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Saturday, March 30, 2024

Saturday Morning Cartoons- Odin, Whatever After and Table Titans Club

O'Connor, George. Asgardians: Odin
March 26, 2024 by First Second
Copy provided by the publisher

In O'Connor's inimitable style, he turns his pen to Norse mythology after a successful twelve book Olympians series. This larger format graphic novel retells a selection of myths relating to Odin, the one-eyed war god. There's a nice list of characters at the end, as well as "Norse Code" notes that explain details about the illustrations or myths that don't necessarily fit in with the panels. This has a classic comic book feel to it, and will be popular with readers who enjoyed Napoli and Balit's Treasury of Norse Mythology, VanEekhout's Fenris and Mott, Richard's Secrets of Valhalla, Subity's The Last Shadow Warrior, or my favorite, Armstrong's 2013 Loki's Wolves series.


Mlynowski, Sarah and Chouhan, Anu (illus.)
Fairest of All: The Graphic Novel (Whatever After #1)
April 2, 2024 by Graphix
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this graphic novel adaptation of the first book in the long running Whatever After series (which started in 2012), we meet Abby, who has just moved from Chicago to Smithville with her lawyer parents and younger brother, Jonah. When Jonah wakes Abby up in the middle of the night, claiming that a mirror in the basement is hissing at him. Not wanting to wake her parents, Abby goes with him to find out that the mirror actually IS hissing if they knock on it twice. When Jonah knocks on it three times, the mirror sucks the children in, and the land in a fantasy world. They see a woman knocking on a door, trying to sell apples. Since Jonah is always hungry, he wants the apple, but the children find out that it is the evil queen who is trying to get to Snow White! Abby quickly realizes that since she is in the story and has saved Snow White from being poisoned, she won't be found by the prince. She decides to make things right, which involves, at different points, sitting with Snow at the top of a hill waiting for the prince, breaking into the castle, and eventually saving Snow White AND introducing her to the prince. Since this is a modern tale, Snow is leery of marrying the prince right away, and they decide to slow things down and just go to dinner first. The mirror sends Abby and Jonah back home, where they are very glad to see their parents but curious about how Gabrielle and MaryRose are stuck in the mirror. As we know, there are many more adventures for the siblings as this series continues. 
Strengths: This graphic novel is nicely illustrated in a colorful style in keeping with the Helen Huang covers of the originals. As far as I can remember, this stays close to the original, but adds a little diversity in the depiction of the dwarves which may or may not be in the other version. Jonah's little brother quirks, like eating cheese puffs dipped in ketchup, are preserved, and we get a glimpse of Abby's difficulties with her new home that are more developed in later volumes. Snow White has a nice balance of the traditional princess tropes and more modern, feministic characteristics. The evil queen doesn't really have any redeeming qualities, but she does have a great castle. This will fly off the shelves. 
Weaknesses: I've always been a little confused about the genesis of the mirror, but so is Abby. This bothers me in the way that Osborne's Magic Tree House series bothers me; can we just have a volume explaining how the time traveling is occurring? Young readers won't be so picky. 
What I really think: The publishers won't like this, but I will probably only buy the first volume of what I imagine will be a graphic novel series. Why? I've already bought fifteen of the regular books, which take up a whole shelf. Some of my sixth grade girls love them, but the books struggle to find other readers. A graphic novel might entice readers to pick up other titles, but since the story is the same, buying all of the graphic novels feels like duplicating a series that doesn't get that much use. There's only so much space in my library and money to spend. I imagine elementary schools or public libraries will buy all of the books. 


Kurtz, Scott.Table Titans Club
March 5, 2024 by Holiday House
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Valeria has to move for her mother's job AGAIN, but she also has the opportunity to mend her ways and not fight in school. It's a rocky first day, with Val growling at mean girl Kate and jumping on a desk, as well as Val getting sent into the hall for farting, but there is an upside; Andrew notices how bad her day is and asks her to join his Dungeons and Dragons gaming club at school. Alan isn't thrilled with this, but Darius is okay. Interestingly, Kate goes unheard when she mumbles that she would like to play as well. The group has an advisor, Mr. Khoo, whose wife is expecting, so he needs the group to find another sponsor. The only available on is Coach Bittne, who challenges the group to work with the wrestling team he coaches. The boys suit up, but are unable to pin their opponent. Desperate for the club to work, Val gives it a try and manages to do quite well. The club goes well, and Val enjoys her time playing a druid, and is fascinated by the Guardian Gaming store where they get books and dice donated to the team. When Kate and Val have a tiff in the hallway, Coach Bittner has them clean the locker room as a punishment, and the girls manage to work out some of their issues. Val does so well with wrestling that she is made a competing member of the team. Eventually, Kate is asked to join the gaming club, and Val ends the story by showing the group a flyer for a gaming camp, Camp Owlcare. Things are certainly looking up. 
Strengths: Friend drama is always a huge seller, and I thought that this was a much more interesting story than the more usual graphic novel memoir. Sure, Val has her problems, but the whole book doesn't constantly rehash them. She finds a good group of friends, explores new activities, and most of all, has realistic interactions with her mother. This is a topic not explored enough in middle grade literature! This year, my school wrestling team has three girls on it, and I love that the coach doesn't even blink when Val offers to try wrestling. Perfect. The relationship between Val and Kate was especially well done, and I enjoyed that they were able to become friends. A lot to recommend this, AND fantastic details about playing Dungeons and Dragons. 
Weaknesses: It's the noses in graphic novels usually bug me, but this time it was Val's hair in her face. Grab me a cartoon barrette! While her anger management problem added an interesting layer to the story, there could have been more of an explanation for it. That's one of the reason that graphic novels are not MY preferred genre, but my students will not have this objection. 
What I really think: There are a growing number of D&D books (including Durfey-Lavoie Just Roll with It.) and while I don't have a huge number of kids who play each year, there are always a few, so I consider these a long term investment. As with horse books, it's good to buy a few each year for those die hard readers who are really interested. 
 Ms. Yingling

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