Sweet Valley Twins: Teacher's Pet

Sweet Valley Twins: Teacher's Pet (Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novels Book 2) by Francine Pascal, adapted by Nicole Andelfinger, illustrated by Claudia Aguirre, colors by Sara Hagstrom, letters by Warren Montgomery

Two twins are in a ballet class. One feels that the teacher never notices her, even though she is a good dancer. The other twin ends up getting the lead role in the performance of a play. The first twin gets jealous. She also skips out on things like helping out another girl. They go through many twin fights and eventually come to some sort of truce. At the day of the performance, the girl in the lead fakes a sprained ankle to let her sister take the lead. Then she is "miraculously healed" and can act in the minor role. They all end up happy together. There is some relatavle experiences with sibling jealousy, even if the final resolution is a little bit far fetched.

Pizza My Heart

Pizza My Heart: (Norma and Belly) by Mika Song

Two rodents really like pizza. They see a pizza machine and want to get pizza out of it. Later they see some pizza delivery people and follow them around. One travels in the pizza box. The other tries to find the one in the box. They hear from another animal that says that there is a mean cat at the house. There are some crazy run ins as they avoid it. Eventually, they find some pizza and enjoy it. It is another pizza book that is easy for young ones to read.

I Really Dig Pizza!

I Really Dig Pizza!: A Mystery! an Archie and Reddie book by Candy James

Archie sees a pizza on the ground and then decides to hide it. To make sure nobody finds it, Archie uses a digger to pile dirt on top. Later Reddie shows up. Reddie is trying to solve the mystery of pile of dirt. Archie is trying as much as possible to divert this effort. Finally, Reddie mentions that the mystery is related to finding a missing pizza that was purchased for Archie. Now Archie admits to hiding the pizza and they enjoy the pizza together. It is a simple graphic novel that beginning readers can read.

Girl Haven

Girl Haven by Lilah Sturges, Meaghan Carter, Joamette Gil

The book starts out with three girls in a queer club at school. One boy, Ash, joins them. They go to his house and look through his mom's old stuff. Then they are teleported to the girl kingdom that his mom had dreamed up. It only has girls in it. they run into the scourge, which is the kingdom of boys. Ash gets proclaimed the king. He is trying to get his mom back. He also feels he is more comfortable in a dress and doing girl things. Now Ash is a girl. She learns that her mother is dead. She helps make peace in the kingdom by given a hug. They return back to the normal world. They have all been gone for multiple days. Ash's father mentions that this happened before with Ash's mom. The kids all go back to school and go on with their lives, with Ash now identifying as a girl. It is a weird bit of fantasy and reality that has a mix of feminist and queer values.

American Symbols (Chester the Crab)

American Symbols (Chester the Crab's Comics with Content Series) by Bentley Boyd

This book covers number or American symbols, such as the flag, Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam. Each is covered in a page or two with interesting trivia as well as details. It debunks some myths and is interesting, though younger kids may find it a bit long.

Drama: A Graphic Novel

Drama: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier

This graphic novel is set in middle school, but feels much more like high school. It centers around a drama production at the school. The protagonist, a seventh grade girl, is in charge of set design. She likes a baseball player, and kisses him when he says that he broke up with her girlfriend. But, then he doesn't want to have much to do with her. For the play, a set of twins come to try out for the play. They are both good singers. One is outgoing and willing to try out. The other is shy and ends up on crew. The outgoing boy is out gay, The girl gets a crush on both of them. She hopes the other will invite her to the 8th grade formal. The protagonist spends a while trying to get a cannon to work on stage. The performance seems to go well until the final show. The lead female broke up with her boyfriend and got tripped up on stage in the middle of the performance. The alternates are nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the shy twin ends up in drag in the leading lady role. (He had practiced the female parts with his brother when trying out.) He completes the part, even kissing the leading man at the end. Later at the formal, the girl goes with the boy, but he ends up ditching her to go with another boy. She later finds another drama boy that really likes her. It can be difficult keeping the characters apart. Some of them look and act quite similar. It does feel like way to much relationship drama for middle school.

Dragon Hoops

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

The author has always been a bit nerdy and preferred to focus on his comics. He never saw the fascination that other people had with sports, but he couldn't resist the enthusiasm that people had. He decided to talk with coach. He discovered that he was as relatable guy and was once a gangly teenager. The team is great and has made it to the state championship game many times, but has never won. He became smitten by the basketball team. He decides to write his book on their season.

The book goes through the basketball season and ties in school and basketball history. He tries to go in depth with many of the players. The histories are fairly positive, with the players feeling friendly and well-grounded. The team is mostly black, with a future NBA player. However, there are also other players, including a white "redneck", a Punjabi and Chinese student. They endure some racial taunts, but rub it off. The book mostly covers the on-court struggles of the team, together with the challenges of the author and his life. There are even notes at the end of the graphic novel. Some players are great and anticipate future experience playing basketball, while others are looking more at the "student" part of it. It ends as a nice happy sports-story ending.

Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe

Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe by Ken Krimstein

Based on the title alone, I wanted to love this graphic novel. Tying together Einstein and Kafka had a lot of potential. They both had lived in Prague around the same time. They were both Jews that revolutionized their fields despite spending times working in tedious jobs (insurance salesman or patent clerk.) The graphic novel didn't quite live up to its potential. It focussed on Einstein and how he further developed his theory of relativity while on sojourn in Prague in 1911. The area was part of the Austria-Hungarian empire at the time. There was an intellectual climate in place. Einstein had various foils that would help him refine his theories. He also had family challenges - they would much rather be back in Zurich. The book buts a lot of these things together, but does not quite deliver. It is a few isolated life vignettes that don't come together to form a complete narrative, nor completely show development of relativity. Kafka is there, but in a bit role. There is also the ghost of Euclid and a narrator skeleton. The illustration style is also a bit surrealistic. It just doesn't quite make it.

The Marching Band Nerds Handbook: Rules from the 13th Chair Trombone Player

The Marching Band Nerds Handbook: Rules from the 13th Chair Trombone Player by DJ Corchin (Author), Dan Dougherty (Illustrator)

This book present a picture and a bit of text on each page describing some parts of marching band. I could relate to many from my time in band. Though some were a little bit modern or just plain "weird".

Quest for the Unicorn's Horn (Discover Graphics: Mythical Creatures)

Quest for the Unicorn's Horn (Discover Graphics: Mythical Creatures) by Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan (Author), Román Díaz (Illustrator)

This is an "introductory" graphic novel. It is short, so should appeal to beginning readers. It could even be read to pre-readers. It starts with an introduction on how to read a graphic novel, and includes questions and a recipe at the end. In it, a kid works with a unicorn to find their horn in the land of sweets. They must resist eating the candy. The drawings are very "candy-like" with a simple story.

Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye

Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #11) (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix) by Gabriela Epstein and Ann M. Martin

Stacey's dad is being located back to New York. She realizes things will be different when she gets back. She also misses her friends. Her friends help her have a big yard sell and later throw a big going away party for her - complete with games and all the kids they babysit. There are plenty of sentimental going away things. It all feels very cliché. 

Jessi's Secret Language

Jessi's Secret Language: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #12) (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix) by Ann M. Martin and Chan Chau

The twelfth babysitters club graph novel explores the deaf, ballet and sign language. Jessi is in a new ballet class and is one of the better kids in the class. Other kids feel jealous of her. She feels it may be because she is the youngest and newest girl. (The fact that she is the only black girl in the class is never mentioned.) However, she continues to work and gets a lead role in the upcoming ballet. Meanwhile, she also gets the job of babysitting a new family. She goes twice awake and learns sign language to communicate with a deaf boy and his hearing sister. The sister struggles with being looked down on because she is always helping her brother. Jessi helps her to overcome this. She also helps both to get good friends. She is also able to communicate with the deaf sister of a girl in her ballet class. For the opening performance, Jessi invites all her friends and the deaf class. They all enjoy the ballet. This one is a nice positive message that seems to have fewer false dramas than other BSC books.

Kristy's Big Day

Kristy's Big Day: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #6) (6) (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix) by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan

Stylistically, the illustrations on this Babystitter's club has a much more "manga" style than the early books. The eyes pop out, and it feels Japanese. It is very clearly a different artist. Kristy's mom will be marrying Watson. They will then be moving into his mansion. Originally, they had planned to tie the knot in September. However, due to her mom getting a good offer on the house and having an upcoming business trip, they move it to the early summer. There is a lot of work to handle in a short time. Many kids come in from family. The entire babysitter's club comes together to help babysit all the kids. In the end, the wedding goes off well, and Kristy gets to wear her fancy dress and take part in the wedding. The girls also get paid well for the babysitting. It was a lot of work managing small kids  suddenly grouped together. After the wedding, the "big brother" takes over for watching the new blended family. He is intentionally lax.

The Truth About Stacey: A Graphic Novel

Mary Anne Saves the Day: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #3) (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix) by Raina Telgemeier and Ann M. Martin

The Babysitter's club series continues to be adapted for new media. The graphic novel is fairly faithful to the original book (while the Netflix series seems to make a lot more significant changes.) This story starts out fairly straightforward. The girls meet and get some clients. Then things go downhill. The girl the answers the phone for a job babysitting a baby immediately takes it. This makes everyone mad. They have difficulty even communicating together. Because of this spat, Mary Anne eats lunch by herself. Luckily, this gives her the chance to meet Dawn, the new girl from California. They become good friends. They also discover that their parents (Dawn's divorced mother and Mary Anne's widowered dad) dated each other in high school. As part of a babysitting job, Marry Anne has an emergency with a 104 degree temperature. Dawn comes to help her after she couldn't get in contact with any of the emergency numbers. They end up going in an ambulance to the hospital and both end up getting paid. (Seems they didn't bother to update this "telephone no-contact" problem to the days of cell phones.) Mary Anne ends up getting more privileges from her father after this experience.

The babysitter club girls work together for a kid's birthday party and nearly ruin the party. After that experience they finally agree to make peace. (Mary Anne had written apology letters to help make peace. She even wrote one to Dawn after having a falling out when Dawn discovered that Mary Anne had lied about her friends.) Dawn joins the club and everyone is happy. It is a simple message of how a simple conflict can get out of hand - and be hard to resolve. Often it requires a big stressor to realize how bad the problem is.

The Truth About Stacey: A Graphic Novel

The Truth About Stacey: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) by Raina Telgemeier and Ann M. Martin (based on the 1986 book)

Stacey has diabetes. Her parents keep trying to seek different treatments for her, including TV doctors in New York. She doesn't want to do all that. Meanwhile the babysitters club has competition with older kids that take their jobs. It turns out the older kids are poor sitters, and eventually this spreads after bad behavior and upset kids. Meanwhile the diabetic girl uses doctor connections to find an alternate doctor to see that helps her grasp the underlying psychological issues. She later makes peace with her old friend in New York (who she had a spat with) and things are all happy in the end. The graphic novel is well illustrated and has a simple, positive message. Sometimes it pays to be subtle in working through solutions to problems the slow way. (Though there are risks involved.)

Heartstopper: Volume 1

Heartstopper: Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper is a cute British gay teen romance story. One "rugby lad" sees a known gay boy run fast and asks him to join the rugby team. They become friends. The become even closer after The rugby guy protects the gay guy from an "in the closet" former boyfriend who did not understand no.  The rugby connects with the girl he previously kissed at a party and learns that she is gay. He later kisses the known gay guy. The tale of developing relationship is fairly universal.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

What are comics and how do they work? Defining comics becomes somewhat challenging. The author uses "sequential art". This covers comic books and most comic strips (but leaves out "single frame" comics.) It also goes on to include cave paintings and various other art forms.

Comics have a number of unique aspects that help to tell a story. They are a form that actively combines pictures and words to tell a story. This has contributed to their reputation of "lower class" work, in part due to the differing evolution of pictures and books. Comics have also produced innovations to explore time and emotions. Abstraction can be used to bring out or hide details as well as help be relate to certain parts of comics. There is a create deal of complexity in what seems to be a "simple" art form.

Tetris: The Games People Play

Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian "Box" Brown 

Tetris is a simple, addictive game with an interesting history. It was started as a text-based pet project in the Soviet Union. He liked to play it on his own. He shared with others. Soon it spread and eventually made it out of the Soviet Union. The cold war was in process, and Russia was little understood by the west. However, when people saw the game, they saw the potential. There were various businessmen involved in negationations and trading rights to the game. Eventually, one guy managed to cold-call the Russians and get the rights to the game. Nintendo was able to use those to distribute the game on the Gameboy further contributing to its popularity. Initially, the creator made no money from the game. However, he was later able to immigrate to the United States and share in the proceeds. This book tells the story of Tetris (and Nintendo) in the form of a graphic novel.

American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang 

This graphic novel has a few seemingly unconnected stories that all come together in the end. The primary story is about a boy (Jin Wang) who moves from Chinatown to a school where he is the only Chinese student. There is one Japanese girl, but he does not associate with her. A new boy later moves in from Taiwan. Jin Wang doesn't want to have anything to do with him, but they later become friends. The other stories are about a monkey king and a white boy that wants to date a girl. 

The story deals with the struggles growing up and fitting in - especially when stereotypes get in the way. However, everyone is struggling in their own way, and things are not necessarily easier for the other side.

Glitch: A Graphic Novel

Two high school friends are very excited to play the newest video game. They promise to wait until the weekend to play it together. However, one decides to "test it out". She ends up getting literally drawn into the game. She plays all night and sleeps through school all day. Her friendship suffers. Later she makes up with the friend and they beat the video game together. The "boss" of the game is actually the robot friend that wants to conquer the game and the world. However, the girls are able to work together to conquer it. The story is fairly straightforward. I did not care much for the style of the drawings, but that is a personal preference.