Bullish on Mythology

Bull by David Elliot
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2017]
185 p. ; 22 cm.

This Bull gives you a wild ride! It's a whip-smart retelling of the Minotaur myth, told in structured poetic forms but with the tone and attitude of hip-hop.

Well, it's a pretty bizarre myth to begin with - a king slights Poseidon who causes his wife to fall for a bull and she ends up giving birth to a half-human, half-bull monster. Elliot runs with it with a bit of street language that might be too rough for middle-schoolers but should intrigue high-schoolers.

At the end of the book he explains the various poetic forms he used for each character - it's a study in prosody worth reading.

It's not a book for every taste, but I'll recommend it to students looking for something mythology based or who like hip-hop influenced writing.

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.