Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 42

Tumblin' Around the Kidlitosphere

KidLitCon is coming soon--and the new keeps getting more and more exciting, as we learn that one of the keynote speakers will be The Jumbies author Tracey Baptiste! For more information about that, check out the post on the Kidlitosphere Central website.

In related news, did you know there's a new KidLitCon Tumblr? I am just starting to foray gently into the world of Tumblr, although Tanita has been participating for a little while now. Anyway, KidLitCon has got a Tumblr so you can keep up with all the latest conference developments, and...drum roll...I NOW HAVE A TUMBLR TOO.

However, there is currently nothing on it. Sorry.

But it's called Better Living Through Sarcasm and my plan is to use it to post original cartoons from time to time--not just reblogged Toon Thursdays (though, believe me, I'll be doing that!) but also scans of old cartoons I drew as a kid, just for fun, and brand new material that will be based on funny quotes from student essays (aka Students Say the Darnedest Things!). Possibly other humor will show up, too, and the occasional reblog of other funny stuff.

As with everything I seem to want to do lately, there is a dearth of time to actually start on the Tumblr, but if you happen to visit and there is something up there, it means I managed to successfully scrounge a few minutes. And I'm hoping it's the right kind of forum for easy sharing of toons.

That's it for today. Sorry for being relatively quiet the last couple of weeks, but that's how it goes sometimes...

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: LAST MAN 1: THE STRANGER

Summary : A collaboration by French comics and animation luminaries Balak, Bastien Vivès, and Michaël Sanlaville, Last Man 1: The Stranger is the first installment in a series that's been popular in France and is now being released in the U.S. by First Second (who kindly provided a review copy). I always really enjoy reading graphic novels from various countries, and this was no exception.

Peaks : The unique setting was, for me, one of the most intriguing aspects of the novel. Early on, we are introduced to Adrian Velba's world, a sort-of-medieval town where the annual gladiatorial games are the most anticipated event. But these are not your run-of-the-mill jousts or sword fights—the games are magical, and competitors fight in teams for the prestige, honor, and riches of the gold-filled winning cup.

Adrian goes to a magical fight school, but he's…kind of the youngest and smallest right now. But he's excited and optimistic anyway, and when he ends up partnered with the mysterious new-hero-in-town Richard Aldana, he thinks he might just have a chance. Aldana, meanwhile, is a bit of a nomad, but despite his fighting prowess, he's clearly in a different world here—a world with some unexpectedly magical forces flying around. But he does notice that his fighting partner Velba's mom sure is hot…which might be a good perk if she wasn't so protective of her son. There's a fair amount going on here with all three of these characters, and several interesting side characters, but the story never gets confusing, though it's a bit surreal at times.

click to embiggenThe style of the drawing here is loose, flowing, and dynamic, with the only color being flat areas of black, white, and gray. It works well for conveying a sense of movement in the action sequences (of which there are many) while also making sure the reader can still tell what's going on in each panel. I liked it; there's something simple and appealing about it, even as it stylistically owes a bit to the Japanese manga style.

Valleys : This is so much a serial it isn't even funny. If you can't deal with total middle-of-the-action cliffhangers, then you might want to make sure you have book 2 at hand when you finish this one. Just sayin'. Not everyone has a problem with this, but I crave instant gratification when it comes to books. I require resolution.

Conclusion : I suspect fans of other popular kids' manga series will enjoy this one, and fans of The Last Airbender and other series that combine action and fantasy. The adult characters have as much screen time (and character development) as the kids, so I see this one as having crossover appeal as well.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of First Second. You can find LAST MAN 1: THE STRANGER 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.

Lee & Low's Diversity in Publishing Petition

Diversity is one of the issues we really care about at Finding Wonderland, and our eclectic reading list reflects that, we hope. That's why it's thrilling to see publishers Lee & Low really pushing the issue--not only promoting diversity in a basic, "diverse books are great!" kind of way, but urging publishers themselves to take a close look at who they're hiring, to get at the root of the "diverse books don't sell" pseudo-truism.

So they've created their own diversity baseline survey for publishers, and they also created a petition on Change.org so that readers and other Concerned Citizens can add their voices to the clamor for more transparency in the publishing industry. Check out the full post here!

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 Flashback: Game Shows for Writers

I was watching an episode of Chopped last night while making dinner, so it seems appropriate to revisit this one! And, never fear, I do have plans for actual NEW cartoons in the very near future, by which I mean sometime after this month ends...at which point I will also UPDATE THE ARCHIVE I've also been neglecting. Sigh.

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.

Quick Monday Review: TANDEM by Anna Jarzab

I'll admit two things first: 1) I put off reading this one for far too long, and 2) the first time I opened it and read the first few pages, I just wasn't immediately drawn in. There was a princess, and I had not assumed that there would be princesses in this book.

THEN, the second time I picked it up, I kept reading, and realized that the princess in question was not simply a fairy-tale princess from some fantastical land, but in fact an alternate-universe version of the story's protagonist: Sasha Lawson, from Chicago, USA, Earth. Her analog is Princess Juliana of Columbia City, UCC, Aurora. And the UCC is no fairy-tale world, but one very much like our own except for the fact that the past 200 years of their history has unfolded a bit differently from ours.

Why should Sasha care? Well, at first, she doesn't even know Aurora exists. She lives with her gruff but loving grandfather, and is fairly content with her life, and then things get even better when her longtime crush Grant suddenly and surprisingly...asks her to prom. Prom night is awesome.

And then things get WEIRD. One minute Sasha's on the beach having the night of her life, and the next minute she's waking up in totally foreign surroundings. Oh, and Grant's not Grant, but his Aurora analog, Thomas. Sasha, dead ringer for the Princess, is immediately plunged into the deep end of a potential political firestorm.

IMPORTANT LESSON, KIDS: Getting whisked off to a mysterious land where you're suddenly the princess is not all it's cracked up to be.

I ended up really enjoying this book; I do like alternate-universe scenarios and while I am still having trouble with the idea that you could have a near-perfect analog in another universe but NOT have the same parents, if you can suspend that niggle of disbelief, it's a suspenseful story of intrigue, complicated relationships, and the importance of upholding your personal integrity. And there's a Book 2, Tether, which is out now.

I purchased my copy of this book as a Kindle ebook. You can find TANDEM (Many-Worlds) by Anna Jarzab 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.

In Case You Missed It...

...the Call for Session Proposals for this fall's Kidlitosphere Conference is open! From the original post:

This year’s KidLitCon will be held in Baltimore, MD on October 9th and 10th. This year’s theme is Celebrating Young People’s Literature. 
...
We hope to examine what makes a good children’s book, hear from judges who have participated in various award programs, and celebrate any authors or illustrators present at the conference.

And, of course, anything on diversity is always topical and always welcome. I'm just really wishing I could go...but this is one of those weekends when multiple commitments collide, and instead I'll be presenting at the Great Valley Bookfest, which is happening here locally.

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.

Kids Comics Q&A Blog Tour: Interview with Gene Luen Yang

Children's Book Week was just last week, and thanks to First Second we're still celebrating--throughout April and May, MacTeenBooks has organized a massive multi-blog tour featuring Five Questions with a wide range of amazing cartoonists for kids and teens, with all interviews conducted by by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado, the authors of Dragons Beware! If you check out the list (RIGHT HERE!), you'll see familiar names like Cece Bell and Mariko Tamaki and Cecil Castellucci and tons of other great graphic novelists. It really is a wonderful virtual event, and it's co-sponsored by the Children’s Book Council, Every Child a Reader, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Without further ado, but WITH an awesome imaginary drum roll I'd never be able to pull off in real life, here are Five Questions with one of our favorite (and local) graphic novelists, Gene Luen Yang. He's the author or co-author of so many GNs we've really loved here on Finding Wonderland: American Born Chinese (reviewed here), Level Up (reviewed here), The Eternal Smile (reviewed here), Boxers & Saints (previewed here), Prime Baby (reviewed here) and Shadow Hero (reviewed here). We've also interviewed him before, way back in 2007 (gulp). We're stoked to welcome him back again!



RAFAEL/JORGE: Gene, when our first book came out, you let us interview you, and now that our second book is coming out, you are allowing us to bombard you with questions yet again.  You're a good man, Gene!  Thanks, again!
 
GENE:  Thank you guys for getting in touch again!  I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume of Giants Beware!  Can’t wait to find out what Claudette and her friends are up to next!

QUESTION:  The last time we interviewed you, we asked you about something we’re still struggling with:  how do you balance a day job with creative endeavors. You recently discussed your work as a High School Science Teacher.  Has the balance of day job and comics gotten tougher or easier for you since we last spoke?  Have you learned any tips that you can share with us and others? 
 
GENE: It’s funny you should ask about this.  I recently made the decision to leave my day job.  For the past seventeen years, I’ve worked at a high school in Oakland, California.  I started as a full-time teacher.  These days, I’m down to just one class, plus some database work.

Leaving will be hard.  I love the community.  I feel like I’ve learned so much from my students.  But recently, DC Comics offered me the opportunity to write Superman and I couldn’t pass it up.

I know some folks hate their day jobs, but I loved being a teacher.  Still do.  Teaching and making comics provided a great balance for me.  Teaching’s incredibly extroverted, making comics is the exact opposite.  Being around people all day often gave me the source material I needed to write and draw stories.  Though I’m concentrating on my cartooning career for now, I hope to end my working life as a teacher.

Balancing a day job with creative work can be difficult.  For a few years, I would wake up early and go to sleep late to get my comics done.  I think you have to find the right day job, one that leaves you with enough energy to finish your own stuff.  For me, teaching and comics drew from different “energy buckets” – they wouldn’t exhaust me in the same way, so it worked!

QUESTION:  We can't wait to read your Superman! Was that a goal of yours to write for the Man of Steel?  How did that come about? Any chance for a Superman - Green Turtle team up?
 
GENE: I’m definitely excited to be a part of Team Superman!  Because he’s such a popular character, Superman is the star of four different titles from DC Comics.  I’m working with the other writers to build something new for the Man of Steel, something that will hopefully be a springboard for some good stories.  I’ve learned so much from seeing how those other guys work.

I’d love to do a Superman-Green Turtle team up!  Not sure it’ll ever happen, though!

I do want to mention that Sonny Liew, my partner on The Shadow Hero, is drawing the Dr. Fate comic for DC.  I’m super-excited about it.  Sonny, of course, is one of my favorite artists, and Dr. Fate is one of my favorite superheroes!  I got really into him when I was in high school, during J.M. DeMatteis' run on the character.  Can’t wait to see what Sonny and writer Paul Levitz do with him.

QUESTION: Speaking of the Green Turtle, "The Shadow Hero" only whetted our appetite for his adventures.  Can we hope to see a sequel or two or three?
 
Thank you!  Sonny and I have talked about doing two more Green Turtle stories.  I want to do one that’s set right before America enters World War II, and one right after the war ends.  Hopefully we’ll be able to actually do it someday.  Right now, though, we’re both busy with other projects.

QUESTION:  Who are you reading these days or who are your current influences? 
 
These days, most of my reading is research.  I’m almost done with Glen Weldon’s excellent Superman: An Unauthorized Biography.  I’m also reading a couple of books about basketball because I’m working on a graphic novel about the subject.

In terms of comics, Jason Shiga’s Demon is brilliant.  Not for kids, not even for some adults, but brilliant.  Jason is one of the most innovative – and bizarre – cartoonists to have ever walked the planet.  Mind-blowing stuff.

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer has won a bajillion awards, and if you read the book you’ll understand why.  Absolutely masterful comics-making.

The comic I most recently read is Superman #23.4, written and drawn by Aaron Kuder. Aaron’s another member of Team Superman.  He’s most well-known as an artist, but he’s an excellent writer as well.  The issue focuses on Parasite, who is arguably the best purple-skinned supervillain ever.

QUESTION: Is Superman the next thing you're working on or are there other things on your plate you're working on these days?
 
Cartoonist Mike Holmes and I are busy with Secret Coders, a middle-grade graphic novel series all about computer programming.  I’m really, really excited about it.  I finally get to combine my two careers – cartooning and teaching computer science – into a single project.  I’m doing the writing, Mike’s doing the art.  Mike’s stuff has this Saturday morning energy to it that’s perfect for the story—you’ll see what I’m talking about when it comes out in September.



Thanks so much to First Second and the generous book-loving sponsors who made this blog tour possible! We're excited, too, about the upcoming Secret Coders, and can't wait to add it to our TBR pile. Thanks to Gene for taking the time to answer Jorge and Rafael's questions, thanks to the interviewers, and thanks to the amazing Gina Gagliano. Don't forget to go check out the other stops on the blog tour!

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.

LIMERICK REVIEW: SISTERS by Raina Telgemeier

click to embiggen
A surfeit of conflicts sisterical
Makes this graphic novel hysterical -
And a journey by car
Makes it all worse by far
A truce would be some sort of miracle!


Other Noteworthy Info : This incredibly fun graphic novel, published last year, is the companion to Smile and continues Raina's autobiographical childhood/tween adventures. Anyone who has siblings, or stepsiblings, or even aggravating cousins, will laugh and relate, and the author's engaging, friendly, funny drawing style is sure to appeal to a wide reading audience. Honestly? It made me REALLY GLAD I did not grow up with sisters... 



I received an ARC of this book courtesy of last year's KidLitCon, after which it promptly got mislaid for several months. Oops! Hopefully the poetry makes up for it.

You can find SISTERS by Raina Telgemeier 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.

Rambling on a Thursday Afternoon...

Yep, that's what you get from me today, because it is the last week of school and my upcoming weekend will be filled with GRADING FUN as well as previously scheduled and poorly timed social engagements.

Saturday, for instance, I'll be attending the SCBWI Northern California Spring Spirit conference, a one-day event in Citrus Heights (nearly 2 hours away! sigh) with Matt de la Pena as the keynote (yay) as well as several interesting-looking breakout sessions. Matt's will be on writing dialogue, and I'm going to that one; I'm also attending sessions on writing humor and on developing a good school visit program. And there is HOMEWORK I have to do beforehand, because evidently everything I do nowadays has homework in addition to the actual work. ('Sup with that, universe??)

Going back to the grading fun, though...I've decided I want to start a Tumblr solely for the purpose of posting cartoons. Some of these will be my writing-related Toon Thursdays, but for quite a while now I've been collecting amusing student errors from essays, and I would also like to turn some of those into cartoons. Right now my struggles are twofold: 1) time (the perpetual problem) and 2) a title. I don't want to call it Toon Thursday, because it's too much pressure. It implies I'm going to post something regularly on Thursdays, and I've already established pretty conclusively that drawing a weekly cartoon may or may not happen.

But! This is going to happen, people. Stay tuned.

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 SHADOWFELL Trilogy by Juliet Marillier

Summary : I want my epic fantasy to sweep me away but, at the same time, tantalize me with hints that this is a world that COULD be, a world that is tangible and believable and recognizable even if it isn't quite our own. Juliet Marillier does an amazing job with that brand of epic fantasy, enlivening it with details that are inspired by our own world's folklore. In Wildwood Dancing (reviewed here), it was the tale of the dancing princesses and the mythology of Central Europe. In the Shadowfell trilogy, we are introduced to the land of Alban – which, if you know the history of the British Isles, you'll recognize as a very old name for Scotland (in fact, "Yr Alban" is what it is called in Welsh to this day).

So it's no surprise that Alban is peopled with not only…people, but also Good Folk, fey creatures that seem like they leapt straight out of the pages of Brian Froud. Good Folk and humans—well, they cohabitate in Alban, but at best, they have an uneasy truce. Ancient wisdom says they can never fight on the same side. But, in the face of a tyrannical ruler, that ancient wisdom might have to be challenged. The only way to do this, says that same lore, is through a Caller: someone with the canny skill of calling the Good Folk to the same side as the humans.

Neryn is a Caller. She's also the last surviving member of her village, Corbie's Wood, destroyed in a cull ordered by Alban's destructive king. Her only hope is to make her way to a rumored rebel stronghold in Shadowfell. Along the way, her skill allows her not only to see the uncanny folk who live in Alban's forests and fields and waters, but also to talk to them. If she learned to use her power, she might also command them. Alban's very future depends on Neryn's quest to learn her true skills, and the rebels' ability to ally with Good Folk and sympathetic chieftains alike in order to unite against the king (and the queen, I might add, who is a piece of work in herself).

Peaks : This trilogy completely absorbed me. True, I'm predisposed to like most anything that deals with lore of the British Isles, but Marillier's storytelling is immersive and her land of Alban, vivid and magical. It was a very solidly plotted trilogy, as well, with what felt like constant action and tension propelling things forward to the denouement in the third book, The Caller, which I just finished. Neryn and Flint, as narrators, are easy to relate to, and this makes the difficult choices they are faced with, the awful things they must bear witness to, all the more believable and wrenching. There aren't easy answers or entirely happy endings in this book; sacrifices must be made and loved ones must be lost for the ultimate cause of freedom and justice. War ain't easy.

Valleys : These are not things I personally found to be an issue, but if you have trouble reading transliterated Scottish brogue, take note that there is a bit of it in this book, mainly from the Good Folk. And, as I mentioned, sacrifices must be made…and characters you really like might die, and then you might cry. Just sayin'.

Conclusion : Starting with Shadowfell, continuing with Raven Flight, and concluding in The Caller, all three of the books in this trilogy are now out, so if you are the type of reader who simply can't wait out a cliffhanger, then you're in luck. (As I neared the ending of The Caller, I was actually scared this might not be the last Shadowfell book, but this plot arc, at least, was concluded…and then I was kind of sad because it's over…There's no pleasing me, evidently.) Fans of books about the faerie world, from Maggie Stiefvater to Charles de Lint, won't want to miss this trilogy; and if you like strong female protagonists, you'll want to throw in your lot with Neryn.

I received my copy of Books 1 and 3 courtesy of the library, and bought Book 2 as a Kindle ebook. You can find SHADOWFELL , RAVEN FLIGHT , and THE CALLER by Juliet Marillier 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.