In February, the groundhog, our hopeful harbinger of spring, poked his head out and took a look around after a long winter's nap. As I began prematurely packing away my sweaters and thinking about sandy beaches (okay, maybe sandy beaches are a couple of seasons away, but a gal can daydream, right?), I was abruptly halted by the appearance of the weatherly rodent's shadow, forecasting six more weeks of winter (sigh). With the last few weeks being as cold as they've been, who could blame the groundhog for heading back to bed that fateful February 2nd? Are you feeling the same way? Luckily, I have a bunch of new books to hold you and your children over until spring!
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Years ago, the New York Times, the newspaper of record and the purveyor of the most respected bestseller list in the publishing industry, struggled with how to recognize the tremendous sales records demonstrated by the Harry Potter books. They were outselling everything else, but they weren't represented on the traditional list. So, the list changed to include children's books. Now, the New York Times is adapting its list again...and it's for graphic novels and manga.
Congratulations to Nate Powell for earning a prestigious nomination for a Los Angeles Times book award. Nate's book Swallow Me Whole is one of five books to earn the distinction in the Young Adult Fiction category, and with the nomination, Nate joins an illustrious and select group: The last graphic novel to be nominated for a book award by the Times was Maus in 1992.
Established in 1990, the Discover Award honors forthcoming new work by debuting and underappreciated authors, and is based solely on literary merit.
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When I was a kid, I had no interest in comics at all. Before we’d go on family vacations, mom would take us to a newsstand and suggest that we choose some comic books to read in the car, and though I did pick some out, they really didn’t capture my attention.
How are graphic novels viewed in libraries across the country today? While attitudes toward graphic novels and manga are changing, and librarians were among the first to change them, we wanted to learn more about how the formats are received and perceived today. So we asked some librarians to share their experiences. Their responses were fascinating.
While I was watching the Academy Awards, one thing struck me: Comics movies were definitely conspicuous in their absence. Not that they were totally absent: The show’s host was Wolverine, for one thing, and he made sure to promote his upcoming movie. But Hugh Jackman’s opening song-and-dance number also gave a nice nod to The Dark Knight and Iron Man and rightfully asked why such huge movies aren’t properly represented in more awards categories.
So, did you go see Watchmen? That is the question everyone seems to be asking lately, isn’t it? I went to see it last week with Carol and had so much fun talking about it afterward. Both of us stood outside the theater for a good 15 minutes on a freezing cold Manhattan night (seriously, it was really, really cold) before one of us thought to ask, “Do you want to find a place where we can grab a cup of coffee and have this discussion inside?!”
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March 2009
Fifteen-year-old Lydia Pasternak watches her family implode after her older brother, Danny, vanishes. Against a backdrop of surreal police and parent interaction, media coverage and peer attention, Lydia struggles to find her place in a world that makes even less sense than usual, in a finely wrought and quietly devastating story.
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March 2009
By turns heart-tugging and hilarious, Myron Uhlberg's memoir tells the story of growing up as the hearing son of deaf parents --- and his life in a world that he found unaccountably beautiful, even as he longed to escape it. HANDS OF MY FATHER is filled with stories about growing up not just as the child of two deaf people but as a book-loving, mischief-making, tree-climbing kid during the remarkably eventful period that spanned the Depression, the War and the early 1950s.
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