Jack Lime is a self-described "detective, a private investigator, a gumshoe." He's also a new student at Iona High School, who landed mid-9th grade in the ultra-planned, exclusive community from the City of Angels to live with his grandmother after the tragic death of his...
It's no wonder that this kiddie classic by longtime DC-area local Audrey Penn has sold some 4.5 million copies! I can proudly say I've added more than a few copies to that total, as it's one of those incredibly appropriate stories for an experience that every...
The latest in what has become practically a franchise – Audrey Penn's Kissing Hand series – deals with an extremely difficult subject ...
Min opens her latest with guilty sobs recalling her "brainwashed" teenaged self in 1970s China, when she was forced to denounce Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning writer Pearl S. Buck to Madame Mao. That guilt clearly drove Min (Red Azalea) to write this "based on the...
With over 300 titles to her name, Jane Yolen simply couldn't be more prolific! Here she teams up with the whimsically fantastic illustrator Stéphane Jorisch who captures Yolen's delight-filled father/daughter adventures as they meet dogs walking their owner, paint a room seven shades of blue, get...
Last week, this article landed in my inbox: "Jewish Group Boycotts Canadian Kids' Book." The comments are also well worth reading. Then a friend sent me another related article which announced, "Controversial Mideast book stays in Toronto schools." The running quote box on the left side...
If the observations, memories, and pop culture references here weren't so obviously recognizable in our post-9/11 western world, you might have read this graphic memoir as a hack comedy. The black-and-white panels initially seem almost unfinished, as if still in rough-draft mode. The contents might...
Here's a whimsical counting book that celebrates "[o]ne magical, moonlit night in the zoo ...
Gene Luen Yang, who made publishing history as the author of the first graphic novel ever to be nominated for a National Book Award, returns with an irresistible, hilarious little book that takes sibling rivalry to whole new heights. First serialized in The New York...
David Almond has been repeatedly popping up in my inbox recently. Not him personally (don't I wish, as he is definitely one of my very favorite writers for young adult titles), but his mega-award-winning name is haunting my emails...
Regardless of your politics (although there's no mistaking where longtime comics creator Larry Hama and the rest of his funny cronies' loyalties lie), you will definitely find many moments to guffaw over in this four-part comic series too entertaining to put down! The New Ice Age has...
Timing is everything, right? Last weekend, I had our teenage daughter and a friend of hers wandering NYC, and we happened to do the fabulous, downloadable Soundwalk/Chinatown walking tour narrated by Chinatown native Jami Gong – all three of us were attached to one iPod...
“Some of the things in this book happened a hundred years ago...
Already lauded for her exquisitely illustrated family stories – Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father’s Shoulders, The Odyssey of a Manchurian, as well as numerous children’s titles – Yang debuts her first-ever graphic memoir, a multi-layered creation that details her own story of...
What ironic timing to discover Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the 2001 Cannes Film Festival Caméra d'Or Award winner about two Inuit brothers – one murdered, the other who escapes by running naked over vast ice – during the 2010 Snowpocalypse. One of Canada’s top 10...
Art director for an alternative city paper by day, comics artist whenever he has the time, SAM (Secret Asian Man, yes!) – not so unlike his own creator Tak Toyoshima – fights stereotypes when he can, makes biting commentaries when frustrated, and generally tries to...
In a tony New Jersey suburb, artistic Jaya, outspoken Lola, and shy Maria find an instant bond with each other, recognizing their outsider experiences of being the daughters of immigrant mothers who work as housekeepers and nannies for the wealthy families of their eighth-grade classmates. Jaya...
Young Evelyn gets dumped at her surprised aunt’s posh NYC penthouse so her neglectful father can take yet another honeymoon with the latest young wife. Evelyn’s managed to escape her lonely life by creating her very own manga series, “The Amazing Adventures of Zirconium Man...
What a fast-paced, can’t put-down, biting, over-the-top debut! You'll have to read it for the body count alone ...
