Calvin and Hobbes

Watterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes. Andrews McNeel, 1987. Paperback $12.99, ISBN 978-0836220889.

What’s it about?

Calvin is a rowdy, wildly imaginative 6 year old boy who lives with his mother, father, and tiger Hobbes. To most people, Hobbes is a stuffed animal, but Calvin and Hobbes know better!

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Ever had an imaginary friend? Six-year-old Calvin does, but everyone only thinks he’s imaginary. Calvin’s best friend appears to be a large stuffed tiger, but Calvin knows he’s the real deal. Hobbes is the more practical and sage of the duo, although he’s prone to sass and sneak-pounce attacks on Calvin. Most strips focus on Calvin and Hobbes, although there are great secondary characters, like Calvin’s frazzled parents, Calvin’s goody-goody neighborhood nemesis Susie, and idiotic school bully Moe. In later collections, readers enjoy an increasing number of Calvin’s alter-egos. In this first collection, we’re introduced to Spaceman Spiff, whose life and death struggles parallel Calvin’s real-life adventures (such as tackling a playground slide).    

Calvin and Hobbes is the first collection of Watterson’s popular comic strip. The premise is simple and delightful.  Ordinary events are exaggerated and comedic through the eyes of Calvin and his incredibly over-active imagination.  In one Sunday strip (which contains twice as many panels as a daily strip) Calvin’s fear of baths makes perfect sense: when Calvin sits down in the tub, the bubbles form a large, monstrous fiend that tries to drown Calvin. His only recourse is to drain the tub. The last panel features Calvin’s cross mother: “don’t tell me he’s letting the water out already!” Behind her, the wet, naked, Calvin scowls “believe it, lady.” Just as the characters in the Peanuts strip evolved, Calvin and Hobbes look slightly different and more developed in Watterson’s later strips. Nevertheless, his artwork is expressive and masterful.  

Genre: Humor, satire

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-Adult

Subjects: Imagination, Family, Misbehavior, Political & philosophical satire

Read-alikes:

Holm’s Babymouse

Spires’ Binky series

Shultz’s Peanuts

Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace

Awards:

2-time Reuben Award Winner “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” (1986 & 1988, nominated in 1992)

Series information:

Something Under the Bed is Drooling (1988)

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes (1988)

The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book (1989)

Yukon Ho! (1989)

The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes (1990)

Weirdoes From Another Planet (1990)

The Revenge of the Baby-Sat (1991)

Scientific Progress Goes “Boink” (1991)

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons (1992)

The Indispensible Calvin and Hobbes (1992)

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat (1994)

The Days are Just Packed (1993)

The Calvin and Hobbes 10^th Anniversary Book (1995)

There’s Treasure Everywhere (1996)

It’s a Magical World (1996)

Babymouse: Queen of the World

Holm, Jennifer & Matthew Holm. Babymouse: Queen of the World!. Random House, 2005. Paperback $6.99, ISBN-13  978-0375832291

What’s it about? When Babymouse hears about Felicia Furrypaws’ party, she tries everything to get invited. But is Felicia really a friend?

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Babymouse feels overshadowed by the popular mean girl, queen bee Felicia Furrypaws. When Felicia throws a party and Babymouse is not invited, she tries to ingratiate herself to get an invitation. She tries different tactics, none successful, until Felicia forgets her book report and Babymouse lets her turn in hers. Finally, Babymouse has an in to the cool crowd!  She is over the moon until she remembers her plans with Wilson, her best friend. She feels guilty, but decides he will understand. Once she is at the party, she discovers how boring and mean Felicia really is. Felicia ignores Babymouse, having her do things for Felicia and her friends. Finally Babymouse gets frustrated and dumps butter and popcorn on Felicia and goes to spend the rest of the evening with Wilson, and has a blast.

Babymouse is a humorous graphic novel about popularity, its costs, standing up for oneself, and the importance of each individual. What differentiates this tale from other books for children about popularity is the format (graphic novels for this age group tend to be more action/fantasy oriented), the humorous interjections of Babymouse’s imagination, and the choice of character design. The reader is easily able to distinguish between the Babymouse’s fantasies and reality since the fantasies are splashed liberally with pink, while real-life is a more mundance black and white. Rather than using human characters or animal characters of the same species, the characters include giraffes, cats, hippos, and, of course, mice. This could be reading too much into things, but perhaps this reflects the vast differences between people and their roles and abilities. Despite these differences, everyone’s worth is the same, everyone’s important and a queen in their own life. This is something Babymouse discovers by the end of the novel.  

Genre label: Humor, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 2^nd grade

Interest level: Grades 3-5

Read-alikes:

Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes series 

Spires’ Binky series

Cabot’s Ally Finkle’s Rules for Girls series

Subjects: Popularity, friendship, imagination

Series information:

#2 Our Hero

#3 Beach Babe

#4 Rock Star

#5 Heartbreaker

#6 Camp Babymouse

#7 Skater Girl

#8 Puppy Love

#9 Monster Mash

#10 The Musical

#11 Dragonslayer

#12 Burns Rubber

#13 Cupcake Tycoon

#14 Mad Scientist

#15 A Very Babymouse Christmas

Characters:

Babymouse—imaginative mouse who wants adventure, glamour and excitement!

Felicia Furrypaws—the Queen Bee mean girl at Babymouse’s school

Wilson the Weasel—Babymouse’s longtime best friend

Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

Blume, Judy. Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2000 (c.1977). Tr. $18.99  ISBN-10: 0689840896 ISBN-13: 978-0689840890

What’s it about? The year is 1947, and 10-year-old Sally J. Freedman is convinced that Hitler is alive—and in Miami Beach, masquerading as an old Jewish man named Mr. Zavodsky.

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Sally is a ten-year-old Jewish girl from New Jersey who spends the school year away from her father in Miami Beach because of concerns about her older brother’s health. Sally has an active imagination, and loves to tell stories to herself, stories where she plays the lead role (usually as an actress or detective hunting Hitler). She misses her father, whom she nicknames “Doey Bird” and hates her new school, which has no bathroom doors, and a mean lunch monitor. Eventually, Sally adjusts and makes new friends. There is a dark shadow looming over Sally, though, and this is the specter of the Holocaust, which took the lives of her cousin Lila and aunt Rose.  Many of her fantasies feature the Holocaust, and when she suddenly realizes that her neighbor Mr. Zavodsky bears a resemblance to Hitler, she begins to believe he actually is Hitler in disguise, hiding in plain sight. 

This is a rich, often humorous novel with underlying dark tones. In many respects, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself is an even stronger offering from Blume than her better known Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. While Sally doesn’t go through the same soul searching as Margaret does, this book explores serious topics such as the Holocaust through the eyes of a child touched by loss, though in a removed way.  Sally’s understanding of adults is touchingly naïve. When the sixteen-year-old daughter of her neighbors, who are Orthodox Jews, becomes pregnant, Sally is confused. “Buts she’s not married,” she points out. The book her mother gave her to explain sex presented pregnancy as something that only occurred between married couples. There are plenty of moments when older readers will see more to the situation than Sally does, although younger tweens may also misunderstand things like paying under the table.

Another serious topic, though dealt with in a removed way as well, is segregation. Sally grew up in New Jersey, and doesn’t understand why there are two different drinking fountains. She took a drink from a “colored” drinking fountain and was yanked away by a strange woman. Sally writes to her father, asking if black and white people have different germs or something. He responds by saying that he thinks people have more similarities than differences, and that the North isn’t much better than the South. In the North segregation was just more subtle than in the South, which was very candid about its racism. 

One criticism I have about this book, which is otherwise amazing, is the non-stop overuse of ellipses in conversations. I understand that Blume is trying to convey conversational pauses on the page, but readers already do this mentally, don’t they? It’s a stylistic complaint. . . . but it drives me nuts! . . . . I adore this book . . . so I can overlook this flaw. . .  

Genre: Historical Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Humor

Reading level: 4^th-5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-7

Subjects: Jewish-Americans, Moving, Friendship, Story-telling, Imagination

Read-alikes:

Yee’s So Totally Emily Ebers

Cleary’s Emily’s Runaway Imagination

Characters:

Sally J. Freedman—the imaginative protagonist, a 10-year-old storyteller

Arnold Freedman, aka Doey-Bird—Sally’s beloved dentist father

Louise Freedman—Sally’s anxious and neurotic mother

Douglas Freedman—Sally’s genius, loner brother whose health is fragile

Ma Fanny—Sally’s witty grandmother

Andrea—Sally’s close friend who lives in the same apartment complex; she is in 6^th grade and acts as though she is light years older than Sally, who is just a year younger

Georgia Blue Eyes—Andrea’s crush

Peter Hornstein—Teases Sally mercilessly, but Sally eventually realizes she likes him

Mr Zavodsky—Sally thinks he is not a nice, older Jewish man, but Adolf Hitler in disguise