Cartoon Saturday- Teacher's Pet and Nancy Wins at Friendship

Andelfinger, Nicole(Adpt.), Aguirre, Claudia (Illus.), and Pascal, Francine

Teacher's Pet  (Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novels #2)

June 27, 2023 by Random House Graphic

Copy provided by the publisher 

Continuing in this graphic novel adaptation of the original 1980s books, the Best Friends twins Jessica and Elizabeth are heavily involved in the recital that their ballet class is putting on. Jessica complains about everything; there is an extra practice when she could be out at the beach, the teacher likes Elizabeth better than her for no reason, Elizabeth is also involved in writing the program for the performance, so how dare she also want to try out for the lead? The ballet is Coppelia, and both girls try out for the lead role of Swanhilda. Jessica tries all manner of tactics to get the teacher to notice her, including standing next to the worst dancer in the studio, but Elizabeth points out that this may not work in her favor. She arranges for the two to help this dancer, but Jessica blows her off to hang out with the unicorns. When the try outs are moved up suddenly, Jessica does bring Elizabeth's bag to the studio but neglects to inform the teacher that her sister is coming, and instead makes comments that maybe her sister is not longer interested. It makes no difference, and Elizabeth gets the part, even though when rehearsals begin, it looks like Jessica may in fact be the better dancer. She does give Elizabeth some pointers that seem to help, and Elizabeth recognizes that Jessica really does dance well. She decides to fake an injury so that Jessica can sneak in and perform the role, and the teacher apologizes for not recognizing how talented Jessica is. 

Strengths: Like The Baby-Sitters Club, the Sweet Valley Twins series has a lot of fans in the original target demographic, and when I checked out the first book from out public library, one of my eighth graders begged to borrow it and loved it. Friend and family drama is always popular with my students, and we have that in buckets here, with the snooty Unicorns supporting Jessica and adding dollops of their own drama, some of it involving cute boys. The angst is visible in the eyes of the characters; Aguirre is a past master of the starry-eye, and using very exaggerated facial expressions. From what I can determine, this adaptation is very close to Pascal's original story line, but replaces notes that the girls write with cell phone messages. 
Weaknesses: Jessica is a very self-involved young lady who is unable to have any empathy or understanding for her sister, and while we are not allowed to refer to characters as unpleasant, she certainly is not an example of good behavior. 
What I really think: This will be hugely popular with readers who like graphic novels like Libenson's Invisible Emmie, Hale's Real Friends, or the angst ridden tomes of Raina Telgemaier. Older readers might have bad flashbacks to the 1980s when this sort of sisterly behavior was accepted! 

James, Olivia. Nancy Wins at Friendship

May 16, 2023 by Andrews McMeel Publishing

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

My students do not understand the concept of daily comic strips. Sure, they could go on the GoComics website and read a wide variety of comic strips, but I don't think they do, if their reaction to the Sunday comics that I bring in from home is any indication. Many are fans of Big Nate, and a few like Phoebe and Her Unicorn or Peanuts, but they don't come in to the library and ask specifically for things like Mutts or Crabgrass. They just read any comic compilation they can find, without having a deeper understanding of the history of the strip. 

I read the comics religiously, but only after I read the rest of the paper. Since I'm old enough to have read Funky Winkerbean for most of its fifty year run, and am still a little crushed that it's no longer published (Crankshaft is equal parts comforting and disappointing), I picked up this reboot of Nancy with some apprehension. Nancy was my cousin's favorite comic. I never really vibrated to it, but appreciated the retro feel to the illustrations. I was intrigued that it was being reworked for modern times; Sluggo's whole existence no longer makes a lot of sense, although the fact that Aunt Fritzi is raising Nancy does have a new validity in the modern age. 

This collection is okay. Since I haven't read the strip in forty years (the Youngstown Vindicator was the last paper I got that ran it), I certainly didn't remember much of the original. The artistic style is updated, although Nancy retains her iconic polka dots and hairstyle. It felt like it might be drawn on the computer; I'm sure most things are now. This is fine, and younger readers won't care, but like auto tuning in music, the drawings felt a little like they were drawn by robots. The colors worked quite well; nice and bright with a bit of a nod to a 1930s pallet, which I appreciated. 

The storyline covered the pandemic a little, with Nancy and Sluggo participating in online learning, but most of the strips were just single topic gags. Nancy still tries to steal cake and frequently makes messes, there is an elusive dog who shows up once or twice, and she and Sluggo have some set pieces. I was a bit confused about the other characters. There is very little text for each strip, so names are not frequenty mentioned. If I read the strip all the time, I am sure that I would be up to speed. 

Knowing that James also wrote The Chronicles of Deltovia makes a lot more sense now. This was worth reading, and if I got a copy for review, I would put it in my library. It would get checked out about as much as Red and Rover or Pastis' Pearls Before Swine collections. Apparently, there are some fans who really liked Bushmiller's Nancy interpretation who aren't happy with James' version, but it seems like a perfectly fine reboot. I'm just a little confused at whom the target audience is supposed to be. Disaffected hipsters who grew up reading Nancy but now appreciate the change in an ironic sort of way? 

Anyone else read Nancy lately? Opinions?