Friends With Boys

“Friends With Boys” by Faith Erin Hicks is very entertaining. It has a very different feel than all the other books I've read. It has two storylines which I like. One is high school drama, and one is ghost hunting.

It's about a home schooled girl named Maggie whose mom has recently left the family and whose dad's the chief of police in their town.  Since she has no mom to teach her, she has to go to high school. She doesn’t know anyone except for her three brothers, Lloyd, Zander and Dan. On her first day she becomes acquaintances with a punk girl named Lucy and her brother Alastair. They seem like the nicest people in school, and they are. 

She follows them to the graveyard one day. To Maggie, the graveyard is just another place that she lives by, but to Lucy, graveyards are a way to "get in touch with history." Alastair notices her and asks her if she would like to join them. While they talk, the subject of her mom is unknowingly brought up by Lucy. Maggie has to go. Lucy later wonders if she offended her in some way. The next day at school, Alastair apologizes to her for Lucy. He asks her if she would like to hang out with them. She agrees and Lucy is beside herself with joy. What a lovable character.

Maggie and Lucy have perfect chemistry. Maggie is haunted by a nineteenth century widow, and Lucy is obsessed with ghosts. When Halloween comes around they go to the cinema to watch a screening of Alien. Lucy screams from the chestburster to the killing of the alien. After the movie ends, Lucy claims that the movie wasn't that scary. One of the cool things about Lucy is that she loves spooky ghosts, but is terrified of scary movies like Alien.

Maggie becomes best pals with Alastair and Lucy. When Maggie's brothers find out of Maggie's friendship, they don't approve. A year ago, Alistair was best friends with the biggest jerk in school, Matt. Alastair was also very mean to Dan while he was friends with Matt, and Dan still hasn't forgiven forgiven Alastair.

The town has a very nice ghost museum. When Maggie, Lucy and Alastair visit the museum they see a hand belonging to a sea captain whose  wife killed herself when he died. Maggie remembers her ghost. The story turns in a different direction which I won't spoil.  

Faith Erin Hicks also illustrated a book I read called Brain Camp. I knew this just by looking at the drawing style. She gives a lot of detail to the nose of each character. Each character has a differently shaped nose. The eyes in Friends With Boys are very big, especially Lucy's. Lucy is definitely my favorite character. She really just has an innocent, likable personality. Also she looks just like my friend, Luna.

I am home schooled just like Maggie used to be, but my experience is completely different than hers. One, my sister is not home schooled, two, I live in New York City and she lives in a small town, and three, I have a bunch of classes I can go to, she didn't. The biggest difference that I can see is that I have lots of home schooled friends, and Maggie doesn't.

This book is appropriate for all ages above 11 as long as they can handle mild cursing, but there is still very little of that. I would have to give Friends With Boys 5 ghost ladies out of 5. 

Resistance

Resistance by Carla Jablonski & Leland Purvis is a very realistic story about the French Resistance against Germany in WWII. It’s about a boy named Paul and his little sister, Marie. Paul’s best friend, Henri, is Jewish.

 When the Nazis invade Paris, Henri’s parents escape to a cellar in the catacombs of Paris. Paul & Marie hide Henri in their basement. One night, Paul sees his older sister, Sylvie's boyfriend, Jacques at a Nazi gate. He assumes he’s helping them. When Paul sees the wire cutters he realizes that Jacques is part of the Resistance. Paul wants to join. Jacques unsuccessfully tries to talk him out of it. The next day, Paul & Marie are hanging out and drawing by a fountain with some other kids. One anti-Semitic girl is talking badly about Jews. She says that Henri has already been taken. We see what Paul is drawing, a picture of the anti-Semitic girl in Nazi dress with bombs falling on her head. That night, Jacques walks with Paul and tells him that Marie is also joining the Resistance. The next day Paul and Marie are given jobs. Marie is to make messages by putting pinpricks over letters to make words. Paul is to draw the vehicles parked outside their hotel. Right before they leave for Paris to find Henri's parents, Sylvie, who is to help them get there, dyes Henri’s hair blond to make them all look related. The trip is long and I don’t want to spoil the ending, so go read the book. 

The art in Resistance is very nice. The backgrounds are very shady and dark.  The atmosphere fits the situation perfectly. The facial expressions are very expressive. There is one scene when some strongly devoted Nazis are searching a train and their faces are filled with hate and rage against the French people.

One thing I like about Resistance is how they distinguish German soldiers from Nazis. Normal soldiers are human and Nazis are like demons. Resistance is very sad, but it is also very touching. I would give Resistance 5 stars out of 5.


I just learned that there are two sequels to Resistance.

TUNE: Vanishing Point

"TUNE: Vanishing Point" by Derek Kirk Kim reminds me a lot of Scott Pilgrim. It has the same retro feel to it. It's the story of an illustrator named Andy who dropped out of college. The book starts in a college end of the year party. It's made clear that he has a crush on a girl named Yumi. Yumi happens to be one of Andy's best friends. After Andy dropped out, his parents gave him a week to find an "art" job. The only people who would accept him wouldn't even pay him. At the end of the week Andy was given a lecture from his dad about how he wasn't special, he wasn't going to be famous and he wasn't destined for great things. I know, what a great dad. Andy is forced to go into the magical world of unemployment. He looks for work in offices, coffee shops, newspapers and fast food restaurants. None of them hire him.

One day while Andy sulks, he notices he is being drawn by Yumi. Once she finishes, she lets Andy look at a few pages in the front of her sketchbook. She doesn't let him look in the back because that's her journal. In a few minutes, she runs off to class, accidentally forgetting her sketchbook. Andy decides that no harm could come from reading a few more pages. Of course he ends up reading the whole book. Towards the end of the sketchbook, Andy learns that Yumi is just as in love with him as he is with her. In an hour he is at a job interview with aliens. I wont spoil everything, but lets just say Andy finds employment.  

The artwork in Vanishing Point is not the biggest whoop, but the thing I like about it is how the aliens are drawn. They are purposefully made to look like Marvin the Martian.  Everything else is pretty normal.

I would not suggest this book for immature audiences. There is a bit of strong language. If you can handle that, you can handle this. Vanishing Point came out recently so there is no sequel yet. I'm pretty sure that there will be another TUNE in the future. I would give Vanishing Point 3.5 alien abductions out of 5.  

The Rabbi's Cat

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            “The Rabbi’s Cat” by Joann Sfar is quite different than anything I have ever read. It’s the story of a talking cat who travels the world with his Jewish master. He travels to France and lives in Algeria. He can’t talk to everybody, but he can talk to a few. For some reason this atheistic cat wants a BarMitzvah. He is constantly aggravating the Head Rabbi. The cat's master has a daughter named Zalabya. Another important character is Cousin Malka. He’s a big man with a white beard and a pet lion. Malka has jobs as a storyteller, a hunter and a swindler. He uses his lion to scare people, then he pretends to save the day. Malka is my personal favorite character.

       Here is a chapter that I personally enjoyed a lot. Zalabya's husband had ordered a crate full of books. When the box arrives, it is filled to the brim with books, and a dead Russian! Every rabbi and minister in town is at their household. The Head Rabbi tries to write on the Russian with the "pen of life". He wakes up with a yelp and socks the Head Rabbi on the jaw. He only speaks Russian so no one understands him except for the cat. The cat's master and his son in law have to find a translator. They hear a saint is sharing his home with a Russian.The Russian tells them that the man who was in the box is a painter. They also learn that a large group of Jews live further south  of Algeria. They are all  hungry for adventure. They make a flag with Russia and Jerusalem combined into one. Along the way they meet a girl who tells them she has no name and also, I quote, TinTin. They only spend a few pages with TinTin. Soon the painter and the girl fall in love. How precious. In the end, the group just becomes dissatisfied with what they find and go home.   

       The artwork in The Rabbi’s Cat is very beautiful. The cat is sometimes detailed and sometimes simple. The cat's ears are the most expressive part of his body. All of the words are hand written. The style is very French. I would give the art in The Rabbi’s Cat 5 talking cats out of 5.

       There is also a movie of The Rabbi's cat. I really like this movie just as much as the book. This is one case where a movie based on a book is completely faithful to the original storyline. It has 93% on rotten tomatoes.

        I think if your child is young, I would wait until they are older to read The Rabbi’s Cat. There are some bloody scenes. My recommended age is10 and up.      

AMERICUS

      

"AMERICUS" by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill should feel really relatable if you read fantasy and if you are not in favor of book banning. It's about Neil, a 14-year-old boy in a town called AMERICUS. He loves a book series about witches called Ravenchilde. His best friend, Danny, also loves it, but comes from a very fundamentalist Christian family. His mother is so furious when she finds Danny reading the books that she ships him off to military school. Sad and alone, Neil spends most of his time reading, until Danny's awful mother starts a protest to ban Ravenchilde.

 One of Neil's other close friends is the local librarian. The librarian is one of my more well-liked characters. She has a very passionate personality especially with regard to her books. She's not like that stereotypical kind of mean old lady librarian. Neil starts working at the library when he gets to high school. He spends alot of time with the librarian trying to prevent the book banning. There is a community meeting on the topic of banning Ravenchilde. Neil makes a speech about why Ravenchilde is important to so many people. And with the help of many families, Neil prevents the book banning.

       Neil also starts listening to punk rock music just like me!

      

The artwork in AMERICUS is somewhat like the artwork in Crogan's Vengeance. It is definitely drawn with a paint brush. All of the characters have a distinct look. I especially like how family members look alike. Danny's whole family has the same hair and nose. The artist also gets a chance to draw the fantasy characters of Ravenchilde.

       I would not suggest this book to the younger audiences. There is a bit of strong language in it, but if you know you can handle it, I would strongly suggest reading it. It is a very entertaining book. I'm most certain you will enjoy it to the fullest.

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