Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 36

Monday Repost: THE COLOR OF EARTH by Kim Dong Hwa

I'm reposting this review in honor of the fact that I am, RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE, traveling in South Korea, and this graphic novel was one of my earlier introductions to Korean culture and history from the perspective of literature. In fact, it's a trilogy, and a lovely one. So I thought it would be a good time to revisit it, just in case I'm too busy to put up a new post while I'm gone....


I was also looking forward to The Color of Earth, because it would be my first major foray into manhwa, or Korean manga. This first chapter in the trilogy by Kim Dong Hwa could be classified (in Japanese) as shojo, since the coming-of-age tale of a young Korean woman may appeal most to female readers. (And this is fabulous—I applaud any and all efforts to increase the amount of graphic literature with appeal for young women, especially now that Minx is defunct.) My understanding from the foreword is that this tale is based on the life of the author's mother, a sort of tribute to her growing-up years in a rural Korean village. The artwork reflects this, illustrating with sensitivity and vividness, remaining simple and expressive throughout, yet unafraid to add flourishes and whole spreads rendered in exquisite detail when called for by the storytelling.

The story opens with Ehwa as a very young girl, living with her widowed mother the tavern-keeper. As she grows older and into young womanhood over the course of the book, we see her gradually gain insight and understanding into not only her own growth and maturity, but also into her mother's life as a single female tavern-keeper, subject to all sorts of racy gossip while also leading a relatively lonely existence. At the same time that we get a window into traditional Korean culture of the somewhat recent past, it's the universal elements of the story that will make it really resonate with Western readers—curiosity about one's own growing body, the opposite sex, and the lives of the surrounding adults; loneliness and companionship and love.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, First Second. You can find THE COLOR OF EARTH by Kim Dong Hwa and its two sequels at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: HUMAN BODY THEATER by Maris Wicks

Synopsis : Iiiiiit's—a kids' comics extravaganza! Featuring The All-Singing, All-Dancing Anatomy Extravaganza, Human Body Theater: A Nonfiction Revue by Maris Wicks! With a name like Human Body Theater, if you're of a certain generation like myself, you might first (unfortunately, and inaccurately) think of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. NO, no. Clear all those thoughts out of your head. (If you can. My one experience with the Jim Rose Circus is indelibly imprinted on my gray matter and involves a lot of going "EEWWW" and "UGGGHHH".) If you're squeamish, don't even Google it.

No, what we've got here is another wonderful science comic by the very talented Maris Wicks, author of the graphic novels Coral Reefs (reviewed here) and Primates (reviewed here), among others. This fact-packed book provides an entertaining introduction to all the various systems of the body, how they work, what their components are, and their roles in our everyday lives, from the tiniest cells to our complicated superstar brains. Each "Act" of the performance that our astounding bodies perform every day focuses on a different bodily system, such as the Digestive System.

Click to embiggen. Courtesy of Macmillan.As with Wicks' other science comics, all the organs and cells and whatnot are adorably brought to life with expressive little faces, and described by our intrepid and knowledgeable narrator the Skeleton. There are cartoon diagrams, pictures of organs, fun (and funny) yucky stuff, and if you're still confused at the end, there's even a glossary for you. But you won't be, because it's all so seamlessly put together, and even talks about how various systems work in concert to enable us to do things like see, hear, walk, talk, burp, and sneeze.

Observations : I know I would have enjoyed this one a lot as a kid, and gone back to flip through it over and over, because I really liked illustrated science books. I think I've mentioned that I had numerous volumes of Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers; this fits that sort of niche. Kids (and older readers) have all kinds of questions about how their own bodies work, and this is the perfect book to answer those questions, especially if, like me, you've reached adulthood and information has started falling out of your brain

It's clear, informative, and the drawings invariably put a smile on my face. My only caveat with this one is that it is rather exhaustive. It's not a book to be (necessarily) read in a single sitting, and younger kids might find it a bit information-heavy, depending of course on the reader. On the other hand, the level of detail in this book makes it a good one for anyone who might need a refresher on their anatomy and physiology, or anyone who simply enjoys reading about science.
Click to embiggen. Courtesy of Macmillan.
Conclusion : I am a big fan of well-done educational comics. For kids who are visual learners or who respond well to multiple learning modalities, comics are a great way to introduce material that might otherwise feel discouragingly complex. Human Body Theater turns what could easily be a dry subject into a lively, personified look at the amazing human body. Stay tuned later this month for an interview with the author!

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, First Second / Macmillan. You can find HUMAN BODY THEATER by Maris Wicks at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM by Sarah Beth Durst

Synopsis : I'm catching up on some long-overdue reviews this week, and one of those is Sarah Beth Durst's latest middle-grade fantasy The Girl Who Could Not Dream. Sophie, the twelve-year-old main character, is the girl in question—and how strange and awful it is to be a person who is unable to dream when one's parents are, in fact, dream-sellers. Oh, ostensibly they own a bookshop, but there's a SECRET shop in the basement where all the dreams are stored in bottles; where they are distilled from dreamcatchers and readied for those special clients in the know.

Though she herself does not have dreams, she knows their seductive and sometimes frightening power…because one time, as a child, she stole a dream in a bottle. And she discovered that, while she cannot dream, she can undeniably experience someone else's dream…and even bring things out. That's how she ended up with a pet monster. Named Monster. He's furry, like a cat….only with sharp teeth. Oh, and tentacles. And he's very protective of her, though he is always very careful never to be seen by the outside world.

One day, Sophie's parents are away and a dream client comes by, and the client accidentally sees Monster. A creature who should not exist. Sophie has to explain it away, and hope that the client doesn't report her (or Monster) to the Night Watchmen. Unfortunately, this is only the first sign that things are about to go awry in Sophie's world. She may not be able to dream while sleeping, but soon, her waking world becomes all too nightmarish…

Observations : As with all of Durst's books, this one is undeniably fun, quirky, charming, magical, and really unlike anything else out there. Actually, if I had to compare it to anything, it would be the worlds created by Diana Wynne Jones, where magic exists in a kind of parallel, tangential plane but still alongside our own, visible to those with the ability to see it. Similarly, while there is gentle humor and a loving family portrayed here, there is also fear and danger lurking in the corner of one's eye, and plenty of excitement, as Sophie and Monster must spring into action to save Sophie's parents--and their livelihood.

Durst's books always charm me with their imaginativeness, and this one is no exception. How wonderful, to bring all sorts of dream monsters and fears and mythical beasts to life, from frighteningly surreal Dali-esque creatures to good old flying unicorns. But, hands down, Monster is the best monster. I'll leave it to you to read the book and find out why.

Conclusion : I'd recommend this one heartily to all readers of middle-grade fantasy, especially fans of Diana Wynne Jones's Christopher Chant books. It's just an all-around enjoyable story, and the author creates one of those worlds very like our own that you'll end up wishing you, too, could inhabit, nightmares and all.

I received my review copy of this book courtesy of the author/publisher. You can find THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM by Sarah Beth Durst at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Toon Thursday: Never Gonna Happen

It's nice being back on a semi-regular schedule of Toon Thursdays. (Psst! Did you know I've also started posting my toons over on Tumblr?) Let's see how long it lasts this time...

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Post Something. Anything!

I have to remind myself now and then that it's actually OK if I don't put up a substantial, pre-planned post every single time; that sometimes I can just sit down and write something. Putting down words of some kind is almost always good, even if I'm not geysering out brilliant insights every which way.

The other thing I can do is post a PICTURE to entertain you, because I have a lot of those. My household has been traveling a lot over the past couple of years, and there's more travel impending. More travel has meant a bit less writing, but I like to think I'm storing up writing fodder for some future, less hectic, more productive time (a time which may possibly be mythical).

Anyway, I hereby present you with a picture of an Australian penguin:

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Toon Thursday: Return of the Inner Critic

I suggest clicking to embiggen this one, since I had to reduce the size to fit the width of our center column. 

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Happy National Poetry Month 2016!

Hey, everyone, it's...
You can grab that logo there, and find tons of cool ideas for celebrating poetry, on the Academy of American Poets website. Memorize a poem! Create your own anthology on Poets.org! Watch a poetry movie! Most of all (sez me), get involved in local poetry events in your community. I've been a member of our local, relatively new Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and we are holding our third annual benefit gala this month on the 17th, along with our usual monthly poetry reading/open mic on the second Tuesday.

In honor of National Poetry Month, one of my favorite poems:

The Second Coming
by William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: THE NAMELESS CITY by Faith Erin Hicks

Synopsis : If you keep up with Finding Wonderland, you'll know I already have plenty of awe and amazement for graphic novelist Faith Erin Hicks. (See reviews here, here, and here, and interview here.) Her latest contribution—officially to be released on Tuesday—is The Nameless City, and reading it left me with even more admiration for her artistic and storytelling skills.

The setting is the City. To us readers, it looks a lot like someplace in China's early history: from the architecture to the armor, clothing, and hairstyles. The City has had many different names over the centuries, depending on which group of invaders has conquered it, for it controls a strategic pass through the mountains to the ocean. Through every wave of invasion, the City's native residents bow their heads, bend their backs, and forge on as best they can.

Click to embiggen. Images courtesy of
First Second/Macmillan.Currently, the City is controlled by a people known as the Dao, a people of great military prowess. Kaidu is the son of General Andren, and when we meet him at the beginning of the story, it's his first day at the palace, his first day of training to fight with the other Dao boys. He's come from living with his mother in the homelands and is plunged into the sights, sounds and smells of the City. While out and about, he meets a City native, an urchin named Rat. At first she resents him simply for being Dao. But Kaidu has grown up far from the City and its tension between residents and invaders, and he resists being pigeonholed. He's lonely, and he wants a friend.

Gradually they do become friends, and Kaidu begins to know the city as Rat knows it, running along the rooftops and scrounging for meals. It matters not at all to him that they are from two different worlds. Worry not, though—this isn't a depressing, Fox-and-the-Hound scenario. When the two of them find out about a plot that could put the palace and the City's rulers in danger, their loyalties are tested, their abilities are stretched to their limits, and their friendship is at the heart of it all.

Observations : The visuals here, with astounding color by Jordie Bellaire, are lush and immersive. For me, everything about the graphic storytelling was awesome, from the characters (individual and expressive) to the amazingly detailed setting, to the artistic choices of the author in rendering scenes into series of panels. The quiet scenes were beautiful, and there were full-page panels I could have just gotten lost in, but there was plenty of action as well. Never, though, did I feel lost about what was going on in the story itself.

The way the author makes the City itself a palpable presence in the story—the City and its people, the Named—is an important and effective unifying theme. It also is a tidy way of emphasizing other elements that further deepen the story: sociopolitical themes like self-rule vs. outside conquest, as well as interpersonal themes like who is inside and who is the outsider, and what it means to be friends across a social divide, and what to do when you have competing loyalties: family, friends, nation. It is the kind of book that rewards thinking about it and re-reading it, because it is deceptively simple and yet multilayered. The characters become a central focus around which these larger themes revolve and are brought to vivid life.

Conclusion : I'm going to be shoving this forcibly into the hands of all of my comic-loving friends, because this one has a universal sort of appeal with its sense of action and adventure and humor. I'm also pleased to see it's only the first book, with more to come.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, First Second. You can find THE NAMELESS CITY by Faith Erin Hicks at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you, starting on Tuesday, April 5th!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: NEED by Joelle Charbonneau

I think this is a pretty effective cover. Synopsis : Need, which I randomly picked up as part of a recent library haul, is a suspenseful thriller with a topical premise—the insidious power of social media and the questionable ease of online interactions—but it also asks timeless questions about ethics, peer pressure, what we want vs. what we truly need, and how far individuals will go to get what they want.

When sixteen-year-old Kaylee finds out about Need, the new social media site for students of Nottawa High School, she is initially skeptical, and understandably so. Sure, it sounds too good to be true that all you'd have to do is invite a few friends or complete a simple task, and then you'd get to make a request. But then people start getting things like new phones, new computers…and Kaylee decides to take a chance and ask for what she really DOES need: a new kidney for her younger brother DJ, from a donor who is a good match.

Then things start to get sinister. People start to get hurt. The tasks assigned by Need aren't so harmless anymore. Pretty soon someone winds up dead. Kaylee starts questioning who's behind it all—and suddenly it's a race against time as people are picked off, one by one.

Observations : One of the strengths of this book is the level of suspense created as the reader watches helplessly while everyone descends into a sort of Lord-of-the-Flies, everyone-out-for-herself game of survival, wondering who is pulling the strings. It's definitely a page turner, as the viewpoint shifts between several characters, each of whom has their own needs and wants—and some of whom will go to any extreme to get it. What do we choose when faced with temptation, with a devil's bargain? Which of the seemingly normal people around us might be a hidden sociopath? What happens when we allow ourselves to be manipulated? These are all fascinating questions explored by this story.

I did have a few minor issues, though. As for who is pulling the strings, I unfortunately guessed pretty early on because, realistically, the options for whodunit were limited. I also found the whydunit problematic—the villain struck me as a bit over-the-top, a bit of the typical madman sort with no conscience and abundant megalomania. Lastly, I did find myself questioning the believability of the overall premise: how realistic is it to think that a harmful and manipulative social network would escape the notice of adults or the outside world for long enough to cause this level of havoc? BUT—I don't think these are questions that are going to bother most readers, and they don't keep the book from being an engaging, interesting, and fast-paced story.

Conclusion : Fans of contemporary thrillers will want to check this one out—it tackles topically relevant issues in a very compulsively readable way, and definitely hits frighteningly close to home in our internet- and social-media-saturated society. It might also prove thought-provoking for readers growing up in a world where social media has always been a fact of life—and get them to ask the right kinds of questions when the next new thing comes along.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library. You can find NEED by Joelle Charbonneau at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Toon Thursday: The Writing Guru Returns!

I am seriously chuffed that I have managed two new cartoons in the past month. I hope this marks the beginning of a new Toon Thursday resurgence, and a bit of momentum to get my cartoon Tumblr going. This one's pretty silly. Here you go.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.