the end of the interview Barry recommends graphic novels and webcomics that he (and some young listeners) are currently enjoying with links to all.  A sheynem dank, Barry!

Obvious first question:  Why an Orthodox Jewish girl?

Why not an Orthodox Jewish girl? 

A decade or more before I created Hereville, I read the book Holy Days, by Lis Harris, which includes a lot about the daily life of a Hasidic Jewish family. I read that and thought it was fascinating -- an entire society, embedded in modern-day society but in many ways so separate and distinct. When I create a comic, my imagined audience is always me -- "what would I find interesting to read about"? Since I found that society so interesting to read about, it was natural for me to put it in a comic someday.

I'm not sure why a girl, as opposed to a boy. But I've always liked writing and reading about female characters.

Plus, it's always nice to be doing something that not everyone else is doing. There's not exactly a huge number of fantasy adventure comic books about 11-year-old Jewish girls out there!

So true!  That makes the tagline for the book all the more brilliant and funny. As someone who knows almost nothing about the religion, I have to admit that setting your graphic novel in an Orthodox Jewish community was almost as foreign as setting a book at a school for wizards. Because of this, I think that the appearance of magic and magical creatures is almost even more of a surprise and delight.  Did you know from the start that your book would have elements of fantasy in it?  How did you decide what magical aspects to include?

I always intended for Mirka's story to include magical, fairy-tale elements; I never even considered another approach. 

As for which magical elements to include, sometime after I started, I got the image of the big battle at the climax of the book -- without giving away spoilers, I'm talking about the two double-page spreads in which Mirka has an unexpected duel. Once I knew she was going to be having the duel, I could work my way out from there -- who was she fighting? What kind of a monster would have the right personality to fight her in that fashion? How would she get into that situation? And eventually the story is pieced together that way.

Wow!  That is so interesting to know that you envisioned the climax at an early point in your writing of the story.  But it all fits - the climax is perfect and brings all the threads together, no pun intended. Mirka has to be my favorite new heroine of 2010. While I loved the plot of your book, I really just enjoyed following Mirka throughout her days.  She is brave, a little bit impulsive, smart, thinks outside of the box, doesn't give up, loves her family and follows her passion.  Frankly, I'm a little bit put out that a GUY created such a cool girl character.  How the heck did you do it???

Thanks! I'm glad you like Mirka. I like her a lot, too.

This is something I talk about when I do my Hereville slideshow. :-)  I just don't see it as a big problem. Mirka has a lot of differences from me -- she's a girl, I'm a boy, she's devout, I'm atheist, she's brave, I'm a big wimp. But we also have so much in common. She gets afraid, she loves her family, she sometimes acts badly, she doesn't fit into the gender role people expect of her, and she's got this big dream that really doesn't seem very practical. Those are all things I have in common in Mirka, that I can draw on to tell her story.

Good point - we all have similarities and differences that come out the same in the end, sometimes.  I think, though, that as a female, I am still used to boys ruling the pages of adventure stories, so that makes Mirka all the more wonderous to me.  I have to say, I really came to love Fruma as well.  I love books where a young adventurer also has a wise, strong adult figure to turn to, and Fruma is definitely that, even if her arguing does seem exasperating.  Can you tell us how/why did Fruma made it into your story (without giving too much about her past away - clues seem to indicate that she has some secrets to divulge to Mirka at some point...)?

Originally, I was just playing with the fairy tale trope. There are so many fairy tales with an evil stepmother, so I thought it would be fun to include a stepmother who was conventionally unattractive and sometimes aggravating to Mirka -- but who was nonetheless a really positive character who readers would like.

And there is a lot more for Mirka, and the readers, to learn about Fruma's past. I won't be getting into that in the next Hereville book, but I do plan to reveal at least some of Fruma's secrets someday.

Well, you did a great job of twisting the trope!  I have to admit, even after two readings I didn't fully catch this until I read Betsy Bird's review of Hereville at School Library Journal back in August, but I love the way that Mirka gets her sword and how much it has to do with Fruma, who is always trying to teach her domestic arts and in the end teaches her the intellectual art of the argument.  You said that you worked out the climax early on in the process, but did you have this all figured out as well?

It just developed! I certainly knew how I'd end the book well before I got around to drawing the ending; but when I originally drew page 4, where Fruma is arguing with Mirka about dragons, I had no idea how key that page would be to the story.

What is it about arguing?  It is a great theme in your book but one that I have to admit I don't see too often (unless it is in the sassy, annoying kid way) in kid's books.

Arguing is a very Jewish thing. In the Talmud -- as Wikipedia puts it, the Talmud is "a central text of mainstream Judaism" -- a great deal of time is spent with a form of argument in which the rabbis examine questions from every possible side of an issue. It's like the old Jewish saying, where there are two Jews there are at least three opinions.

For me personally, I've always enjoyed argument, and was on the debate team in college.

That shows in your book!  I know that Hereville (like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, among many others) was originally a webcomic.  Can you tell those of who have no idea what one is, how does a webcomic work?  Where do you post it, who can see it, how do you draw it?

A webcomic is just like a regular comic book or comic strip, except instead of being printed on paper you can view it on the web. They're just posted on websites, like any other content on the web, and anyone interested can view them. But because there are almost no barriers to publishing on the web, many more comics get published on the web then get published on paper. As you'd expect, many webcomics aren't very good, but there are some webcomics that are just wonderful.

If your readers are interested, they can find a list of just some of the webcomics I enjoy at http://www.hereville.com/links/ .

As for how you draw webcomics, you draw them the same way you'd draw any comic. Some webcomics are drawn on paper and then scanned; some regular comics, like Hereville, are drawn on computer and then printed on paper.

As time goes on, the distinction between webcomics and paper comics has become fuzzier and fuzzier, because so many comics are published both ways.

How is the webcomic of Hereville different from the book?  The illustrations for the webcomic look a bit rougher that the book.  How did you decide what to change and keep the same?  Did you work with an editor at Abrams?

The webcomic and the book both end the same way, with only small differences. But there are big differences in the story leading up the ending -- the new book has many new characters, such as the pig, and Mirka's sisters Gittel and Rochel. And even where the story is similar, I redrew all but the last 25 or so pages, because over the five years I drew the webcomic my drawing style changed a lot. Overall, the graphic novel has over 100 pages that are either new or redrawn since the webcomic.

When I started Hereville, I had very little idea where I was going, and made it up as I went along. But while I was doing that, I was also doing a lot of research about daily life in a Hasidic community, and also discovering the story. So by the time I reached the ending, I could see a lot that I wanted to change -- things like having Mirka come from a large family, instead of  a small family, because Hasidic families are often pretty large.

I did work with an editor at Abrams, Sheila Keenan, who is fabulous and cares almost as much about Hereville as I do. She and I had a lot of long arguments about things, but it improved the book in the end, which is what matters.

Wow!  I did notice differences in style between the webcomic and the book.  The arguments paid off!  I really appreciated the watching the video of you drawing a page of Hereville.  For thos of us who know nothing, can you talk a bit about how drawing on a computer works and why do comic book artists work with another person who adds the colors - Jake Richmond in the case of Hereville?

 

 I draw on the computer using a device called a "Cintiq," which is a special monitor you can draw on with a special pen, just like you'd draw on a piece of paper. (You can search Youtube for "cintiq" to see videos of the Cintiq in action.) (Or watch the above clip of Barry drawing!) So the physical act of drawing is very similar, on computer or on paper. The big difference is with a computer, you have a lot more ability to edit your drawing once you've made it.

Why do comic book artists sometimes use colorists? Mainly, as a way of speeding up production! It takes a really long time to make comic book pages, and splitting up the work is one way of speeding that up. That said, Jake did a wonderful job coloring Hereville, and I loved sometimes being surprised by the choices he made (which were often better than the choices I would have made).

One last thing, I know that Will Eisner, father of the Graphic Novel, was your instructor while you were at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. What graphic novels to you love to read?  And, for those of use new to graphic novels, can you give us a few directions to read in - for both kids and adults?

There are way too many to list! But some of my favorites include almost anything by Jamie Hernandez , Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruise,  Castle Waiting (review with sample pages) by Linda Medley, and George Sprott by Seth. (No last name, just "Seth"). And about a zillion others. Online my two favorite ongoing graphic novel-style webcomics are Family Man by Dylan Meconis, and Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee.

 And, for those of use new to graphic novels, can you give us a few directions to read in - for both kids and adults?

Well, for anyone interested reading about the comics medium, Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is a must-read, and folks who want to create comics should also read his follow-up "Making Comics." Those are not only great books about comics, they're great comics themselves.

For all-age graphic novel recommendations, if you're at all open to liking epic fantasy, you can't do better than Jeff Smith's Bone series. American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang, is simply a must read, and blows me away every time I read it.  I'm currently reading Larry Marder's wondrous Beanworld graphic novels to my friends Sydney and Maddox, who are 7 and 5 years old, and all three of us love it.  I've really been enjoying the Courtney Crumrin series, by Ted Naifeh. Other all-ages I'd recommend are Smile (found on the shelves in the kid's section at most bookstores!) by Raina Telgemeier. I Kill Giants (review) by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Nimura, the already-mentioned Castle Waiting (review with sample pages) by Linda Medley, and the Usagi Yojimbo series by Stan Sakai. Any kid who enjoyed Hereville would probably also like Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro's Foiled, which I hope is the first of a series. And for an online all-ages graphic novel, I'd recommend Tom Siddell's Gunnerkrigg Court and Kevin Moore's Wanderlost. Plus, there are a zillion others I could recommend. (I always feel guilty answering these questions because there are so many comics I'm leaving out!)

And of course, I'd recommend comic strip collections: Anyone of any age would love Peanuts, Pogo, and Calvin and Hobbes!
 

 Finally, what kid's books left an impression on you as a child and do you still read kid's books, and if yes, which ones?

I was obsessed with Pogo a a kid, and re-read the collections I had a bunch of times. I also remember loving Harold and the Purple Crayon. As a slightly older kid, I still read Pogo, and also loved the Great Brain series of books by John Dennis Fitzgerald, which had great illustrations by Mercer Mayer that I can still picture! Other novels I reread about a thousand times as a kid included The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill, The Hobbit by Tolkien, The Golden Key by George Macdonald (the edition I read had stunning illustrations by Maurice Sendak) and A Wrinkle In Time by by Madeleine L'Engle.

And of course I read endless comic books! I really loved superheroes back then -- my favorite was Spiderman, which at the time was written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Romita Jr.

Most kid books I read nowadays are graphic novels. The two most recent I've read are The Popularity Papers  by Amy Ignatow (review at books4yourkids), and Crogan's March by Chris Schweizer, both of which were terrific. I think I might be one of the only adult men who's ever read The Popularity Papers, but it was really funny! As far as prose goes, I recently read an advanced copy of Lauren Myracle's Shine, which I really enjoyed, and I'm currently in the middle of Eishes Chayil's Hush, (review at  the blog Velveteen Rabbi) which so far is both amazing and heartbreaking.

I LOVED The Popularity Papers, which I reviewed (after avoiding for a long time because of the title) last August.  Amy Ignatow is amazing!  You may be the only grown man (who is not a librarian) to have read it...  Lauren Myracle is great and Hush looks incredible.  I'm going to try to get my hands on that books.  All the books you mentioned as influences and current reads are spectacular!  You have a great literary canon to draw from.

Thanks so much for taking the time to fill us in on how Mirka and Hereville came to be.  Can you give us any little tidbits about what to expect from Mirka and you in the future?

Abrams has asked me to do two more Hereville books (and if these do well, I hope there will be many more Hereville books after that!). In each book, Mirka will be a little older, and eventually we get to see what Mirka's like as a young adult.

For the next book, though, Mirka's only a little bit older. One of her older sisters is getting married, and that gives Mirka a lot to deal with -- plus, of course, there's monsters and magic things happening. I'm just getting started on this story, but I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Excellent!  I can't wait to see where Mirka and her family are headed!  I just wish I didn't have to wait a year or more!!  Thanks again for taking the time to share with me and my readers!

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