American Born Chinese

The first time I ever heard of this book, it was on the back of the Boxers and Saints covers. (Boxers and Saints are a two-book series by Gene Luen Yang. You'll hear more of that series in future Nerd Alert posts. He also wrote this very book I'm writing about). The second time I heard of American Born Chinese was the reason I decided to read it. My cousin Sophia (who lives in HONG KONG by the way) recommended it for me by email. To tell the truth, it sounded a little slow to me. The whole "monkey king" thing just didn't seem that interesting. But since she was my cousin, and she liked graphic novels too, I decided to read it. That was one of the best decisions of my life. Those of you who don't know, Gene Luen Yang is a genius. I mean, I already knew that from Boxers and Saints, but American Born Chinese confirmed the fact that he is a genius. See, in American Born Chinese, she writes two stories which become metaphors for the other. One is a regular Chinese folk tale; the other is a story of a Chinese boy named Jin in America who is disrespected by his classmates and teachers. But that's not all. The monkey story tangles with his, and new people come and go, and something happens to him. As the story goes on, you understand it more and more. But when you read it the second time, you really get it. It's hard to explain. I would, along with Boxers and Saints, put it on my Top Twenty Graphic Novels List.

Awards: National Book Award finalist and Best Book Award from the Chinese-American Library Association
Ages: 12+
                                                   Interested in this book? Click here:
                                                              American Born Chinese

The Giver

Okay, The Giver isn't exactly a book you can write about. "There are some books that are yours, that telling people about them seems like betrayal," said Hazel Grace Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars. The Giver is one of those. This is one book that you will not be able to stop reading or stop thinking about for days. Months. Years. But not about metaphors and other fancy reading terms. This book is for people who like to ask questions, but don't want to know the answers. I can't really explain what that means. I can't explain the plot of this book without giving too much away, either. But what I will say is that it's about a boy named Jonas who lives in a place called The Community. He has a sister, Lily, a best friend, Asher, and a set of parents. The ceremony of twelve is coming. (I'm trying to sound ominous here). Choices will be made. A heavy book, but a clever one.

Awards: Gold Newberry Medal
Ages: 12+
 
                                              Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                                  The Giver

Aphrodite

I'm a nerd. I wholeheartedly admit it, and have many times, and will admit it many more times. However, though my readers know how nerdy I am, what I am about to type on this post crosses the extreme nerdiness line. Brace yourselves. Here it is: when this book arrived at my house yesterday, I literally jumped up and down and shrieked like a baby for an hour, I was so excited. Ask my parents. At dinner, instead of the routine, "Yeah, my day was fine," there was me saying, "I just can't believe it. This is crazy. This is awesome. No, awesomely crazy," until I actually sat down and read the stinking book as my sister kept suggesting as frequently as my "I just can't believe it." But if you've read this book, or any George O'Connor book at all, you'd understand my disbelief. The illustrations, the way he tells the story...this is the way modern-day greek myths should be portrayed.
              Anyway, back to the actual book. Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love, is underestimated in all the other books. In a disguised, polite way they're describing Aphrodite as being insignificant. Not so in this graphic novel. In this book, Aphrodite is one of the most powerful goddesses on Olympus, not some silly, gorgeous, airhead girl (don't get me wrong, she's still the most gorgeous woman in the universe. In Aphrodite that's not all there is too her). For pete's sake, she's the goddess of love; is there any more powerful force in the universe?

Ages: 10+
           
                                  Interested in this book? Click the link below:
                                                       Aphrodite

My Kind of Classic

Here's a post I wrote for Dinner: A Love Story.  Thought you guys would like it, too! -- PW

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Moby Dick (Herman Melville) adapted by Lance Stahlberg, illustrated by Lalit Kumar

Who Would Love It: People who can handle stuff that's a little hard to understand. They basically take the words from the real book, which can be old-fashioned, and they put them in speech bubbles and add drawings around them. If you took away the pictures, it would basically be the grown-up book. But the art is so awesome. It's definitely adventure-y.

The blurb I'd put on the back of the book: "The fascinating story of the search for a famous white whale -- the perfect book for any kid who likes it when climaxes come at the very end of the book. Which, who doesn't?"

Ages: 12+

The Odyssey (Homer), by Tim Mucci

Who Would Love It: People who like Greek mythology and people who like to read simplified versions of big, complicated stories. Here, you'll meet Athena, Hermes, Zeus, Poseidon, all that jazz. It's also really cool-looking, too -- I love the artwork. It helps to understand it.

The blurb I'd put on the back of the book: "A mystical adventure in graphic novel form. That sounds cheesy -- but, you know. It's true!"

Ages: 11+

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A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle), adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson

Who Would Love It: The first time I tried to read the actual, real book, I could barely get past the first chapter. It was so boring and confusing. I was in third grade, so I had trouble understanding any of it. But then, last year, I got the graphic novel version and it was just way more interesting. It all made sense. It seemed like the plot was more interesting, more exciting. This is for people who are science-y and also into fantasy. Those of you who like physics will like this, too.

The blurb I would put on the back of the book: "An interesting book, in the best way. The art makes this an even more bold version of the original - it's, like, BOOM."

Ages: 10+

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Alice in Wonderland by Tommy Kovac & Sonny Liew

Who Would Love It: This is by the guys who did the Wizard of Oz graphic novel series, which I love. To be honest, I'm going to say that the actual story was not as interesting as some other books, but the art is really incredible. It's worth it just for the pictures. Even though it's maybe not my favorite book, reading-wise, it's weird fantasy and that's kind of cool, no matter what, right?

The blurb I would put on the back of the book: "The artwork -- scratchy, strange, and mystical -- makes this an essential book for kids who love good art."

Ages: 10+

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The Olympians Series by George O'Connor

Who Would Love It: Dad, we've already done this series like twenty times.

The blurb I would put on the back of the book: "Just read this series, okay?"

Ages: 9+

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Fairy Tale Comics Edited by Chris Duffy

Who Would Love It: People who are fans of the extremely awesome Little Lit books. It's really clever. It's interpretations of famous fairy tales by well-known artists and writers like Brett Helquist (who did Lemony Snicket), Raina Telgemeier (who did Drama and Smile), and Cherise Harper. If you like silly stuff, clever stuff, this book is for you.

The blurb I would put on the back of the book: "An amazing group of authors re-telling an even better collection of stories. Even if you've read these stories before, and loved them, you're going to love the way they've remade them here."

Ages: 9+

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) Roland Mann, illustrated by Naresh Kumar

Who Would Love It: Well, technically, I haven't read this one yet. It's on my wish list. I read the real book, but the graphic version looks awesome. The actual book is an extremely good perspective on a boy who runs away with a slave named Jim like a hundred and fifty years ago -- and their adventures, and misadventures. It's hard to explain it all here.

The blurb I would put on the back of the book: "I don't have to read this to know that it's a really really really really good book."

Ages: 10+

Amelia Rules

Too many graphic novel series have boys as their main characters. However, in Amelia Rules the tables are turned. The star of this series is snarky, sarcastic, and mischievous Amelia. Amelia is a city girl at heart. She lived in New York City until her parent's divorce caused her to have to move to a teeny tiny town in Pennsylvania with her (previous) pop singer aunt. Tanner (her aunt) becomes Amelia's ally, or confidant. Later she meets Reggie Grabinsky (a.k.a Captain Amazing - he's a little obsessed with super heroes) a weirdo who suckered Amelia and a bunch of other kids who I'm describing next into joining his club G.A.S.P (Gathering of Awesome Super Pals), Pajamaman who doesn't talk much (a.k.a Kid Lighting), and Rhonda Bleenie (a.k.a. Ms. Miraculous), Amelia's best frienemey who has a crush on Reggie. These four superheroes get into some serious trouble (principal five times) and pull off some serious pranks (trick Rhonda into a bet where she has to stay frozen in a game of freeze tag until somebody tags her... supposedly a year or so) but have a lot of laughs in between. As the series goes on, you watch Amelia and friends grow up, and you feel like you're growing up right along with her.  But the best part is, kids can relate to her. If you have friend problems, you can look in one of these books and she'll answer it without answering straight out, you know? I think that's one of the reasons the author wrote the series. Also, it's hilarious! You can't go a page without smiling to yourself or laughing out loud.

You'll like this if you like: Like I said with The Fault in Our Stars, there isn't really a book similar to this one. But I guess that this is a more "grown up" version of Ramona and Beezus.
Awards: 13 Eisner Awards!! (the equivalent of the Oscar in the comic world) Harvey award, and eighty trillion more. (I'm not exaggerating.)
Ages: 9+
                                         Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                    Amelia Rules Book 1

Bone

Let me just start by saying that these were my first graphic novels. What about Tintin? you ask. (See The Adventures of Tintin, post number one). Tintin was my first comic, not graphic novel. There's actually a difference. Comics are usually more like short stories. Like superhero comics. If you ever read comics, you would know that it's mixed tales of his adventures, not one big story.Graphic novels on the other hand, are usually more like narratives. A single story.

Anyway, what you've been waiting for: This series is about... no, no, wait a second. This is one of those series where if you say one tiny little thing about the plot, you kinda ruin it. So I'm going to try to be careful here. Okay, here we go: Three cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are stranded in a desert. (I can't tell you why for the reason listed above).  Fone Bone is more of our main character. Phoney is the oldest cousin, but certainly not the wisest. (He's smart, not wise. There's a difference). He's also greedy and always tries to find ways to make more money. Smiley? A quote from a character called Grandma Ben who I'll describe later says, "He has no brain whatsoever." It doesn't take brains to see that this is true. But Smiley is goodhearted in every way. While in the desert, the cousins get separated and Fone, near death of thirst, sees a valley. He walks on and encounters the "rat creatures" but comes out in one piece. Later, he meets up with a girl named Thorn who takes him back to Grandma Ben's farm, where she lives. Grandma Ben is tough, and refuses, at first, to allow him to stay. But finally, she decides that it couldn't hurt to keep him there, and later lets him stay. As the days pass, Fone's cousins miraculously find their way to the farm and all is well. But then, a secret is uncovered (actually more like discovered) and the valley will never be the same again.

This series is creepy the deeper you get into it, but I seriously think that this series is one of the best in graphic novel history. By the way, I'd like to give a shout out to Rowan who suggested I write a post about Bone. Good idea!

Ages: 8+
You'll like this if you like: Amulet
Awards: Eisner (the equivalent of the Oscar in the comic/graphic novel world)
Interested in this book? Click on the link below: (There are nine books total, not counting the prequel and sequel)
                                             Bone book 1

The Fault In Our Stars

When I first got this book, I was at sleep away camp in the Adirondcks with NOTHING to read. I had read, re-read, and re-re-read all my books. Naturally, I was in a full-phased emergency here. A kid (a nerd) like me WITHOUT BOOKS FOR 5 MORE DAYS?! Unacceptable. So I wrote to my parents, explaining the situation as carefully as I could. (I didn't want to worry them). They sent me 5 books, one of them being The Fault In Our Stars. I read this one last, but I tell you that they could have sent me  that one book and I would've been fine. As the blurb on the cover states, "You laugh, you cry, then you come back for more." I agree: you start off smiling, then later put your hand over your forehead and lean on your elbow, crying, and then you feel as if you MUST read it again. You must be thinking, oh my GOD just tell us what the stinking book is about! Well here it is:

This is the story of 16-year-old Hazel Lancaster. But it's more than a story. Hazel has lung cancer.

    

First diagnosed when she was 13, she's hooked up to an oxygen tank that breathes for her. This is hard, as you can imagine, so her mom sends her to Support Group where she meets Isaac, who is about to be blind, and Augustus, a kinda-sorta cancer "survivor". This "survival" included a loss of his leg. The three become tight friends (Hazel and Augustus a little more than friends), when all of a sudden, Hazel and Augustus are driven on a wild adventure to Amsterdam to discover the secrets of their favorite book, An Imperial Affliction that leaves Augustus with a one-sided situation about life and death.

Ages: 13+

You'll like this if you like: I'm going to be honest here: there aren't really any books with a similar plot line to this one. But I guess the book See You At Harry's is slightly similar. SLIGHTLY.

                             Interested in this book? (You should be) Click on the link below:

                                           The Fault In Our Stars

Theories of Everything

A collection of cartoons from my personal favorite cartoonist, Roz Chast. What makes her cartoons special is that each one seems to be personal. If you look a little closer into each one, you'll  notice that they're from everyday life. Stuff that you never thought was funny, she somehow transforms without transforming. Like in The Ungoogleable Man where she shows a guy that has, "No Myspace, no Facebook, no NOTHING!  And yet, HE WALKS AMONGST US." You'll see what I mean.

Before you buy this, or you don't, I just want to say that Roz Chast is my hero. I really want to be a Roz Chast type cartoonist when I'm older. Why do I worship her like I do? Well, as I said before, she makes things you never thought was funny and makes them a joke that has you bending over laughing. After you read this, your sense of humor will be slightly different. Not in a bad way. Just, you'll find yourself thinking, I bet Roz Chast could make a cartoon out of this. Trust me when I say she's one of the best cartoonists in the world.

Ages: 11 and up (some humor may be a little... old, if you know what I mean)
If you like this, you'll like: The Far Side Gallery
                                        Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                        Theories of Everything

Wonder

August Pullman, a kid with a facial deformity, is used to being stared at, called names, made fun of,  and anything else you can think of along that line of thought. But nothing can prepare him for middle school. Bullies and backstabbing are some of the things he faces. Remember, it's hard being a new kid, but being a new kid with a facial deformity? Three times as hard. But, August has his family, his two best friends, Jack and Summer, and the principal to help him through it. This book is life-changing. Trust me, this book makes you wonder if there's anything you can do to make a person's life a little better. Or maybe if there's something you're already doing that makes a person feel good.

You'll like this if you liked: Out of My Mind
Ages: 9 and up
                                     Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                             Wonder

Maus

A story of a Holocaust survivor in graphic novel form. Dark and powerful, yet moving, you hear about the author's parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman's time on the streets and Auschwitz in World War II. In a nutshell, these two are desperately yet cleverly saving themselves from the Nazis. (That's the first book). However, they are captured and sent to Auschwitz, a terrible concentration camp, where death and pain are everyday happenings. (That's the second book). Parents, depending on age, I would read this before your child. This, obviously, is an intense book.

Awards:  Pultizer Prize
You should read this if you like: Persepolis 1 and Persepolis 2                             
 Ages: 12 and up
                       Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                        Book 1
                                                        Book 2

One Crazy Summer

Three African-American sisters, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern travel to California in1968 to meet their mama for the first time. Their mama had left the three of them with papa and "Big Ma" when they were very young so they expected, at the very least, a hug or an apology. When they meet her, they realize their expectations were very off track. Their mother, Cecile (or Nzila, her poet name) doesn't seem to care for them at all, so the three sisters have to fend for themselves. They encounter the Black Panthers, best friends, worst enemies, strange whispers, and Crazy Kelvin.

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia

Age: 9-12
Awards: National Book Award Finalist, Scott O'Dell, Newberry, and a Gazillion More

You'll Like this If You Liked: Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan

The Olympians

Okay, I'm going to be honest here: these books are awesome. When I first got this series, I was obsessed with Greek gods. I knew anything and everything there was to know about them. So when I bought them I was really excited. See, the author (George O'Connor) doesn't talk abut Greek gods the way a history textbook would. He makes them into super heroes. They're not boring descriptions of the Battle of Troy, they're stories like Perseus fighting Medusa with a magic sword   (See, "Athena"), or Hercules and his 12 labors (See "Hera"). But I think one of the best parts of The Olympians are the "G(r)eek Notes" in the back of the book. It's where he describes some of the scenes in the book. But he makes them funny with his own opinions. The illustrations are really cool, too. Zeus's lightning bolts seemed to flicker and sparkle on the pages.
                                             

                                     Interested in this book? Click on the link below:
                                                        The Olympians Book 1 Zeus

The Adventures of Tintin

When I was in kindergarten, my aunt Lynn gave me three comic books for my birthday: The Adventures of Tintin volumes 1, 2, and 3. When I first read them, I was confused. They were comics. Comics were a different world for me. Pictures and patterns and words so mixed up, you would get dizzy reading them. But after a while, I began to understand them. I would become so absorbed in these books, people would have to call my name at least four times to get my attention. I became addicted to comic books. What I'm trying to get across here is that these were my first comics. The start of everything. I liked to read before, but after Tintin I devoured books. Books became my worlds, places where I could fly, walk through scorching deserts, and go to China all without leaving my chair. These books are about a reporter called Tintin, his faithful dog Snowy, and Captain Haddock, a drunkard who usually leads them into trouble. They go on many adventures including a quest to find a statue with a million dollar diamond inside, the moon, a king's scepter, and treasure chest to name a few. Tintin always manages to beat the bad guys and come out on top.
                                     
                               
                               Interested in these books? Click on the link below:
                                              The Adventures of Tintin Vol. 1