Peanut

Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe is definitely different than anything I’ve reviewed before. It’s about a girl named Sadie who fakes having a peanut allergy when she moves to a new high school. The reason for this, I do not know. She starts her year in homeroom with a horrible, insensitive, algebra teacher named Mr. Larch. He makes it clear that he cares nothing for his students. After school Sadie calls her old friend, Cheryl. After camp, Cheryl had become mean and sassy. A few days later, Sadie meets a boy named Zoo. Anything else I could say would be a spoiler.

Paul Hoppe’s artwork in Peanut is very simple. It seems like its drawn with a pencil. I don’t really like or dislike the style. It’s really normal.

    

I would say buy it. The story is really deep. Once you start reading, you can’t stop. It just came out the day after X-mas so it’s probably in your local bookstore.

Do you want to know a fun fact? The writer of this book is my MOTHER. :D

Now I have an exclusive interview with the author

Milo: Why does Sadie fake a peanut allergy?

Ayun: I think it’s pretty human to dream up a scenario in which you have a condition or circumstance that causes people to treat you differently, maybe think of you as brave, or glamorous, or incredibly interesting. If she was being really melodramatic, she could have told people she had cancer, something that has a history of being portrayed unrealistically in tragic lovestories meant to appeal to audiences her age. But that wouldn’t have been too fun to write. I think readers would have really disliked her for telling such a whopper, as would I. So I had her choose something kind of ridiculous, on impulse, after a chance encounter with a girl who actually does have a peanut allergy. The stress of having to keep up appearances has its funny side,  and I think if readers are being honest about human behavior, they will have a little sympathy for her.

Ayun: Now I have a question for the Graphic Novelolgist, stemming from the fact that I have a different take on Mr. Larch than you do.  I see him as someone who cares about his students, even though his fussy formality keeps them at arm’s length.

In my mind, Sadie is one of his favorites. What do you think would have happened if she had confessed her secret to him? What about Nurse Andy, whose character is perhaps more to your liking, as, it was inspired by someone from your elementary school.

Milo: I have no idea what would have happened if she told Mr. Larch, but maybe if she had told Nurse Andy, Nurse Andy could have convinced her to tell her friends. They most likely would have been a bit sympathetic. (SPOILER ALERT) They probably would have been glad that Sadie told them instead of her lie getting out in some big public incident. 

DRAMA

DRAMA, by Raina Telgemier, is really unique and cool. Its about a middle school girl named Callie. She is part of the stage crew for school plays. The school is putting on a production of “Moon Over The Mississippi”. Callie has the job of set design. When they start working on the show, Callie has hundreds of ideas. The one that she’s most exited about is a cannon that shoots confetti in scene 4. She convinces the drama teacher to use the cannon after much debate. Later that day, she meets two twins, Justin and Jesse. Justin wants to sign up to act in the show. Both the boys had memorized all of the lines for every character. Callie gets a crush on them and the rest of the book revolves around that.

The artwork in DRAMA is very flat. It also happens to be four colored. There is very little shading. All the colors are mostly flat against the characters. The expressions are really specific. You can tell if characters are humiliated, confused or disappointed.

I have read some of Raina’s other books, like Smile, an autobiography about Raina’s horrible experience with braces. These books are mainly oriented towards girls because they’re mostly about teenage girls in middle school who are boy crazy. But guys can enjoy them too. I’m a guy, and they entertained me.

Over all I would give DRAMA a 4 star rating.

Crogan’s Vengeance

Hooray for pirates! Today I’m reviewing “Crogan’s Vengeance” by Chris Schweizer. It’s about a sailor named Catfoot Crogan.

 The book starts with Catfoot tied to a post, being flogged because the captain's a real jerk. Catfoot’s taken inside and patched up. The man who flogged him, Mr. Toomy, becomes really important later on.  In a week, Catfoot is called down from the crow's nest. The captain tells him to have a sick man named Codfish relieve him. Catfoot tries to change the captain’s mind, but the captain tells  him off. Soon after Codfish is sent up, all the men hear a thud. Codfish has fallen from the shrouds. They have a small funeral and get back to work. But one sailor refuses to work because they had been put on half rations. The captain runs inside. Just when the crew thinks they have won back full rations, the captain rushes back out with two pistols and shoots the man who refused to work. Then he accuses Catfoot of treason. As Catfoot is about to be hung, pirates attack. This is just the beginning.

 

The art in Crogan’s Vengeance looks like it was painted with ink and a brush. It looks very smooth and fluent.

There are two other Crogan books. Crogan’s March, which is about a legionnaire in Arabia, and Crogan’s Loyalty, which is about a British soldier and an American soldier.

Check out these books, they’re beast-tacular!  

CARDBOARD

“Cardboard” by Doug TenNapel is one of the most original ideas ever. It’s about a boy named Cam and his father. Cam’s mother died when he was little.

On Cam’s birthday, he is given a cardboard box. That’s all his dad could afford  since he had just lost his job.  They made a boxer out of the cardboard. Late at night it comes alive. They name him Bill. A neighbor named Marcus who is jealous of Cam squirts Bill in the legs, which makes them melt. Cam and his dad make a magical cardboard maker out of the scraps to make new legs. Cam starts making tons of little cardboard creatures. Later, Marcus steals the maker. He makes an army of cardboard monsters that rebel and take over the neighborhood. That’s really all you need to know.

The artwork is the same as all Doug TenNapel’s other books. It has a straight line-y look to it. It also has lots of shading and color that give the impression of each strange environment. Each character has a distinguishing look. Some characters have big heads, long necks or bulky noses.

Doug TenNapel has also written other awesome books like Ghostopelis, Bad Island and Gear. His work is in every library I’ve ever visited.

I strongly suggest this book. It is funny, eerie and unique. You will enjoy it even if you don't find interest in making things out of cardboard. Find it, and buy it, unless you find it at the library. Just  check it out. :)


P.S. : Doug TenNapel is also the creator of Earthworm Jim, a very famous video game.

P.P.S. I JUST LEARNED THAT CARDBOARD IS BEING TURNED INTO A MOVIE WITH TOBEY MAGUIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   

XOC

I recently found a really cool book called XOC by Matt Dembicki. It’s about a female great white shark traveling across the ocean to have her children. Don’t get me wrong, I hate sharks! They’re so freaky, but the book is really well written.

 The story starts with a large mass of sharks attacking a herd of seals. XOC is one of those sharks. After the hunting, she leaves to go across the Atlantic The first thing she sees is two people in a shark cage. She bites the cage to get a better idea of what it is. She fails to break the cage and leaves. Much later she is swimming along when an unwanted visitor comes to see her. Two orcas body slam XOC. She tries to attack but is disoriented and is slammed again. She desperately swims to the surface and thrashes around in the waves until the orcas leave. Soon after the painful experience, XOC befriends a sea turtle. It has one flipper. It said a surface dweller clipped it. On their travels, they come across two age old enemies locked in combat. A sperm whale and a giant squid are fighting. The giant squid tries to cover the whale’s blowhole to drown it, but before the squid can reach it, the behemoth whale crushes the invertebrate in its jaws. XOK leaves so as not to attract notice. The shark and turtle continue moving and seeing things until the end of the book. I just gave you a taste.

One thing I really like about XOC is that XOC never becomes a cute Disney animal. She stays as a horrific creature of the sea the whole time. If she was nice, the book wouldn’t make any sense. What makes this book cool is that it's from the perspective of a monster.

Now, the artwork in this book is amazing. If you ever wanted to see realistic looking but also talking animals outside of a movie, check out XOC. It’s awesome!!!! I think that the reason Matt Dembicki chose to make these creatures talk was to make all the animals characters instead of mute pictures.

Just one more thing, XOC is quite new. So it wont be very hard to find.