A Fun, but Tangled Web

Miles Morales, Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Los Angeles : Marvel, 2017.
261 p. ; 22 cm.

Jason Reynolds is a talented writer (I really enjoyed the last book of his I read) and this story bears that out. It's a fun, clever and fleshed out novel that takes the Brian Michael Bendis' reboot of Spider-man as its jumping off point.     

The fun and attraction of Reynold's novel is the way it just treats as totally believable the idea of a late middle-schooler from Brooklyn having Spider-man-like super powers and runs with it.  Think of the problems and dilemmas having such powers would be while trying to navigate middle school and adolescence.  Add in the pressures of racism on our young African American superhero and you have a great recipe for storytelling. 

I was with Reynolds for all but the villainous (and somewhat mystical, magical mythical) role played by the Chamberlains of the novel.  This character(s) seems to represent the embodiment of White Supremacy and though interesting, I think it ultimately becomes too magical and unresolved.  Does this ruin the novel?  I don't think so.  I still enjoyed the read - great characters, great descriptions of the Brooklyn setting, and some action packed episodes of Spider-man adventures.  However, I would have liked it better if the racism and set-backs were just the usual racism and discrimination that Miles Morales would have experienced - instead of it being in the shapeshifting, creepy incarnation of Chamberlain.

Crazy as a Video Game

Tetris by Box Brown
New York : First Second, 2016.
253 p. : chiefly ill. ; 22 cm.

Is there anyone who has never seen or played Tetris?  I'm sure there are, but for the rest of us this book is a fascinating retelling of the story of Tetris' creation and eventual conquest of the world of handheld game devices.

Things that surprised me were the fact that the game was developed in the Soviet Union by a programmer who was especially interested in human behavior around gaming, that the inventor of Tetris never realized the income he deserved, and how corrupt and complicated the development and acquisition of rights to the game were in the West (including Japan).

The convoluted and competing and high stakes plays and theft of the game by the big game companies of the time is interesting.  Involved were Sega, Nintendo and Atari.

It was a fun book to read since I so vividly remember the first time I played Tetris was in the late 1980s and it was on a Gameboy device that a coworker had.  I recall that because, as this graphic novel so truthfully conveys - the game was irresistible once you started playing it.

It's a fun, fast read that I would definitely recommend to students, especially those interested in computer gaming and in programming.
    

March Hits a Wall

March: Book one by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and [illustrated by] Nate Powell
Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, [2013]
121 p. : chiefly ill. ; 24 cm.

I had not planned on reading March just yet, but then current events caught up with history in the strangest of ways, and I knew I had to read it.

March - a graphic novel - recounts the autobiography of the early years of civil rights icon and US Congressperson, John Lewis.  We see his boyhood years in Alabama in the 1950s and his growing awareness of the racist injustices that he wants to change.  By the end of this first book in the series (click links for more about book 2 and book 3), he is a key activist in the Civil Rights movement in Tennessee, has led lunch counter protests, desegregation marches, and met Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Turns out the Lewis' role in history is not over yet.  With the recent election of Donald Trump and his twitter attacks on John Lewis, the Lewis story and the struggle for racial justice are front and center once again.  The controversy has not hurt sales of the March.  Right after Trump's attacks on Lewis, sales of his book skyrocketed on Amazon.  Along with the many prizes that the books in the March series have won (including a National Book Award) the future of this book, at least, looks bright.      

Fists and Crosses

Saints by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.
170 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.  

After reading Boxers, I had to read this companion to it - which tells the same story, but from the point of view of a young Chinese, Christian convert who find herself on the opposite side of the violent Boxer Rebellion as the hero of Boxers.

All that I wrote in my review of Boxers below, applies to this book as well.  It's a great read and has the same captivating mix of history, supernatural, familial and social conflict, etc.

I'd definitely recommend reading Boxers first, it sets the stage well and makes it satisfying when the narrative exactly overlaps in several key scenes.

A Righteous and Harmonious Fist Bump

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.  
328 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.

Yang's American Born Chinese continues to circulate well with readers at our high school, and I hope that Boxers will do the same. With both fiction and graphic novels, the challenge of having historical events as the subject is finding the heart and power of that event and translating it to the genre being used.  I think it is a difficult challenge for any author, but especially for author's of young adult readers - where the desire to get lost in a book is a powerful appeal for readers already surrounded by informational text.  But it can be done, and I think Boxers proves it!

One never forgets that the power of Yang's book is the story and the characters involved in it. There is romance, danger, humor, wistfulness, longing, justice and magic propelling the story forward.  The comic artwork is clear, powerful, and interesting to look at.  Not convinced?  Take a look at some sample pages provide by Macmillian Publishers.

I was struck, after reading Boxers, at how cleverly the story made me want to know more about the actual history - and - at how pathetically little I know of Chinese history.  I had heard of the Boxer Rebellion, but knew little about it.  Furthermore, in reading some of the history that preceded it, I came across references to the Taiping Rebellion - a 14 year civil war that killed an estimate 20 million people!   And this is history that I knew nothing about.

So do I recommend this book? Absolutely.  It is a wonderful work of literary and visual art, and for teachers who might want to include it in a history class, there is even an extensive online teacher's guide to accompany the book.

Pow! Graphic Girl Power

Fight Like a Girl by David Pinckney, illus. by Soo Lee
[U.S.] : Action Lab, [2015]
1 v. (unpaged) : chiefly col. ill. ; 26 cm.

This graphic novel [compilation of issues #1-4 of Fight Like a Girl] was recommended by Kat Kan in VOYA's October 2015 issue.  She commented on the positive diversity of the main character (and authors) and - validating her judgment - the first student to check it out, loved it and recommended I read it.

I liked it, but thought it could have been much better.  The art is pretty good, the story of a girl having to fight life or death challenges set by a panel of gods held promise, but the plotting just seemed jumpy and weak.

I especially found it distracting how the one weapon she takes in is just a baseball bat - but one that can miraculously turn into a vicious chainsaw and even a robot-killing, giant super-blaster. So what's the big danger of her challenges?

Oh well, I just like a little tighter logic within the sci-fi/fantasy genre.  I guess that's why I'm not a big fan of the Star Wars movies.  But other people love it, and the racial diversity, hipness, and strong female protagonist are factors that weigh in for recommending this comic book.

 

Amazing Amazing

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
New York : Picador, c2000.
639 p. ; 21 cm.

Michael Chabon's novel won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize and I challenge a reader to not enjoy this  wonderful tale.  It's a gloriously written tale of the starting in the late 1930s and continuing into the 1950s and centers on the golden age of comic books in New York City, but also embraces the Holocaust, Harry Houdini, The Golem of Prague, Brooklyn, gay life, and of course love, friendship and family.

Though we have this book in the UHS library collection, I read it on my cell phone - accessing it through our library's eBook collection.  It's not the first book that I've read on my phone, but it was great to be able to carry it around in my pocket while traveling during the summer.

Fortunately, The Amazing Adventures seems to be doing quite well.  I looked for a copy at my local public libraries and all 6 copies were checked out.  It's a great book and I will definitely recommend it to any student looking for a rewarding literary fiction read from a contemporary author - especially a reader who has an interest in world of comic book writing and publishing back when vast majorities of young Americans regularly read comic books. 

Comic Wonders

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
xiv, 410 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

This is an amazing book of history, culture, and biography.  Jill Lepore has used her research into the origins of the Wonder Woman comic character to present a rich history of US feminism, bohemianism, pop culture and alternative lifestyles.

Lepore's history has at it's heart, the creator of Wonder Woman, William Marston - scholar, psychologist, pro-feminist, huckster, man of secrets and passions.  The book begins with the early US feminist struggles for suffrage and birth control and brings the story up to the present.  We find out in the course of the book that the people involved in Wonder Woman's origins include the famous feminist, Margaret Sanger - and that Marston has legitimate claims to the invention of the "lie detector."

The book is a personal history of Marston the two women who lived with him most of their lives and who had children with him, a history of the phenomenal rise of comic books in the US [and the "moral" backlash against them], a glimpse into the period of WWI, WWII, and - of course - a history of the the US feminist movement in the 20th century.  There is a lot in this well-researched book.

I'd recommend this book for any student interested in the history of comic books, interested in the women's rights movement in the US, or interested in 20th century US history and culture. The main drawback for this book is that it's kind of long for a high school history book - but with it's index, it would serve well for any research projects.