Marjorie is thirteen and has adult responsibilities. Her dad suffers from depression and doesn't really leave his room very much. Her mum passes away which means she's in charge of the family laundromat. She has to endure rude customers and one in particular who is keen on buying the place up and converting it into a yoga resort. Wendell is a ghost who is learning the ropes when it comes to ghost world rules. He's not supposed to be in Marjorie's laundromat at all, but he can't resist it. When the two meet, they realise that they might be able to help each other out. I really enjoyed Sheets, it has a melancholic, dreamy feel throughout it, perfect for a late September read. I loved how Marjorie carries on through the pain, even though you know that no thirteen year old should have to endure such hardships. It's a brilliant comic book that should not be missed!
0 Comments
When Christine first meets Moon, she's intimidated. Christine has heard stories that Moon will beat you up for no reason. Then Moon moves in next door to Christine and she quickly becomes best friends with her. Moon is daring, mischievous and art simply pours out from her. These are all the things Christine isn't. Christine's parents are relatively conservative and aren't too sure they like the influence Moon is having on her. Moon often tells Christine about the star creatures that talk to her and that she is from another planet and will be joining them soon. Christine brushes this off as Moon is always creating, always thinking of things that "regular" people don't think about. Then, something disastrous happens and Christine has to summon all of the courage that Moon has instilled in her to carry on and be a great friend. This is a lovely graphic novel about friendship, heartache, anxiety and pain. This is exactly the kind of graphic novel I'm looking for to fill the shelves at Glenthorne High School as I know it will be extremely popular.
Gene Luen Yang is a bestselling graphic novelist and a teacher at Bishop O'Dowd Catholic School. He's struggling to come up with a new graphic novel idea after his best selling work "American Born Chinese." After hearing a buzz around school surrounding O'Dowd's basketball team, The Dragons, he decides to talk to the coach to see if there's a story there. The issue is that Gene is not a sports guy, he's a comic book guy. When he was young he was nicknamed "Stick" by his classmates because he was so skinny. He's always shied away from competitive sports because it's not the world he feels comfortable in. However, once he becomes immersed in the world of The Dragons, he finds himself fascinated with the players' back story and the competition that surrounds them. Dragon Hoops is not only a whirlwind history of basketball, it's a fascinating glimpse into the real lives of these players and coaches. Yang covers the anxiety, fears and even racist attitudes that the players face on a daily basis. I love dhow he slowly grew more and more excited about each upcoming game, much to the confusion of his family. It's a wonderful graphic novel for fans of basketball, comics and true stories told with an honest voice. I recommend it for ages 11+! Effie feels alone and invisible in her school. Her teachers don't seem to like her and she's always bumped into, ignored and called a nerd behind her back. One day she discovers a school for ghosts in the woods near her human school. Despite warnings, the other ghosts take her in and she starts to learn the ways that the ghosts can control lost spirits. It's all fun for Effie and very exciting until she's asked by her new ghost friends to track down an actual lost spirit, one that proves to be quite dangerous. Effie now has to prove to her new friends that she deserves to be in the ghost school and that she's got special powers like the others. It's a great story about believing in yourself and finding your true friends. It's also an important story about bullying and how easy it is to fall into the trap of not only being bullied but becoming one yourself. Great comic for fans of ghosts and good storytelling for ages 9+ In Aster's world, all the girls get trained to be witches while the boys get trained to be shape shifters. However, Aster knows in his heart that he's destined to be a witch. He doesn't fit in with the boys and has no real friends because the girls are told to exclude him from their studies. He's lost, confused and angry at everyone's rigid reaction to his passion for studying witchcraft. Despite this, he starts to learn it in secret, breaking a long tradition that can land him in serious trouble. However, when one of the boys goes missing, a horrible disturbance in the balance of order is sensed by the elders. An old foe has reared its head and returned to their land and Aster just might have the goods to help out this time. I really loved Witch Boy, it's beautifully told with a great cast of characters. Aster is a boy struggling with his identity, where does he fit in, he's not a jock or a shape shifter like most of the boys in his community.His parents and cousins don't understand him, he just doesn't seem to belong anywhere. It's a great story because it's made clear that it's not Aster's fault, he does fit in, it's those with the power around him that fail to see his potential. On top of that message it's a great fantasy adventure with a genuinely creepy threat. I highly recommend this comic and its sequels for ages 10+ Izzy & Eric are both obsessed with an upcoming video game called Dungeon City. When Izzy receives her copy first, she decides to give it a try despite promising Eric she won't play it until they both have their copies in their hands. Then, something strange happens, Izzy gets sucked directly into the video game! There she meets Rae, a robot who tells her that she's been sent to the world of Dungeon City to save the land. With Rae's help, she starts levelling up in preparation to meet the final boss. The problem is, she starts neglecting her real life responsibilities like school and her friendship with Eric. Not everything is as it seems in Dungeon City, and Izzy soon finds herself in grave danger. Any fan of video games will devour this great comic, I'm currently playing Zelda Breath of the Wild and there are so many great video game references that you will find yourself going back to re-read them. Anyone who has ever hunkered down for the long haul on their floor as they crawled through dungeons and worked out puzzles on their video game consoles will want to pick this one up, don't miss it! Willow loves exploring the woods outside of her house, it's where she and her mother did tons of exploring. One day, Willow gets into a huge fight with her sister and runs away with her dog. While she's in the woods, she runs into Pilu, a wood spirit who has also lost her way. Willow realises that Pilu's home is the same grove that she and her mother used to visit all the time. However, danger is lurking in the woods and Willow must overcome her own fears to help her new friends. This is a heartwarming comic book for fans of all ages. Anyone who has ever loved My Neighbour Totoro will really adore this. Can't recommend it enough! Vera wants to be what she thinks is a "regular" person. But it's hard as a Russian girl living in the U.S. suburbs. All of her friends seem to have way more money than her and they get to go to cool summer camps. Vera? She's sent to Russian summer camp. Determined to fit in, Vera soon discovers that she once again starts to feel left out. There are cliques, boring history lessons and disgusting bathrooms that make life unbearable for her. Still, Vera puts her head down and tries to make the most of it, only the strong willed can survive, and she's a survivor. I really loved this comic from Vera Brosgol (Anya's Ghost), its her own memoir of her time at a Russian summer camp and you can feel the authenticity oozing off of every page. It's funny, sad and awkward all rolled into one great story. Any fan of Raina Telgemeier will absolutely love this amazing tale of adventure, hardship and outhouses from Hell. Loved it, don't miss it. AJ wants to be different. As it stands, he doesn't feel special, he hasn't grown over the summer holiday, he doesn't have anything that makes him stand out from the crowd and the girl he has a crush on has absolutely no idea that he exists. When he finds out that his crush, Nia, is in love with a popular teen vampire series, AJ takes matters into his own hands. Then the stars align and he and Nia are paired up to do a group project on, you guessed it: Transylvania! This is AJ's time to shine, if he can convince Nia that he's as into vampires as she is, she might actually notice him and see how much he cares for her. Not all is as it seems, though. Not only is Nia harbouring a deep secret, there's something seriously off with their new teacher from the UK. He acts strange, takes his phone out in class and has urgent, hushed conversations and gets agitated really, really quickly. As the mystery unfolds, AJ has much more on his plate than the social hierarchy at school. I really loved FAKE BLOOD, it's like The Lost Boys, only cooler, funnier and more interesting. There are tons of nods to vampire pop culture and teen literature. It's a hilarious parody that is really fun to read. I work with students who are going to absolutely love this, I can see them existing in this comic, they talk like this, they are the kids who come to the Library to escape the madness that can exist in the hallways on the outside. All Librarians should buy this and have it on display immediately, loved it. D.J. and Gina are best friends and always have been since they were very young. D.J. comes from a big family of over-achievers and feels like he's always falling short. One day he witnesses what he thinks is a meteor falling to the Earth. When he approaches it, he finds a boy lying in a crater wearing nothing but silver underpants. He soon learns that the boy has special powers, he can read a stack of encyclopaedias in seconds, can fly and has balls of energy that shoot from his hands. The boy soon identifies himself as HiLo but his memory is fuzzy and he doesn't recall much more. It doesn't take long for a horde of inter galactic robot bugs to travel to Earth looking for HiLo, pitting D.J. and Gina into the middle of an epic battle to the finish! HiLo is beautifully illustrated and full of great comedic timing. It is great for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid or any super hero comic, loved it. Recommended for ages 8 and up! |
Categories
All
Follow These Guys: 100 Scope Notes No Flying No Tights Pretty Books Reading Rants! Sophisticated Dorkiness Teen Librarian |