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Category Archives: Graphic novels

I’ll take it sunny-side up too

You know that feeling when you clutch a book to your chest and relish in the delight of reading something so lovely and wonderful and graceful? Yes, that just happened today when I finished reading Jennifer and Matthew Holm’s Sunny Side Up, a graphic novel set in the 1970s featuring Sunshine aka Sunny. I’m not surprised that it’s winning accolades and ending up on recommended reading lists.

In the vein of Raina Telgemeier and Victoria Jamieson, our main ch SunnySideUp aracter is tween/teen and dealing with life. The realistic, down-to-earth kind of story that makes it an “every person” book, not for a specific subset of readers. In addition, like the other graphic novels’ illustrations, I am on board with the vivid coloring and rounded illustrations that are in stark contrast to darkly explored stories in black and white.

Sunny is staying with Grandpa in Florida for the summer and while it’s not the best fun, meeting the groundskeeper’s son who is fanatical about superheroes, provides an avenue for Sunny to find her voice. After a summer of sleeping on a squeaky, uncomfortable pull-out bed, eating dinner at 4pm, finding her grandfather’s stashes of cigarettes, and feeling like she separated her family, Sunny’s shining moment is when it all comes out. She confesses her frustrations to which her grandfather responds with the most-appropriate sentiments: he’ll stop smoking, they’ll go to Disney World, find a different bed, and that her brother’s issues are not her fault. And as their summer comes to an end, he reminder her to “keep her sunny side up”, which is an endearing sentiment that plays both on how attitude is everything and on her unique, hippie name.

Everyone should remember to keep their sunny side up.

Graphically speaking

02 Dec

DonBrown

Simply looking at the two covers of Don Brown’s graphic nonfiction books allow a glimpse into the talent Brown has in illustration. But the story and storytelling are equally evocative. In fact, a reader learns as much through the text as they shown by turning the pages of these accessible stories providing perspective on two disasters that affected Americans.

The Great American Dust Bowl showcases the man-made tragedy of dust storms sweeping the west during the early 1900s after the land was taken from Native Americans and turned over to farmers who, without proper knowledge, farmed the land to excess. This led to dust storms that brought financial ruin, health issues and death, and environmental devastation. And with little dialogue and a precise narrative, the shocking story is ripe for discussion about what actions were taken (or not) which prolonged the problem.

Likewise, Brown makes the issue of action– or lack of it– central to Drowned City about Hurricane Katrina: trains that left stations without passengers, buses that were never called upon on top of politicians that would have known more if they turned on the television rather than from their own administrations, and the lack of basic necessities at the Superdome and local hospitals.

Brown makes you think and react because his visual art is stunning and rich. There are images etched in my brain and facts that I can quickly recall that make his work thoughtful and enriching.