First, an announcement: The Edge of the Forest is up…. and here are my two little reviews; I had fun doing them. Go take a look at the whole issue…

Second, an explanation: I decided sometime last month –partially because C is SUCH a big fan of Babymouse (thanks, Abby!), and partially because the Cybil graphic novel winners got me curious, and partially because of this post (which I found through a link in the comments of this post) — that I would begin exploring the world of graphic novels. Unlike, Hubby, I didn’t grow up reading comic books. Sure, I read comics — Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes were two of my favorites — and I still do. But comics in the newspaper just aren’t the same as comic books, at least not the way I see it. I don’t think the reason I avoided them was active dislike on my part, more like disinterest. I really don’t have much interested in superhero stories, even though I’ve gone to pretty much every comic book movie that Hubby’s dragged me to. (The best? The second Spiderman and the second X-Files and the new Batman. That last one’s AWESOME. I’m actually excited about the sequel coming out this summer.) But, something in me clicked this last month, and I actually decided that I can give graphic novels a try.

So. My first three graphic novels…

Babymouse: Our Hero (#2)
I know it’s not the first in the series, by Jennifer and Matthew Holm, but I think you don’t have to read them in order. I picked it up mostly because it was lying around waiting for C to come home, and once I started flipping through, I really had to sit down and read the whole thing. It’s a cute little book, spunky and sassy. And I love the snarky narrator comments interspersed throughout the book. As I mention, C eats these up… the only one we haven’t been able to get a hold of is #5, and she’s not-so-patiently waiting for that one. Maybe we’ll just get it for her for her birthday and save her the wait….

Robot Dreams
This one, by Sara Varon, had to be the family’s favorite. M and I read it together one evening, and just fell in love. I’m not an artist, so I don’t really know the difference in artistic styles (is it okay to call these drawings “cartoon like”?). We liked the simple story of the dog and the robot, and how the poor robot ends up stranded on the beach. Dog attempts to find another friend, while robot dreams of getting up off the sand. We talked about it so much, that Hubby read it, and then we passed it along to C. Poignant, yet accessible to the youngest reader (there are no words, and A sat and “read” it last night. She got the story pretty well, and enjoyed looking at all the pictures). A wonderful little book.

The Arrival
This one is harder to define and to describe. I was entranced by it — the artwork by Shaun Tan is absolutely beautiful — yet I didn’t know if I was “getting” it. It’s the story of a man who immigrates from his country to a new one. It’s a fantastical (I know that’s not a word, really, but I couldn’t come up with another one) world — one that’s strange and wondrous all at the same time. I got the feeling that Tan was using the fantasy element to portray some of the confusion and strangeness that immigrants experience when going to a new country, and I enjoyed and appreciated that. However… there were times — mostly when the people the man met were telling their immigration stories — when I was confused, wondering if maybe I was trying too hard to get the book, and it hindered my enjoyment of it. It got me wondering what the difference between a graphic novel and a picture book was. One of my favorite winter books is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs — how come that’s a picture book and not a graphic novel? What ‘s the difference here? Are graphic novels just grown up picture books? It was because I wasn’t able to fully grasp this one that I felt like I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the other two. Though, I have to admit, it will be the one that I would probably look through again and again, just so I could look at the artwork. So, maybe it really is the best of the lot.

Stay tuned for the next episode…