Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

Annotation:  Across twelve astonishing poems, Joyce Sidman opens our eyes to the natural phenomena of the evening, and in accompaniment with Rick Allen’s vibrant reliefs and her own elucidating prose, delivers a remarkable picturebook that demonstrates the vitality in the darkness.

Personal reaction:  Poetry done well can be soothing, sweet and seductive, and Joyce Sidman’s writing in Dark Emperor & Other Poems of Night sublimely sings the psalms of evening.  The relief prints carved and painted by Rick Allen aren’t far behind, catching both the shadows and luminescence of the night.  Appearing somewhat similar to their related cousin, the woodblock print, his art matches the cool tone of Sidman’s words, while the darker outlines of his reliefs are splashed with vivid colors that seem to coat everything with a silver sheen, and a sense of motion, and the semblance of life.  If this were all, it would be enough: twelve poems, each matched carefully to a kindred illustration.  But there is more: each pairing is also met with a brief paragraph of prose, providing an extra layer of instruction onto an already richly-informative palette of poetry and painting.

The skill and attention that went into Dark Emperor & Other Poems of Night is breathtaking.  Far from prettily vacant, hollow words, Sidman’s poems are genuinely edifying: in her second entry, we hear of the snail climbing “a slick trail of sliver up, up the horizon of a log… seeking with its tiny sandpaper tongue morsels of green to mix in his dark, moist body and spin into whorls of light.”  Past a gorgeous etching in which the sky is still touched by pink, we turn to the more explicitly instructive prose, learning that snails “have moist, sluglike bodies that are in constant danger of drying out.  During the day, they hide in damp places under logs and stones, but at night they emerge to search for food, riding on a cushion of air….  They do not chew, but rather scrape plant materials into their mouths with a tongue that is covered by rows of tiny teeth.  Young snails add a layer to their shells each night… extending and widening its perfectly spiral shape” (pp. 8, 9).  Each of her poems is similarly dense with information, waiting to be unlocked on the other side of a vibrant illustration—and a glossary is included at the back should her economic use of language require some expounding.

Yet beauty in poem and prose paired with exemplary art is but the first layer of this text’s marriage of form and function.  Smaller details are sought out to add to its perfection: the lines of “Dark Emperor” are ordered to form the silhouette of the titular horned owl; aside from passing on information and matching meter, Sidman additionally chooses to call upon a plentiful array of onomatopoeia, bringing the evening alive with sound: animals buzz, hoot, and peep; they squeak, skitter, and rustle; they mew, and they coo.  And while animals of the night are making such noise, we learn that the owl’s sense of hearing is a hundred times more sensitive than our own, though the raccoon is more gifted in terms of touch, and the moth in its sense of smell.  And as they use these faculties to their advantage, Allen’s reliefs point to their interrelationships: in his illustrations for “Oak After Dark”—in which poetry, art, and prose all evocatively remind us that trees are living, active beings; indeed, surprisingly so—trees may take the forefront, but pictured also are the raccoon, the owl, the bat, the eft, and several more.  Similarly, “I Am a Baby Porcupette” shows two porcupines, but also mushrooms, trees, efts, an owl, and the moon, all of which have their own poems, as well as the bear, which here does not.

The craftsmanship of Dark Emperor & Other Poems of Night is superb, and there are still likely further intricacies to uncover—until my second reading, I hadn’t noticed that Allen’s illustrations sequentially darken and lighten to match the pace of the setting and rising sun.  As for Sidman’s verse, I continue to marvel at her compact conveyance of so much information while still adhering not only to meter and rhyme, but also beauty, and to do so while employing devices such as onomatopoeia and alliteration.  It’s an accomplishment, and certainly one of the better picturebooks of 2010.

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night, by Joyce Sidman (author) and Rick Allen (illustrator), 2010, New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  ISBN:  9780547152288
Author Website:  http://www.joycesidman.com/
Illustrator Website: http://www.kenspeckleletterpress.com/
Media: Relief printing: A drawing is transferred onto wood-mounted linoleum, and is then carved away.  Its surface is covered in a single color of ink and pressed on paper, using multiple blocks (3-6) as needed.  The images are then hand-colored with gouache.

A 2010 publication

A book-length poem

Use of alliteration:  “What symphonies of squeaks and skitters, darts and rustles, swell the vast, breathing darkness of your realm?” (p. 12)

Use of onomatopoeia:

To all of you who crawl and creep,
who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep,
who wake at dusk at throw off sleep:
Welcome to the night (p. 6)

Use of rhyme:

I am a baby porcupette
My fur is soft; my eyes are jet.
But I can deal with any threat:
I raise my quills
and pirouette (p. 18)

Use of rhythm:

Come all you young efts,
so brave and so bold,
and don the bright colors
of scarlet and gold.

Step out from your puddles
to breathe the sweet air
and wander the woodlands
with hardly a care. (p. 25)

Use of repetition:

From moss and loam
the mushrooms come.

From bark on trees,
from crumbling logs,
from musty leaves,
the mushrooms come.

…

Unbuttoning the forest floor,
the mushrooms come,
the mushrooms come.

…

like ancient cities
built on cliffs,
the mushrooms come,
the mushrooms come. (p. 22)

The Wolves in the Walls

Annotation:  When Lucy heard wolves in the walls, her mother, father, and older brother didn’t believe her, and when the wolves emerged, her entire family was forced to flee.  Now, she must reclaim her pig-puppet, as well as their house.

Personal reaction:  Encouraged by my experience with Crazy Hair and from several classmates’ positive comments, I sat down earlier this evening to read The Wolves in the Walls, another picturebook by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.  I’m glad that I did; it isn’t quite the same bizarre, ridiculous rhyming romp that Crazy Hair is, but it does contain Gaiman and McKean’s trademark humor and taste for the darkly bizarre, and presents a more traditional, coherent narrative that makes for more linear storytelling.

It’s also very funny, and where with Crazy Hair one often was left wondering whether to laugh or be afraid, here the two sections of the book tend to be more discrete: at least, to my timid heart, the first part is more suspenseful, while the second, though not without its moments of hushed breaths, tends to be less so, and is more comic.

For the story itself, we follow the actions of Lucy, who along with her mother, father, and older brother, inhabits what, to me, is a singularly frightening house, with dark reds, red browns, and brownish yellows that invoke the color palettes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or perhaps The Shining.  It begins ominously, with Lucy hearing what’s certain to be wolves in the walls, while her relatives at first hear nothing, and then what they assume to be mice, or bats.  In either event, they pay her no heed, but do uniformly offer this foreboding bit of information: “If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over.”  It’s frightening, especially so when the wolves’ yellow eyes begin to peer out from cracks in the walls and the eyes of paintings, and Lucy knows that she’s being watched.

And then one night they erupt… albeit looking a little silly, perhaps somewhat like the sea serpent at the end of the old Disney submarine ride, but still, these are wolves, and the family is quickly chased from their house.  Knowing that wolves have come out from the
walls, and that hence “it is over,” Lucy’s older relatives surrender hope, and propose moving to the Arctic, Sahara, outer space, or perhaps even a hot air balloon or desert island.  Lucy is less easily quelled, and she ventures into the walls of the house to stealthily rescue her abandoned pig-puppet, which is objectively adorable.

It’s also here that the picturebook’s tone begins to shift.  In her room, she encounters “a huge wolf, fat as anything, asleep on her bed.”  It’s also wearing her socks on its ears, paws, and tail.  It’s still a little frightening as she darts out to retrieve the pig-puppet, but it’s also a little silly, and the wolves become a little less intimidating.  The mood gradually lightens, and the next time we see the wolves, they’re wearing pants, sliding down banisters, eating jam, and having a party—hardly the stuff of nightmares.  When the humans themselves spring forth from the walls to retake their home, the wolves are terrified and flee into the night, shouting that “when the people come out of the walls… it’s all over!”

It has the same mixture of terror and delight that made Crazy Hair so enthralling, though here the two don’t run quite so closely hand-in-hand.  It gets scary, but never too scary, and captures a sense of wonder, somewhat like the most thrilling of traditional fairy tales—and if it were milder, and a comedy instead of a drama, I would almost be willing to compare it to Pan’s Labyrinth.  The wolves can be silly (though still a little frightening—a sublimely thrilling combination), and Gaiman and McKean are masters of the absurd and the non sequitur; one of my favorite moments involves the presence of a random guest who just happened to stop by to help the dispossessed family with their gardening.
It’s a modern reversal of Goldilocks, and while younger readers are likely to be at least a little anxious, older readers will enjoy the story through and through.

The Wolves in the Walls, by Neil Gaiman (author) and Dave McKean (illustrator).  2003.  New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.  ISBN:  0060530871
Author Website:  http://www.neilgaiman.com/
Illustrator Website: http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/
Media: Digital art with collage, photography, found objects, paint

J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography

Annotation:  This black-and-white graphic provides a thorough, no frills biography of J. Edgar Hoover, with an emphasis on his control and expansion of the FBI, and the role it took in investigating what it saw as subversive domestic elements.

Personal reaction:  As far as biographies go, it would be hard to be much more thorough than Rick Geary in his J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography.  Consisting of 99 pages of densely packed information, this graphic novel follows the life of John Edgar Hoover from his birth in 1895 through his 48-year reign as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and, prior to that, its precursor as the Bureau of Investigation, a tenure that only ended with his death at age 77.  From the start, it’s clear that Hoover will be taking the front seat in his biography: the graphic novel’s endpapers are tiled in scenes from his life that look like clippings from a movie; on its first page, we see a fedora wearing, Tommy gun-wielding J. Edgar Hoover shouting “Hands in the air!”as the phases of his life are proclaimed beneath him—“crime-busting g-man… crusader against the menace of communism… guardian of public morality… eavesdropper and keeper of secrets.”

From the standpoint of the reader, if not, possibly, a member of the American public, it’s a good thing that J. Edgar Hoover led such a compelling life.  Very little is inserted by Geary in the way of narrative arcs or gossipy personal relations—this is page after page of fact, accompanied by some interpretation, and it’s enough to fill a volume.  Still, what unfolds is depicted as the rise of a modern American dictator, an individual who was able to vastly extend the reach of the FBI while crafting a culture that made it entirely beholden to his will.

His youth seemed to indicate a trajectory for his own adult career.  Born in Washington, D.C., then still very much a Southern city, we hear that Hoover competed fiercely in his high school debate team, was equally fierce in his adherence to the moral order of his Presbyterianism upbringing, and joined his high school’s cadet corps.  In college, he joined a fraternity, earned a bachelor of law, pursued a master’s degree, and then followed the family tradition of entering the employ of the federal government—here as a member of the Department of Justice, at which his first responsibility was the tracking of German and Austro-Hungarian nationals in the United States.  And as an “administrative action,” he was able to detain and deport foreign nationals without the interference of the courts.

As an adult, he joined the Freemasons, and developed a body of cadres closely loyal to him; he began collecting a notebook of press clippings, and by only the age of 29, was appointed by President Coolidge as the Director of the Bureau of Investigation, the entity which would shortly become the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He immediately
reorganized it ruthlessly, purging it of political appointees, bringing field offices under his direct control, and recruited white Anglo Saxon Protestants to fill its ranks.  He also began to monitor suspect political groups.

The Great Depression brought with it headline crimes and headline criminals, such as John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, and Baby Face Nelson—and also positioned Hoover to remake the Bureau of Investigation into a federal law enforcement agency: the FBI.  And so his power swelled: disliking Eleanor Roosevelt’s distrust of what she saw as the American Gestapo, Hoover put her under surveillance.  He put union leaders and union members under surveillance.  He put political leaders under surveillance.  He put Kennedy under surveillance.  And if pressured to monitor someone he didn’t want to, he demurred.  And his control of the FBI strengthened into “an absolute dictatorship… he would brook no criticism or insubordination from his agents, who worked in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity….  Those not fitting his exacting physical standards—who were overweight, had bad skin, thinning hair, or protruding ears—were deemed unsuitable to the Bureau’s image.  Hoover even reserved for himself the right to approve an agent’s marriage….
An agent could advance only by reinforcing the director’s prejudices” (p. 72).

It’s a ruthless story that recounts Hoover’s survival and stranglehold from Coolidge through to Nixon.  It’s a dense, black-and-white read, told largely without passion, and seems to capture the significant milestones of his life—though it goes into none of them in great detail.  No, the news blurbs of J. Edgar Hoover’s life alone are enough to fill nearly one-hundred pages, and for the space allotted its text, it’s hard to imagine any media compressing more information.  Though few literary devices are employed to make his life more intriguing, Hoover’s obsession with power and control carries its own allure, and it makes for a fascinating, disturbing, read.  Whether interested in his personality, the effects of power, or simply twentieth-century American domestic history, J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography is a fine place to start.

J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography, by Rick Geary, 2008, New York, NY: Hill and Wang.  ISBN:  9780809095032
Author Website:  http://www.rickgeary.com/
Media: Pencil and ink on paper

A nonfiction graphic novel

Curricular connection: Grade Eleven—United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century:

The Great Depression: One reaction to the economic crisis and the rise of fascism in Europe was the growth of extremist political movements on the right and the left… They should see the linkage between severe economic distress and social turmoil.

World War II: Attention should be paid to the effect of the war on the home front.… The crisis of the Depression, World War II, and postwar international tensions have caused a dramatic expansion of the power of the presidency. Students should analyze the risk to separation of powers caused by this phenomenon and the continuing danger to representative government that this trend implies.

The Cold War: The domestic political response to the spread of international communism should receive attention as part of the study of the Cold War. Students should learn about the investigations of domestic communism at the federal and state levels

OR

Grade Twelve—Principles of American Democracy: Students analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal, and local governments.

American Born Chinese

Annotation:  Comprised of three interwoven tales about identity, American Born Chinese tells the tale of the Monkey King, who tried not to be a monkey; Jin, an Asian American student attempting to conform; and Danny and Chin-Kee, the very embodiment of negative Chinese stereotypes.

Personal reaction:  Bravo, Gene Luen Yang, bravo.  It’s rare to find a popular publication willing to explore issues as challenging and explosive as race and identity in a substantive way, and American Born Chinese tackles head-on the question of what it means to have an authentic Asian American identity.  Nor does it appear to be a question that Yang is alone is asking; magazines such as Giant Robot and campus publications such as Hardboiled seem to be responding to the question of what it means to be Asian American, reflecting a larger audience that shares in this same deliberation.  And while it’s unlikely that Yang is able to deliver a definitive answer to such a complex and deeply individual question, his approach to the question is shared openly and honestly, even if at the end he still seems somewhat uncertain of its resolution.

American Born Chinese is composed of three tales that share the overlapping themes of identity and acceptance.  The first follows the exploits of the Monkey King, a deity and lord of Flower-Fruit Mountain, who despite his status, is ridiculed by the other gods for being a monkey.  Accordingly, the Monkey King trains and develops his power, changes the shape of his body, wears shoes, and disavows his monkey identity, proclaiming himself The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven.  Yet still the deities laughed at him, and the Monkey King raged, until at last Tze-Yo-Tzuh, creator of the world, trapped him under a mountain of rocks, bound until he accepted his being as that of a monkey.  It’s interesting, highly allegorical, and interwoven chapter-by-chapter with American Born Chinese’s other two storylines.

Each of the other two stories features Chinese American subjects trying to make it through their youth and, ultimately, high school.  The first of these is the most realistic: in it, Jin Wang tries desperately to fit in with his classmates, enduring misperceptions, such as the eating of dogs, and attempting to quickly adopt customs unfamiliar and possibly looked down upon by his parents—such as wearing deodorant, or adding curl to his hair.  He is befriended by Wei-Chen Sun, a more recent immigrant from Taiwan, who becomes both his closest friend and a constant source of embarrassment.

The third main story is more difficult to read, and follows Danny, a popular white student, who is forced to endure a visit from his cousin, Chin-Kee, the very embodiment of negative Chinese stereotypes.  It’s hard to watch, but Chin-Kee does tackle stereotypes directly, being pictured with buck teeth, Chinese dress, squinty eyes, yellow skin, a single braid, and all manner of caricatured proportions.  He switches his R’s for L’s, looks forward to foot binding and impregnating an American girl, is good at school, and eats thoroughly disgusting food.  It’s unclear initially as to what Danny and Chin-Kee are meant to represent: either the pairing of Jin and Wei-Chen, or perhaps the two different warring sides within Jin himself.

In the end, all three of these tales blend together, clarity is delivered, and Jin is forced to reevaluate the question of “who am I.”  We’ve seen him attempt to conform wholeheartedly to mainstream, non-Chinese culture, and have watched as the results have been, for him, less than fulfilling.  We’ve also noticed Wei-Chen rebel in the opposite fashion, attempting to fit the Asian gangster persona, and suspect that his path, too, has resulted in an impoverished mode of being.  Though the novel ends with Jin taking his initial steps in a new identity, it appears that he is seeking one that is both American and Chinese, though the negotiation between the two is likely to be complex and ongoing.  Yet if it doesn’t end with a resounding, neatly-tied conclusion, well, perhaps that’s simply art imitating life, and indicative of the challenges that face the construction of identity in the real world.

American Born Chinese bravely addresses a question that I’m sure is asked by middle- and high school students across the United States, themselves in the crucible of identity construction.  For them, the maturation and wisdom that come with age, as well as the tools and constructs imparted through college curricula such as sociology and ethnic studies, and are still years away, making me glad that books such as this are within their reach for the present.

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, 2006, New York, NY: First Second.  ISBN:  9781596431522
Author Website:  http://geneyang.com/
Media: Ink with digital coloring

A 2009 Students’ Top Ten publication

All Star Superman

Annotation:  In what can be seen as an homage to seventy years of Superman, six episodes are presented in which Superman adventures with significant characters from his past, featuring Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, and Krypto the superdog.

Personal reaction:  Ah, simplicity.  In a preface to All Star Superman, D.C. editor Bob Schreck writes that “Grant [Morrison] breathes new life into each and every one of the characters while never straying far from the purity of their creators’ original intention.  In doing so, he easily sets even the most jaded of today’s readers back on their heels in awe of his disarmingly ‘simple’ and elegant writing.”  Simply put, All Star Superman is Superman through and through—if one enjoys the version of simplicity that has attached itself to the Superman brand, then one is likely to enjoy Grant Morrison’s exultation of the Man of Steel’s 73 year reign.  Not a particularly ardent Superman fan myself, I found it somewhat wanting—I suspect that Mr. Morrison and I might here have a slight disagreement over what makes for simple storytelling—but there’s no escaping its ability to convey what it means to read a Superman book.  When people ask me for an archetypical superhero book, I now hand them a copy of The Ultimates; if someone were to ask me to recommend a single volume that sums up what it means to experience a reading of Superman, I’d hand them All Star Superman instead.

Comprised of six episodes, All Star Superman takes care to introduce its readers to some of the major personalities that have shaped the comic over the years.  It begins with an episode that sets up the rest of the story: Superman ventures to the surface of the sun to prevent a Lex Luthor-directed catastrophe; in doing so, he absorbs enough solar radiation to triple his strength, curiosity, imagination, and creativity, but also a dose that will unavoidably lead to his death.  The Last Son of Krypton is suddenly mortal, and feels compelled to make up for lost time.

Enter episodes two and three, starring Lois Lane.  In episode two, Superman reveals his true identity (mild mannered reporter Clark Kent!) to her, then whisks her away to the Fortress of Solitude, which from a literary standpoint exists as a monument to the past seventy years.  In episode three, Lois is given Superman’s powers for a day (her birthday!), the two have adventures, are met by two other superheroes who vie for her favor, and ultimately end up kissing on the moon.  Episode four turns the spotlight on Jimmy Olsen, whose bumbling exposes Superman to black kryptonite, which turns him evil; Jimmy is infused with the superpowers of Doomsday, and they battle it out until everything turns out alright.  Lex Luthor has his day in episode five, though he spends most of it being jealous of Superman, whining about his alien ancestry, and “gosh-darning” about how he would have ruled the world if it weren’t for Superman.  Finally, in episode six, we meet Krypto—Superdog, for the uninitiated—as well as three versions of Superman from the future.  Clark Kent’s father unfortunately passes away while the superteam is fighting a chronovore, and by some twist of the space-time continuum, it seems that Superman isn’t going to end up dying anyway.

The catch is that, at least to me, it all comes across as a little campy.  Superman true believers will disagree, as they should—Superman does carry with it its own style, and All Star Superman is strongly emblematic of that flavor.  Lex Luthor tries to tamper with the sun so that he can profit from a water shortage; Superman punches his latest creation and averts catastrophe.  Granted, he also does other things: he solves the riddle of a sphinx, and prevents catastrophe; he saves Jimmy Olsen from certain death, turns evil, but shrugs it off before causing catastrophe; he seemingly bumbles through a prison riot and stealthily avoids catastrophe; and he imprisons a chronovore, saving the natural timeline from catastrophe.  And along the way, additional elements can be inserted, such as romance: in a fit of adolescence at her flirtations with others, Superman arm-wrestles Atlas to impress Lois (“What do I have to do to make you keep your hands off my girl?”).  It’s a relatively simple formula that can be told in different ways, and can be powerfully appealing to those who find its story arc satisfying.

I like simplicity.  I agree very much with Bob Schreck that an alternative needs to exist to a group of ever darker, increasingly jaded anti-heroes.  Fortunately, such alternatives do exist: Invincible by Robert Kirkman is a brightly-colored, simple, joyous read that is unabashedly inspired by Superman.  It’s a fantastic, simple read.

To my palate, All Star Superman is less so.  Over the span of its estimable seventy years, it has accumulated too many story arcs, too many gimmicks, and too much unplanned material: it’s time to let some of that luggage go and enter a simplified universe.  In this title, we encounter photosynthetic giants, bizzaro worker drones, voyager titans, a cosmic anvil from New Olympus that creates stars, a time telescope, alternate timelines, green kryptonite, black kryptonite, Dino-Czar Tyrannko who rules the dinosaurs at the center of the earth, Krypto the superdog, Superman of the Fifth Dimension, Superman of A.D. 85,250, and Superman of A.D. 4,500—who it turns out is just an older version of the Superman of today.  It’s a crowded, and somewhat silly, world out there, and it is in need of some dusting.

For those of you who love such tales, it’s hard to go wrong with All Star Superman.  It’s an ode to truth, justice, and the American way, along with all they’ve accumulated over the past seven decades.  It’s too encumbered to be rightfully called simple, but that might be okay, as long as you’re willing to enjoy the romp.  For those of you who are intrigued by Superman but prefer Jean Luc-Piccard to Captain Kirk, fear not, other trade paperbacks exist.  Invariably, stand-alone stories of Superman will emerge that take place in sheltered worlds that need not concern themselves with the Phantom Zone, Martians, or other leftovers from a pre-continuity reboot.  In such retellings, such as Superman: Red Son, it’s possible to read engaging Superman adventures with a bit more complexity, but also a lot less clutter.

But for vanilla purists, be glad that the six-scoop option of All Star Superman exists to sate your appetites.

All Star Superman: Volume 1, by Grant Morrison (writer), Frank Quitely (pencil), and Jamie Grant (colors).  2007.  New York, NY: DC Comics.  ISBN:  9781401211028
Author Website (Morrison):  http://www.grant-morrison.com/
Illustrator Website (Quitely): No illustrator website
Illustrator Website (Grant):  Noillustrator website
Media: Pencil with digital coloring

A fictitious graphic novel

Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot

Annotation:  This volume details the early life and Revolutionary War exploits of Henry Knox, an improbable hero whose resolve and optimism allowed him to conduct a feat of nigh-unobtainable logistics: the transportation of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to the Boston Harbor.

Personal reaction:  Of the picturebooks that have impressed me the most this summer, the great majority have been in some ways innovative or unique: Clan Apis crammed an incredible amount of factual information into a narrative about honeybees in a way I hadn’t seen before; The Arrival presents a wordless account of immigration, but does so with a perspective that’s entirely novel and evocative; The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) seamlessly weaves primary, secondary, and tertiary source material together in a way that provides a truly intimate, but still historically grounded, portrait of Samuel Clemens.

Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot by Anita Silvey and Wendell Minor makes a strong case for tradition.  It’s the very image of what most people would envision a nonfiction picturebook to be: pictures cover one half of the page, factual information the other.  There’s very little in the way of interaction or inventiveness: Minor’s painting, which is exemplary, is intentionally traditional; Silvey’s biography is fact-filled but straightforward, remaining readable without making any ploys to its audience.

And it works.  While I wouldn’t want my eleventh grade history teacher to hear this, if previously given the name Henry Knox, I might have guessed that he played a part in the Revolutionary Way, but otherwise likely would have been able to mention his distinguishing accomplishments.  Silvey and Minor deftly correct this, cunningly introducing us to a patriot as loyal and steadfast as any, but who doesn’t necessarily fit the conventional red-blooded American mold.  He might be considered a hero for the blue states, if only such a shamefully unpatriotic dichotomy didn’t overlook the unity for which he fought.

Henry Knox was a working class bookseller who, as a teenager, had three main passions: books, food, and artillery.  A large boy who grew into a larger man, he joined the Boston militia, and learned to operate canons from the British.  Though he came to favor independence, and later witnessed the Boston Massacre, his relationship with British soldiers and loyalists remained complex.  When Knox opened his bookstore, he named it the London Book Store, he ordered books from England, and he served British soldiers and budding patriots alike.

Despite his Rubenesque curves, he was not without a care for appearance, and wanting to disguise the two fingers he lost while hunting, wrapped his hand in silk, “cut[ting] a splendid figure… attract[ing] the gaze of many young women.”  By now a known patriot, he married Lucy Flucker, the daughter of a Tory, over her father’s objections, and joined the Continental Army, for which he came to be appointed the head of artillery.  Finding that this position required the army to actually have access to artillery, Knox traveled over 300 miles to Fort Ticonderoga, confident that the canons could be transported by sled during the wintertime—a feat some dubbed “Knox’s Folly,” and which, while not without some loss, was a success, and forced the British to surrender Boston to the Colonists.

[Discussion of art]  Throughout, the art of Wendell Minor is remarkable.  No stranger to painting potent Americana, I first encountered Minor through his The Last Polar Bear and Abraham Lincoln Comes Home.  At the time, I’d underestimated the extent of his portfolio: he illustrated Heartland back in 1989, and since then has painted covers and illustrations for a reservoir of books, from The Call of the Wild, All The King’s Men, and The Red Badge of Courage to The Buffalo Are Back and Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic.

His experience shows in execution as well as choice of medium.  Painting with acrylic on wood panels, the art here holds the vibrant colors of acrylic, while the lines caused by the grain of the wooden panels conveys an impression of age and tradition that closely matches the historical content at hand.  His use of bold, primary colors, including a surplus of blues, whites and reds, sings of Americana, with Knox’s unfailing optimism contrasting against the dark blues and harsh whites of Fort Ticonderoga in winter, the brooding waters of Lake Champlain, and the frozen oxen and horse at plow.  It’s an accurately unforgiving landscape that is depicted by Minor, and one that highlights the determination of early patriots, shown in steely gazes at Warren, MA, and rosy celebration at the fiery detonation of canon at Westfield, MA.  Its depiction of colonial subjects is largely traditional, and stylistically leaves a an impression of the hope and realism captured by Norman Rockwell, the unflinching uprightness of 1950s era textbooks, and the Revolutionary spirit that has graced Johnny Tremain covers for over fifty years.  [/Discussion of art]

Knox’s tale is one of determination and hope; it is the story of someone who loved books, food, and the Colonies; who braved harsh winters and unforgiving conditions; and who accomplished what the British general Sir William Howe estimated must have required the effort of at least twelve thousand men.

The length and detail of Silvey’s biography make it unwieldy for younger readers, but it’s an excellent primer for those ready to sit down and study early American history.  And for those who have an eye for such added information, this volume contains a detailed map of the path taken by Knox to transport his canon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston harbor, as well as a chronology of his life, lists of source notes and bibliographic sources, and suggestions for further reading.

Henry Knox, by Anita Silvey and Wendell Minor.  2010.  New York, NY: Clarion Books.  ISBN:  9780618274857
Author Website:  http://www.anitasilvey.com/
Illustrator Website: http://www.minorart.com/
Media: Acrylic on gessoed wood panels

A 2010 publication

Curricular connection: Grade Five—United States History and Geography: Making a New Nation: The War for Independence

Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Bohemia

Annotation:  Fearing blackmail, the King of Bohemia hires Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to retrieve a photograph of him with a former lover.  The detective duo quickly accepts, and through deductive reasoning and a bit of mischief, seeks out the photograph.

Personal reaction:  Whether in the newspaper’s Sunday funnies or the back of Boys’ Life magazine, literary works have a long-standing tradition of being distilled down into comic book format to reach a wider audience.  Such is the treatment given to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by adaptors Murray Shaw and M. J. Cosson in their rendition of Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Bohemia, albeit an application tendered with respect and care for the original.

The premise is relatively straightforward: Sherlock Holmes and the stalwart Dr. John H. Watson are visited by a masked man whom Holmes quickly deduces to be the King of Bohemia.  Fearful of possible blackmail that could imperil his engagement to a Scandinavian princess, his majesty expeditiously hires Holmes to retrieve a photograph of himself with his former lover, the well-known opera singer Irene Adler.  Using his famous logic, as well as a bit of subterfuge, misrepresentation and possibly fraud, Holmes is able to deduce the location of the damning photograph, and enacts plans for its retrieval—only to find that his quarry, an able opponent, has detected his intrusion, and since fled with the photograph.

It’s an intriguing tale.  On the one hand, it follows through on what has traditionally been the great merit of the Holmes short stories and novels: a popularization of reason and the scientific method.  Holmes in this printing is given a twenty-first century makeover for the nineteenth century: here, our rock star detective is depicted as a “daring,” thin, attractive man, and without any of the social awkwardness or eccentricity that marked Doyle’s iteration.  And despite being a skilled swordsman and martial artist, his most commendable talent continues to be his mind, and his use of reason: we hear Watson more than once remark on how he is “always questioning and reasoning his way through various problems…,” that he possesses “cool headed reasoning,” or that “his logical deduction never ceases to amaze me.”  When asked prematurely for a conclusion, Holmes demurely evades, answering that “I have no data yet, my dear Watson.”  I appreciated Tony Stark promoting science (okay, perhaps the loose idea of science) through the Iron Man film series; I’m not about to turn on Sherlock Holmes for his use of logical inquiry.

On the other, there is something somewhat anachronistic, or possibly amoral, about his investigations.  Holmes has no qualms about entering the employ of a classist Bohemian king who has twice paid burglars to break into Adler’s house in search of the photograph.  Nor is there concern about disguising himself to stakeout her residence, serve as a witness to her marriage, plead injury to gain access to her apartment, or throw a smoke bomb into her window while shouting “fire!”  And at the end, we’re somewhat relived by Adler’s escape, and perhaps even worried by her note that she intends to keep the photograph “as protection against” her former lover.  Holmes, for his part, accepts as payment a photograph of the enchanting woman, whom he had by now successfully driven from the country.  In short, much of the detective work conducted here, though logically sound, would have trouble being admitted to a modern court of law, except perhaps as the star evidence for a compelling counter suit.

And yet this is the material that Shaw and Cosson had to work with, and if it seems out of time, it’s likely because it was written in Britain well over a century before this 2011 adaptation.  This relatively modest edition does a commendable job of transferring the content of the original into a graphic novel layout, with each scene being prefaced by a brief introduction by Watson, followed by action and dialogue that plays out in traditional “speech bubble” format.  For those interested in pursuing Doyle’s original works, this volume is preceded by a one-page introduction to the four novels and fifty-six short stories that form the Sherlock Holmes corpus, and is followed by a concluding list of further references.

It’s likely not the most compelling mystery of our age, and tends towards simplicity, but for those interested in dipping their toes into the Sherlock Holmes waters without first picking up the more venerable texts, the matter of its selection is simply elementary, marking the start of the new graphic novel series On the Case with Holmes and Watson.

Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Bohemia: On the Case with Holmes and Watson #1, by Murray Shaw and M. J. Cosson (authors), Sophie Rohrbach (illustrator), adapted from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.  2011.  Minneapolis, MN: Graphic Universe.  ISBN:  9780761361978
Author Website (Shaw):  No author website
Author Website (Cosson):  No author website
Illustrator Website: http://sophie-rohrbach.blogspot.com/
Media: Ink with digital coloring

A 2011 publication

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy)

Annotation:  An expertly edited amalgamation of excerpts from Susy Clemens’ journal, her father, Mark Twain’s, own writings, and numerous secondary sources, this biography provides a historical, intimate account of Twain’s life and personality.

Personal reaction:  For those interested in using the picturebook medium to compile a biography, I have encountered no finer model than The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy), nor do I expect to anytime soon.  Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham and written by Barbara Kerley—with considerable posthumous contributions from Susy Clemens and Mark Twain—this text is a masterpiece of blending together primary and secondary source material.   For over a year, a thirteen-year-old Susy Clemens kept a biography of her father, purportedly sparked by an annoyance at the public’s misunderstanding of Mark Twain.  In wanting to provide a clearer picture of a man too often caricatured as a humorist, Susy captured her father’s character, life, and working habits, writing her observations alongside the entries of her journal.

And, if it can be said in the vernacularly inspired fashion of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kerley, in finding this journal, hit pay dirt.  Here, she is able to take excerpts from Susy’s journal and use them to illustrate Twain in a direct, personal way.  Quotes from Susy’s biography are threaded adroitly alongside Kerley’s own research, giving this biography not only historical gravitas, but also intimate insights into the man that Twain was.  Additional quotations by Twain, both from Susy’s journal and elsewhere, provide rich, humorous, and corroborative entries that not only reinforce the substance of this biography, but also offer first-hand material of what it might have been like to have lived alongside this literary celebrity (my favorite Twain quote from this text: on explaining the brevity of his daily writing, he blamed the visits of his fans, or as he described them, “mentally dead people [who] brought their corpses with them for a long visit.”).

It’s just this sort of flavor that enhances the familiarity of this biography.  Throughout, we are able to read miniature, inserted replications of Susy’s journal.  In them, as with above, we learn of Twain’s temper and ego, as well as other characteristics: he used strong language, smoked incessantly, and avoided going to church.  He was literally as stubborn as a donkey, and attempted to ride the family beast, Kiditchin, “who only gave rides in exchange for tears,” daily.  The journal also recounts bits of his early life and education, how he courted Susy’s mother, and perhaps most intriguingly, his daily routine, and how he went about writing.  It’s the type of account that could only be gathered by a close family member, and is here fortified by Kerley’s editing, historical research, and pairing with secondary and tertiary source material.

It’s brilliant, edifying, and provides future biographers with tools to begin their research: it includes a selected timeline of Twain’s life, a thorough account of the source material referenced in this text, and a printable page of hints for “writing an extraordinary biography.”  Each year, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer resurfaces en masse as part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program.  For those reading Tom Sawyer this year, I would suggest also taking the time to get to know its author—as Susy knew him.

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy), by Barbara Kerley (author) and Edwin Fotheringham (illustrator), 2010, New York, NY: Scholastic Press.  ISBN:  9780545125086
Author Website:  http://www.barbarakerley.com
Illustrator Website: http://www.edfotheringham.com/
Media: Digital media

A Top Ten Selection

A 2010 publication

Curricular connection:  Grade 6—Reading/Language Arts

Literary response and analysis in the sixth grade should extend the strategies described in the fifth grade (see story grammar strategies) to more complex narrative and informational text that allows students to:

• Analyze the effect of qualities of character (e.g., courage or cowardice, ambition or laziness) on plot and resolution of conflict.
• Identify the speaker and recognize the difference between first-person and third-person narration (e.g., autobiography compared with biography). (p. 156)

***

Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that reflect and enhance their studies of history and social science. They clarify the ideas and connect them to other literary works. The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students. (p. 168)

-Reading/Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve (2006).  Curricular Development and Supplemental Materials Commission.  Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education.  Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/allfwks.asp

Lesson Plan: Introduction to Biography

Subject Area: Reading/Language Arts

Grade Level: 6

Unit Title: Literary Response and Analysis

Lesson Title:  Writing A Writer’s Biography

Objectives:

1. Students will learn what biographies are and how to write them.
2. Students will gain familiarity with the life and work of a famous author.
3. Students will develop basic research skills, and recognize the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Anticipatory Set:  Students will brainstorm a list of some of their favorite books.  After a list of authors is established, the instructor will ask students why they think these authors might have decided to write their books, and what the authors might have been like or gone through in life.

Purpose:  Students will gain competency in recognizing and writing biographies, and have the opportunity to learn more about one of their favorite authors.

Input:  This lesson plan can be conducted as a stand-alone session, or as the start of larger project; it requires no direct inputs.

Model:  After the student brainstorming session has concluded, the instructor will read The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy).  After, the instructor will ask students what they thought about Samuel Clemens: Was he a humorist?  What was his personality like?  Was he funny?  Why might he have become an author?

After, the instructor will ask a simple question: how do we know these things?  The instructor will then discuss the role of Susy, and Barbara Kerley, as biographers, and what we can learn from Twain’s own writing.  What materials did Susy and Kerley both make use of?  What sources did Susy have access to that Kerley did not; what knowledge did Kerley have that Susy did not?  Can we rely on Susy’s account of her father?

Finally, the author will briefly discuss Twain and his works, depicting him as a humorist and satirist.  Does it make sense that the character described in The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) would make such books?  Does his character show in his works?

Check for Understanding:  The instructor will pick several authors from earlier in the brainstorming session.  Students will be asked what they thought those authors might have been like.  The instructor will then list several possible sources of information about those authors (newspaper articles, encyclopedias, personal correspondence, interviews, novels, websites, etc.), and ask studies to identify whether they should be considered primary, secondary, or tertiary resources.

Guided Practice:  Students will be divided into pairs and asked to create miniature biographical checklists of their classmates.  Each student will complete the “Writing an Extraordinary Biography” exercise by Barbara Kerley (available at www.Barbarakerley.com/teachers.html), recording a few details for each point.

Closure:  Students will turn their completed checklists in for assessment.  The instructor will rephrase and repeat the reasons for completing each item in the worksheet Independent Practice:  Students will gather three books by a chosen author.  After reading them, they will write a one-page fictitious biography about who the author might have been, including information such as his character, where and when he grew up, his influences, and life experiences.

OR

Students will conduct research and write a two-page biography of their chosen (or assigned) authors or historical figures.  Students will include at least three sources,
which must be identified as primary, secondary or tertiary.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

Annotation:  Raised in Hereville, a contemporary, rural Orthodox Jewish town, Mirka dreams of growing up to slay dragons, and in her quest for a sword, negotiates her culture, battles speaking pigs, consults a witch, and challenges a troll.

Personal reaction:  It would be an understatement to say that Hereville is unique.  There simply aren’t that many graphic novels that are stepped in Orthodox Judaism and written in the fantasy genre.  This might be in part because there aren’t many mainstream, contemporary, non-evangelical graphic novels that seem to feel comfortable mixing religion with fantasy, whether Judaism or otherwise.  On the one hand, we have a select trove of titles that do discuss religion; Blankets comes readily to mind, though Hereville is written to a younger audience, involves little angst, and isn’t critical of its characters’ faith.  On the other side of what may seem an impassable gulf, hero-adventure/fantasy books also exist in more numerous abundance; Hereville reads, and looks, much like Bone.  But never shall the twain cross, and in cases where the two do begin to tangle—as with Millar’s indomitable American Jesus—the result is rather eye-opening.

Though they both feature religious subject matter, Hereville is eye-opening in an entirely different manner than American Jesus—it’s far, far from being dark, and aside from the  presence of a witch, goes nowhere near the occult; we’re talking Disney’s Fantasyland, not Knott’s Scary Town.  Instead, it casually takes a rural, Jewish Orthodox village as its background.  This isn’t to say that it shies away from its Judaic character; far from it, we hear early on about Hashem, and by page ten, we’ve already learned such Yiddish words as Hashem, Ile, folg mich, dervaksn, and bistu meshugeh.  The Shabbos is upheld religiously, and we learn of its traditions, from the preparation that occurs on its sixth day, to the baking and symbolism of khale, to the prohibition of work, including the operation of a single light switch, and the praying of the Havdalah.  The school is still segregated according to gender, and families regularly consult the shadchen, or marriage broker.

But it’s also a book about a girl who wants to grow up to be a dragon slayer.  Scattered by a band of bullies on their way to school, Mirka stumbles upon the tower of a witch (done in Victorian style, no less), and upon eating one of its grapes, is set upon by a vengeful, speaking pig, who aside from bowling her into a barbecue gathering of grown men (thus violating the segregation of sexes), also steals her homework and frames her for the destruction of her stepmother’s garden.  Yet before our tale is done, the Mirka and the
pig will have reconciled, indebting the witch to her, who imparts to her directions to the lair of a troll, which contains just the type of sword needed by Mirka to become a dragonslayer.  The troll, for its part, is surprisingly well-spoken, his treasure is timely (George Washington’s false teeth, a mint condition copy of Spiderman #1, and a t-shirt worn by J.K. Rowling), and his battle with Mirka is the innovative stuff of legends.

It’s an odd, charming mashup, and it also makes for some inventive literary ploys.  Mirka, having never seen a pig in this Jewish community, believes it to be a monster.  And when it’s postulated that it might belong to a witch, who being a witch intrinsically isn’t an Orthodox Jew, the prospect of one of the goyim living near Hereville is popularly accepted as equally unbelievable as the practice of witchcraft.  And though all the children dress somewhat in uniform (boys wear kippahs, black hats, and grow out their sideburns; girls wear long-sleeve white shirts and long black skirts), it’s also mentioned, as anyone who has gone to private school can relate, that differences in hair style, skirt length, and shirt buttoning are sufficient to stylistically express rebellion, conservatism, and popularity.

It’s a layered tale that masterfully blends two different graphic novel traditions.  It breaks some narrative conventions while adhering to others (“You’re a girl!  Girls don’t fight trolls!  Fighting trolls is for MEN!”), while remaining a thoroughly enjoyable read.  It’s about adventure, fantasy and youth; also about family, and particularly about growing up in a religious community.  And foremost of all, it’s fun.  It’s more quirky than Bone, but very much in the same tradition, and is similarly worth a read.  I can’t wait to see what Mirka does with her sword next—and if she keeps up with her knitting.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch, 2010, New York, NY: Amulet Books.  ISBN:  9780810984226
Author Website:  http://www.amptoons.com/
Hereville Website: http://www.hereville.com
Media: Created digitally in Photoshop, with use of a Cintiq tablet

A 2010 publication

A fictitious graphic novel

Use of simile:  “Yarn flowed like silk, needles clicked like castanets.” (p. 124)

Smile

Annotation:  Using the timeline of author Raina Telgemeier’s extended orthodontic work as a base, Smile recounts a multitude of common, and embarrassing, middle- and high school experiences in a reassuringly relatable manner, including her appearance, friends, and early crushes.

Personal reaction:  Depending on your audience, Smile has a lot to bring to the table.  As a graphic novel published by Scholastic, it’s backed by the 800-pound gorilla that now publishes recurring favorites Bone and Amulet.  It’s set in San Francisco, with the title page featuring a gorgeous landscape of the City by the Bay, complete with the Transamerica Building, Alcatraz, Treasure Island, Angel Island, and the Bay Bridge.  And it serves as a sort of middle school memoir for author and illustrator Raina Telgemeier, capturing many of the experiences common to that age, but which are nevertheless dreadfully embarrassing to those who suffer them.

It’s centrally framed around the author’s dental work: when Raina’s incisors are accidentally knocked out in the sixth grade, she is forced to undergo a series of orthodontic and endodontic procedures that follow her into high school, most notably braces and an appliance that holds two artificial front teeth.  Her insecurity over her orthodontia fades into the other, more universally shared concerns and trauma of middle school: does she look too young; how should she wear her hair; can she get her ears pierced; does she smell; does she look like a nerd; how does she deal with zits; why don’t cute boys like her; on so on.  And for those of us who grew up in the same generation, there are plenty of cross-gender touchstone experiences: playing Mario 2; watching The Little Mermaid; reading Nintendo Power; and watching news of the 1989 World Series Earthquake in San Francisco.  Still, fear not, as with Raina’s worries, there are also plenty that transcend our cohort: how to practice flirting with boys; anxiety over having a first kiss; breaking up with an old group of friends; and wanting to go to the mall.

The art is appropriately simple, legible, and easy to “read,” but also becomes more detailed where warranted—as when showing an x-ray of Raina’s teeth.  Its colors are predominantly bright, and it’s able to convey emotion, context, and embarrassing happenings with simple clarity.  It’s not posed to dethrone M.C. Escher, or for that matter Chris Ware, but it isn’t supposed to be—this is a graphic novel that’s intended to be easy to read and relate to, and Telgemeier’s illustrations fit that bill to the letter.

The author’s intent in writing Smile can be quickly detected, but it seems to be more explicitly laid bare in an exchange between Raina and her mother (p. 56):

Mother: Lots of kids wear funny stuff to help fix their bodies… you probably just don’t realize it because no one talks about it.

Raina: Well, maybe someone should start talking about it!!  Maybe it would make us feel less like freaks.  I guess in some ways, I am kind of normal… lots of kids wear braces, after all.

By bringing the horrors of tween and teen life to light, Telgemeier seems to want to dispel some of the dark clouds that hang over them.  And to this effect, she’s largely successful—especially if placed in a middle- or high school library, Smile has the potential to be strongly reassuring, showing, along with plenty of other books and after-school specials, that many of these experiences are shared, and not completely alienating.  Perhaps ironically, there is one experience which this book makes less comforting: braces.  Smile makes orthodontic work seem downright terrifying, and it’s most certainly not the heartwarming gift to be given to a young niece or nephew sitting down for their first set of wires.

As for its part, middle school might hold no fewer horrors, but at least, as with braces, it too shall pass.  And for some, Smile might help ease that passage.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier, 2010, New York, NY: Scholastic.  ISBN:  9780545132060
Author Website:  http://goraina.com/
Media: Sketched on paper, then Bristol board, using a Col-erase light blue colored pencil, which is then drawn over with an F graphite pencil.  Panels and lettering are inked with Faber Castell F pen ink; drawings are inked with Dr. Martin’s waterproof India ink and a no. 2 Windsor Newton sable brush.  Art is then scanned into Photoshop and colored (see: http://goraina.com/info.html).

A 2010 publication

A fictitious graphic novel