Yotsuba &!: Slice of Life Manga at its Best

Azuma, Kiyohiko. Yotsuba&!. First published in Japan in 2003 by Media Works, Inc. English translation by Hachette Group, Inc. Yen Press, 2009. Paperback $10.99, ISBN 978-0-316-07387-5.

What’s it about?

Yotsuba is a green-haired little girl with an infectious zest for life who has just moved into a new neighborhood. She makes friends with the family next door, and learns about all sorts of things, like swings, cicadas, and air conditioning—which might just be THE ENEMY OF THE EARTH! 0_o

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Yotsuba&! is a manga set in Japan about ordinary events and objects seen through the eyes of a lively little green-haired girl named Yotsuba.  The story opens with Yotsuba and her single adoptive father moving into a new neighborhood. Yotsuba quickly makes friends with the neighbors and their three daughters, Fuuka Ayase, a high school student who first meets Yotsuba climbing up and down an electrical pole, Ena, who is closest to Yotsuba’s age, and Asagi, the oldest—who Yotsuba embarrassingly refers to as “the pretty one.”  This first volume consists of brief episodes in which Yotsuba becomes familiar with her new surroundings, and, in words of her father, “finds enjoyment in everything.”   

This manga is accessible, funny, and has broad appeal. For readers familiar with the manga series Azumanga Daioh, Azuma’s comedic genius, won’t come as a surprise. Azuma has a gift with turning the ordinary into laugh out loud situations with his great sense timing and quirky cast of characters, with their wildly exaggerated expressions. This is slice of life and comedy manga at its best. Tweens, teens and adults will enjoy Yotsuba&! even if they are new to manga. This manga is rated all ages, making this a great choice for parents concerned about the content of many graphic novels and manga titles. Yotsuba is a unique character whose wide-eyed exuberance translates well to manga. Fans clamoring for an anime of this title will be disappointed; the creator Azuma has no plans for adapting Yotsuba&! into an anime.  

Genre: Slice-of-life comedy

Reading level/ Interest level: Ages 9 & up

Subjects/themes: Japan, children, neighbors, humor

Read-alike series:

Azuma’s Azumanga Daioh

Barasui’s Strawberry Marshmallow

Kakifly’s K-ON!

Kobayashi’s School Rumble

Awards/reviews: Starred review in Publisher’s Weekly

Series information: There are currently 9 volumes translated into English, with the 10^th volume on its way

Raw Reality of Survivor's Guilt and Self-Mutilation in Willow

Hoban, Julia. Willow. Dial Books, 2009. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-8037-3356-5

What’s it about?

Willow Randall has terrible guilt for the accident that killed her parents, and secretly numbs her pain by cutting herself. Enter Guy, who cares deeply for Willow—and is the only person who knows her secret.  

Find out more:

Willow is a compelling look inside the mind of a tormented 17 year old who is trying to cope with a life-altering tragedy. A year ago, her parents hand her the keys after they drank too much wine at dinner. The heavy rain is too much for an inexperienced driver with just a learner’s permit to handle, and a horrific accident takes the lives of Willow’s parents. Physically, Willow is unharmed. Mentally, she is torn apart by her guilt and grief, thinking of herself as a killer. She moves in with her older brother, David, a college professor with a wife and baby. Instead of turning to each other for support, the siblings each deal with their grief separately. Unable to cope with the horror of the accident, and the strained relationship with David, Willow cuts herself with razor blades. Then Willow meets Guy, a sweet boy who shares her interest in anthropology and obscure books. Guy is perceptive, and discovers her secret. He is understandably horrified, but because he cares for Willow, he tries to help her.  Willow is eventually able to reach a turning point, and begins to deal with her grief instead of numbing it out with self-mutilation.  

Hand Willow to readers of problem novels.  This is a helpful book to recommend to tweens and teens grades 7 and up who have dealt with self-mutilation or have friends or family members struggling with this problem. This is also a good choice to hand someone dealing with survivor guilt. I’d be careful to assess the maturity level of a potential reader before recommending this title to someone on the younger end; this is a painful subject, and a Hoban doesn’t sanitize the ugliness of cutting and the horror of Willow’s grief.  Hoban does a good job of conveying the seriousness of this problem, and the reader will empathize with her extreme coping mechanism. There is way too much that occurs in Willow’s thoughts, however, which are distractingly conveyed in third person present tense. The complex relationship Willow has with her brother is so realistically portrayed, it makes up for the sometimes unconvincing romance between Guy and Willow.  It is hard to believe that Willow would open up so much to Guy so quickly, and Guy really seemed more like a therapist than a boyfriend. At the same time, it does make sense that a meaningful relationship is be one of the catalysts Willows needs to deal with her bottled-up grief. 

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Problem Novel, Romance

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 7 & up

At the library I work at, I was initially surprised by the popularity of this book with older pre-teens and young teens. Sadly, this topic may speak personally to more kids in this age group than adults would imagine.  

Read-alikes:

Patricia McCormick’s Cut

Cheryl Rainfield’s Scars

Gayle Forman’s If I Stay

Hannah Moskowitz’s Break

Subjects/themes: Cutting, Guilt, Death, Accidents, Relationships, Grieving, Orphans, Secrets, Survivor Guilt

Character name/descriptions:

Willow—Troubled protagonist, cuts herself to numb the pain of her involvement in the deaths of her parents

David—Willow’s older brother, a college professor and her guardian

Guy—Willow’s love interest and the only person who knows about her cutting

  

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. 154 pages. Tr. $16.99, ISBN 978-0374336646; Paperback $6.99, ISBN 978-0312623555  (reissue by Square Fish, 2011)

What’s it about?

Latch-key kid Joey Pigza’s brain is wired differently. Even with medication, his antics turn harmful.  Will his A.D.D. ever get under control?  

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Joey Pigza, who suffers from severe ADHD was abandoned by his parents in kindergarten and raised by his manic, abusive grandmother. His alcoholic mother re-emerges in his life, but can’t provide him as much attention as he needs. Compounding the problem, Joey’s medications don’t work throughout the day, leaving him, in Joey’s words, a “wired-up mess.” Wired Joey can’t think straight, and his judgment becomes questionable, making him very accident prone. He swallows his key, jumps off a roof, and loses a fingernail when he decide to sharpen it after he finished sharpening pencils. When Joey causes an accident that causes a classmate to lose the tip of her nose, he is sent to a special education school where he meets a caring case worker, Special Ed, who eventually is able to get him on appropriate medication. 

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is sometimes a hard read because of the dangerous and upsetting situations Joey, who the reader will be rooting for, gets himself into. He is a likable, kind-hearted character, even though he poses a real challenge to all the adults in his life. Gantos gave Joey a powerful and believable voice. Joey’s narration is rollicking and jittery, just like Joey. This give the audience a unique perspective of how it must feel to be constantly wired, and not entirely in control of your mind. Even though the subject is grave, Joey’s commentary and comebacks provide some laughs—such as his oft-repeated “can I get back to you on that?”

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic fiction, Problem Novel, Tragicomedy  

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-8

Read-alikes:

Zipper, the Kid with ADHD

The Middle of Somewhere

Carter Finally Gets It

Trout and Me

Subjects/themes: ADHD, special education, abandonment, abuse 

Awards:

National Book Award Nominee (1998)

ALA Notable Children’s Book (1999)

Series information:

Joey Pigza Loses Control (2000)

What Would Joey Do? (2002)

I am Not Joey Pigza (2007)

Characters:

Joey Pigza—the protagonist, abandoned by his mother and father at age 5 and raised by his grandmother. He suffers from severe ADHD

Mrs. Maxy—Joey’s teacher, who tries to keep Joey grounded

Joey’s Grandma—an abusive care-giver with mental problems of her own

Resistance

Jablonski, Carla. Resistance. Illustrated by Leland Purvis. First Second, 2010. 128 pages. Tr. $16.99, ISBN 978-1596432918.   

What’s it about?

In 1942 France, it is dangerous to be Jewish—and to help the Jews. Paul, Marie and Sylvie Tessiers, three young siblings, risk their lives by joining the resistance movement to help their Jewish friend Henri reunite with his parents.

 Find out more:

Resistance is a graphic novel, the first book in a planned trilogy, set during World War II in 1942 Vichy France. This compelling story centers around thirteen year old Paul Tessier, an artistic boy whose father is a P.O.W. Paul and his younger sister Marie hide their Jewish friend Henri from the Germans after his parents are taken away by the Germans. When a French Resistance member, Jacques, discovers their secret, the children, along with Paul’s older sister, Sylvie, join the resistance movement. The three siblings risk their lives to help Henri reunite with his parents.

What is unsettling about this book is the ordinary scenes taking place amidst a backdrop of tension and hatred always potentially ready to boil over. One scene, toward the beginning, depicts a group of children goofing off, splashing water from a fountain on each other, and then gleefully dumping a bucket of water on a girl passing by. This girl screams, “I’ll denounce you!” Her face, contorted with hatred is rendered into a black and white rough sketch, stylistically very different from the colorful comic style panels that form the majority of the artwork. This happens throughout the book, an interesting way to not only emphasize a character’s extreme emotions, but also to imply that Paul may be channeling his struggles and those of his country into his art.  This book is exciting, rich, and the artwork, though not stellar, deftly conveys a wide range of emotion.  

For readers unfamiliar with the French Resistance, there is a helpful introduction explaining the German occupation and the French response. The author differentiates between para-military groups and the Maquis and people who took action whenever could to oppose German occupiers, noting that is more apt to call these people part of the resistance movement rather than members of “The Resistance.” The author’s note at the end is very interesting as well, noting that “living history is messy, filled with missteps, confusion, mistakes, and choices made on the fly, in the moment, on the spot—with consequences that can be unpredictable and intended.”  Resistance is a great title to hand to tweens interested in history and historical fiction. Interest in graphic novels isn’t necessary, but may be helpful.   

Reading level: Gr. 2-3

Interest level: Gr. 5-12

Genre:  Historical fiction, Historical graphic novel

Subjects: World War II, French Resistance, Occupied France, Nazi Germany

Awards:

Sydney Taylor Honor Book (2010)

 Booklist starred review

Read-alikes:

 The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography

Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campell Bartoletti

Characters:

Henri—Jewish boy whose parents, hotel owners, are taken away by the Germans

Paul Tessier—an artistic boy & best friend of Henri; his parents have taken over the hotel during the war so that Henri’s parents could come back to it after the war

Marie Tessier—Paul’s younger sister, an intelligent girl whose great memory and attention to detail may prove useful to the French Resistance

Sylvie Tessier—Paul’s older sister, also becomes involved in the Resistance movement

Jacques—A Resistance member, who catches Paul and Marie hiding Henri

The Year of the Dog

Lin, Grace. The Year of the Dog. Little Brown and Company, 2005. 134 pages. Tr. $14.99, ISBN  978-0-316-06000-4

What’s it about?

Pacy is Taiwanese-American, known as Grace to her Caucasian friends and teachers. This is Pacy’s story of the year of the dog, where her life unfolds in unexpected ways when she begins to discover her talent for writing.

Find out more:

The Year of the Dog is semi-autobiographical. The author, Grace Lin, wrote it because it was the kind of book she wishes she’d had a child, growing up as a Taiwanese-American. The protagonist, Pacy (Taiwanese name)/Grace (American name) narrates happenings in a year of her life, the year of the dog. She has a crush on a boy, makes a new best friend, Melody, celebrates Chinese New Year, writes a book called The Ugly Vegetables (and wins a prize!), and finds herself.  Discovering her talent for writing is life-changing for this youngster who previously felt as though she didn’t have many gifts.

 The differences between Pacy’s family and the mostly Caucasian community are chronicled with humor and candor. The most poignant (and funny!) part of the tale is when Pacy thinks she cannot try out for the part of Dorothy for the class Wizard of Oz play. She ends up being a munchkin, but worries that the audience will laugh and think she is terrible because she is Chinese, and none of the munchkins were Chinese in the movie. This book is about Pacy finding herself and being comfortable in her own skin, and it is a reassuring, entertaining read for any child who feels out of place because of their culture or ethnicity.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Multi-cultural fiction, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Ages 8-12

Read-alikes: 
Shu-Li and Tamara by Paul Yee 
Ally Finkle's Rules for Girls (series by Meg Cabot)
How Tia Lola Came to (visit) Stay by Julia Alvarez

Subjects/themes: Taiwanese-Americans, writing, cultural identification, self-knowledge, friendship

Awards:

2006 ALA Children’s Notable Book

2006 Booklist Editors’ Choice for Middle Readers

Series information:

Sequel: Year of the Rat (2008) 

The Clique: Trendy and One Dimensional

 The Clique by Lisi Harrison, 2004. New York: Little Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316701297

What’s it about?

Massie Block, the leader of The Clique at her exclusive private school, has it all—beauty, popularity, wealth. . .  And she wants to keep it that way.

Find out more:

12-year-old archetypal mean girl Massie Block is the Queen Bee of The Clique at Octavian Country Day School (OCD), a private girls school in Westchester New York.  Most students are the offspring of the ultra-rich. Claire Lyons, the daughter of one of Massie’s father’s friends is not; her family is staying in the Block guesthouse while they get situated. Claire is ridiculed by Massie from day 1 because her clothes are not expensive. Massie is so threatened by Claire’s existence that she constantly belittles her, sends snide text messages to her friends about her, and devises cruel pranks.  Matters get worse when Claire’s new friend Layne’s brother, Chris Abely, turns out to be Massie’s obsession. Massie schemes to take Layne away as a friend to get closer to Chris, while Claire begins to act uncharacteristically mean herself. She sneaks into Massie’s room and pretends to be her while messaging Massie’s friends Dylan, Alicia and Kristen, who are manipulated into turning on Massie. This depiction of junior high cattiness redeems itself a smidge when Massie and Claire bond at a party—because they are hiding from their embarrassing parents.

This book is trendy, meaning that although it is popular now, it will be quickly dated. There is very little to like about this predictable plot and even less to like about the characters, save for Claire Lyons.  With the other characters, the reader may get glimpses of humanity, but mostly, the Clique members are grating, selfish little brats. The characters are pretty one-dimensional, although Massie seemed to show an inkling of ability to change at the end of the book.  Escapist fiction like this is transitory, and not likely to stay in print for more than 10-15 years—or until the next big series hits the shelves. What makes it appealing, I think, is that it demands very little from the reader. It’s sheer entertainment. Some people wanted nothing more than diversion from the books they choose. Reading a book like this is not hard work, nor is it a hard sell, thanks to good branding, marketing and packaging.  If nothing else, these books have hooked many otherwise reluctant readers into recreational reading.  

This is not a book that keeps me up at night, but I wanted to find out why this series is so popular. Most adults I know roll their eyes at the mere mention of these books, but only handful have actually read them. It bothers me when people criticize books they’ve never read. I know they hate the idea of the book, but I’d hardly trust a review of something when the reviewer admits they haven’t done their homework. I suspected The Clique was a trendy, shallow, forgettable book about rich, bratty kids, and my suspicions were confirmed.

Genre label:  Contemporary realistic fiction, chick-lit, friendship fiction (although this book is more about how not to treat your friends)

 Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Ages 10-14

Read-alikes: The Clique series has been said to be A Gossip Girl read-alike for a slightly younger crowd. Other similar titles include the Secrets of my Hollywood Life series by Jen Calonita, the A-List series by Zoey Dean, Private by Kate Brian, and Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez.

Related TV and film: Mean Girls is film that is strikingly similar to The Clique—Mean Girl Regina is Massie, and Claire is Cady. Although Mean Girls is by no means deep, it is far better than The Clique. Fans of The Clique will also enjoy the CW’s Gossip Girl and 90210 (although, in my opinion, these shows are inappropriate for  the age group targeted by The Clique series).  An older show that reminds me of The Clique is The O.C.    

Subjects/themes: Popularity, cliques, wealth, social classes, friendship, bullying

Awards: 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers (YALSA)

Series information:

#2 Best Friends for Never (2004)

#3 Revenge of the Wannabees (2005)

#4 Invasion of the Boy Snatchers (2005)

#5 The Pretty Committee Strikes Back (2006)

#6 Dial L for Loser (2006)

#7 It’s Not Easy Being Mean (2007)

#8 Sealed with a Diss (2007)

#9 Bratfest at Tiffany’s (2008)

#10 P.S. I Loathe You (2009)

#11 Boys Are Us (2009)

#12 The Clique: Charmed and Dangerous (2009)

#13 These Boots Were Made for Stalking (2010)

#14 My Little Phony (2010)

#15 A Tale of Two Pretties (2011)

Related series:

 The Clique Summer Collection:

#1 Massie (2008)

#2 Dylan (2008)

#3 Alicia (2008)

#4 Kristen (2008)

#5 Claire (2008)

Character name/descriptions:

Massie Block—the Queen Bee of The Clique

Kristen Gregory—a smart girl with a sharp tongue who is desperate to hide the fact that she is a scholarship student

Alicia Rivera—beautiful and jealous of Massie’s role in The Clique

Dylan Marvil—Massie’s yes-man

Claire Lyons—Comes from a normal middle-class family in Florida, making her a Clique outcast. Claire is staying in Massie’s parent’s guesthouse while her parents get settled.  

Chris Abely—the object of Massie’s affection

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Yee. Lisa. Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Arthur A. Levine books, 2003. ISBN 9780439425193

What’s it about?

Being a child genius is tough, Millicent Min can attest.  Millie’s life gets more complicated when her mom signs her up for volleyball and makes her tutor her nemesis Stanford Wong.

Find out more:

An eleven-year-old genius, Millicent Min is enjoying her summer, looking forward to spending time with Maddie, her eccentric grandmother, taking her first college course, and making new friends who are interested in intellectual talks . . . until her new college friend turns out to be a sham, her mother signs her up for volleyball, and she has to tutor her childhood nemesis, Stanford Wong. Millie, despite (or because of) her intellect, struggles socially and doesn’t have any friends her own age. Things begin to look up when Millie makes a friend in volleyball, a cheerful girl named Emily Ebers, who adores her. Millie hides the fact that she is a genius, however, since she thinks Emily won’t like her any longer if she knows Millie’s IQ is through the roof. Millicent goes to comic lengths to conceal her intelligence, which turns out to be a bone-headed move—Emily finds out about everything, and feels betrayed that Millicent wasn’t honest with her.

This entertaining book is one of those rare books that manages to be both funny and substantial. Millicent has a unique voice, and Yee is able to show the reader that Millie’s logic is not infallible—she jumps to hilariously mistaken conclusions. When the book begins, Millie’s intelligence defines her to herself and the world. Before the reader gets to know Millicent the person, they are bombarded with her accomplishments, which are listed in a resume, including grades skipped, recent awards, television appearances, too numerous to completely list and thus capped with a pretentious “et cetera.”  Readers will be drawn in as Millie begins to soften and show her vulnerability, particularly in her friendship with Emily and her worries about her parents.  Hand this book to bright upper elementary students and middle schoolers, particularly those that enjoy humor and realistic fiction.  

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic fiction, humor, multi-cultural

Reading level: 6^th grade

Interest level: Ages 10-13

Read-alikes:

 Harriet the Spy

Mindblind (although the protagonist of Mindblind has Asperger’s syndrome, readers interested in childhood genius will find this a compelling read)    

Subjects/themes:  Genius, friendship, honesty, family relationships

Awards: 2004 winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award

Series information: Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers

Character name/descriptions:

Millicent: Girl Genius, forced to join volleyball and tutor Stanford Wong, her nemesis

Stanford: Mr. Popular, potentially flunking out, Millie’s nemesis—and tutoring student

Emily: Effervescent and girly new best friend to Millicent; develops a crush on Stanford Wong


 See my book trailer here!

Buy now on Amazon.com

Divergent: Dauntless, Dystopian and Impossible to Set Down

Divergent by Veronica Roth, 2011. Katherine Tegen books, New York. ISBN: 9780062024022

What's it about?

In future Chicago, society is neatly divided into five factions (Candor, Amnity, Abnegation, the Dauntless and the Erudite) that represent strong character traits. Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior has to choose the faction where she will spend the rest of her life—will she chose to stay in the faction she was born into, or she will change her life forever by choosing another faction? 

Find out more:  
Divergent is set in a future Chicago, where society is divided into five factions, all based on virtues.  There is the Erudite faction, comprised of those of superior intellect. There is the Dauntless faction, made of those who are courageous. The Amnity faction is made of kind people, and the Candor is made of the honest. The faction sixteen year old Beatrice Prior was born into is Abnegation. These are the selfless, often deprecated by other faction members as “stiffs” because of their drab clothing and quiet demeanor. The Abnegant place others first and set aside their individual needs.  Factions are determined by a test that everyone takes at sixteen. Beatrice’s test results are inconclusive—she is divergent, and must keep this knowledge to herself. When Beatrice (who shortens her name to Tris) chooses the Dauntless faction, her trial has just begun. She must endure a harsh initiation at the hands of a cruel Dauntless leader, Eric, and a mysterious Dauntless instructor who calls himself “Four.” If she fails to rank highly enough, she will end up factionless, doomed to pitiful living conditions. 

Tris slowly sheds her Abnegant identity, and become the Dauntless Tris, unafraid of taking risks. She doesn’t abandon her former faction, though; she remains fiercely loyal to her family. The reader follows her through her grueling transformation, and sees how she shows characteristics of the other factions throughout training. Divergent is a thrilling, thought-provoking book.  The factions are interesting conceptually, although some factions are more richly depicted than others. The most detailed depiction is of the Dauntless faction. That these factions are exaggerations of traits forces the reader to think about ways that they themselves are defined by society, and how this impacts every day choices. This novel is science fiction, but it is more allegorical than hard core science fiction. It should appeal more to girls than boys, and the relationship between Tris and Four, will also satisfy readers seeking romance. 

Genre: Science Fiction; Dystopian  

Reading level: 5^th grade level

Interest level: Middle school and high school students, as well as any adults who read and enjoyed Hunger Games will devour this book and want more. Although this book is aimed at teens, many older tweens (grades 6-9) will love this novel.

Read-alikes:  Divergent has been aptly compared to Hunger Games; both books feature strong female protagonists who fight against a monstrous force—in Hunger Games, it is the Capitol.  In Divergence, it is the Erudite faction.

 The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men reminds me of Divergent because it is dystopian to an extreme, and in the Chaos Walking books there is the theme of nearly an entire society being duped by an evil person.

Other books fans of Divergent may enjoy, or those with similar themes are The Giver, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, and 1984.

Subjects/themes: Societal roles, mind control, virtual reality, dystopias, character traits, courage, selflessness, abuse of power

Character name/descriptions:

Beatrice Prior (Tris) –The protagonist; Abnegant by birth, Dauntless by choice, but divergent by test

Four –An enigmatic instructor. Beatrice’s romantic interest

Eric—a cruel Dauntless leader 

Series information: Insurgent (Divergent #2) is due out May 2012 (HOORAY!!)

Quirky Comedy: Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger

Sachar, Louis. Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. Illustrated by Joel Schick.  Morrow Junior Books, 1995. Tr. $15.99 ISBN  978-0-688-13694-9 

Reading level: 3.3

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Genres: Humor, fantasy, satire

  

Subjects: School, teachers, substitutes, supernatural abilities, students

Recommend this book to:  Fans of humor, particularly weird humor.    

What’s it about?  The students of Wayside School are used to strangeness. But when their teacher Mrs. Jewls goes on maternity leave, a succession of strange substitutes make their lives a little more surreal.  

Want to find out more? Read the review!

This wacky story about the children and teachers of Wayside School is dead-pan, surreal comedy. The 30 children in Room 30 (on the 30th floor) notice something different about their beloved teacher Mrs. Jewls, who announces that she is expecting a baby and will go on maternity leave. A stream of strange substitute teachers follows her absence, including Mr. Gorf, who has three nostrils and can take a person’s voice away by wiggling them, and later a teacher with three ears who can hear everyone’s thoughts.

The book is comprised of 30 brief chapters rich in word-play and zany comedy. The humor might remind adult readers of Monty Python sketches. Many situations are ludicrous, but the children and adults at Wayside School are used to a universe that just doesn't make sense. After all, they go to school in a thirty story building with no elevator and no nineteenth story. And a former teacher turned them all into apples.   

Fans of the previous books will be delighted by this title, but even readers that missed the first installments of this series will appreciate this book--and then run to the library to grab everything else in the series.  Hand this book to fans of Roald Dahl and Dan Gutman’s My Weird School.  This book can easily be appreciated by adult fans of the absurd as well as children, who usually enjoy the absurd. 

Other titles in the series: 

Sideways Stories from Wayside School (1978) 

Wayside School is Falling Down (1989)

Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1989--considered a spin-off)

More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1994--considered a spin-off)

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (1995)

Binky to the Rescue

Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires. Kids Can Press (2010). ISBN 9781554535972 (Hardcover)

Reading level: 3^rd grade

Interest level: Grades 1-5

Genres: Graphic novel, humor, quirky  

 

Subjects: Cats, imagination, space aliens, insects

Recommend this book to:  Fans of humor and graphic novels, particularly fans of Calvin and Hobbes. Older kids and adults will enjoy Binky’s exploits, particularly cat lovers and fans of quirky graphic novels such as Trondhiem’s A.L.I.E.E.N. and Sfar’s Little Vampire.  

What’s it about? 

Binky is no ordinary cat—he is a Space Cat, on a mission to protect his space station from alien invasion! But what happens when his best friend Ted falls into outer space and is attacked by a horde of angry, stinging aliens?  

Cast of Characters:

- Binky: the incorrigible cat, who believes he is on a mission to protect his home from aliens (insects).

-Ted: Binky’s copilot, a purple stuffed mousie.

-Binky’s Human: a woman with cat-eyed glasses. Although she gives Binky cuddles, she has no idea how well-deserved those cuddles are—she thinks Binky is an ordinary house cat.

-Wasps: the villains, though they claim otherwise. There is a warning on the verso page before the story begins from W.A.S.P. (Wasps Against Stereotypes and Propaganda) that reading this book ignores “years of anger management, counseling, and charity work in which many wasps have engaged.”

Want to find out more? Read the review!  

Binky the Space Cat has an important mission: to protect his space station (his home) and human companions from alien invaders (such as pesky flies).  When he accidentally falls into outer space (a back yard, complete with a lawn gnome), he discovers many strange new aliens, including the sort that use bungee cords to help them fly (spiders). He also discovers that his co-pilot, Ted (a stuffed mouse) has also fallen into out space. In the midst of rescuing his friend, he encounters sinister alien force. Dozens of angry wasps emerge from their warship and begin stinging our hero.  When all looks lost, Binky’s human swoops in and rescues him. Poor Ted, though, is left in outer space, at the mercy of the aliens.  The second half of the book details numerous foiled rescue attempts.  It’s not easy for Binky to keep his Space cat identity under wraps!

This book excels as a whole package, with a hilarious dead-pan narrative and expressive, cartoonish pen and watercolor panels done in subtle hues. Greens and grays and browns provide a subtle backdrop for the chubby, charming back and white Binky.  This book has a different feel than most graphic novels, since most of the text is either sound effects, some quite unique,  like the “pumf” as Binky lands on a couch, or narration. There are some speech bubbles as well, but many panels are virtually wordless.  A lot of the humor is derived from Binky’s perception of his world. His reaction to the backyard is particularly amusing—when he drops into “outer space,” he exclaims “Holy Fuzzbutt!” and hides from a bird flying overhead. Even flowers seem a tad sinister. Offer this unique, quirky book, and the other titles in this series, to unique quirky children who appreciate subtle humor.     

Other titles in series:

Binky the Space Cat (2009)

Binky Under Pressure (2011)