Saturday Morning Cartoons- Amazing Grapes and Dear Dad

Feiffer, Jules. Amazing Grapes
September 24, 2024 by Michael di Capua Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

In this graphic novel, Shirley, Pearlie, and Curly have a difficult life. Their father, Greg, never liked children, and walked out on the family. A year later, their mother, who is often remote, announces that they will be moving across the country to live on a mountain when she marries Lenny, who has three children, Penny, Benny, and Kenny. Just as they are about to load the van for the trip, a giant two headed swan swoops by and takes Pearlie and Curly away into the Lost Dimension. Shirley stays with their mother, who seems to recognize the swan. Pearlie and Curly have quite the madcap adventure, telling knock knock jokes to the swan, stopping at a bathroom in Meanyopolis, where all of the residents look like Greg, and being used as a plaything by the Police Hawks, who toss them in a game of drop ya/got ya over a pool of crocodile like creatures called akyaks. When the swan has to leave, the children have an emergency feather from the creature, just in case. Eventually, they meet Slirro, the Lord High Muckety Muck of Everything That Counts, who puts them in a dangerous party pit.  Back in our dimension, the mother can tell that her children are in danger. She sends Shirley to save the two, and opens the portal to the other dimension by singing and "Amazing Grapes" song. Three years have passed while Pearlie and Curly have been gone, although it doesn't seem that long to them. After meeting a baby monster, they take the Tower to Nowhere and meet an old lady without a head who gives them Kelly, a guide dog who is secretly a cat. Things get stranger and stranger, and eventually some light is shed on what's going on. The mother was the Empress Cornucopia of Trutopia, but left because she couldn't stomach the responsibility of running the kingdom with a war going on. She ended up in our dimension, and has always felt disconnected. How will Pearlie, Curly, and Shirley (along with her fiance, Earl) be able to save the kingdom and reconnect with their mother? 
Strengths: It's definitely not an every day occurrences to have a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and satirist who contributed to The Atlantic, The Village Voice, and whose work was syndicated across the US turn his hand to a graphic novel. Feiffer (who is now 95) even had the first op ed comic strip in The New York Times for several years, and there was even a retrospective of his work at the National Archives years ago. It's like having John Cheever authoring an I Can Read book. This embraced his themes of anxiety and self reflection in a way that is accessible to younger readers, and has a lot of humor to boot. Of course, the real selling point is Feiffer's exuberant and eccentric illustrations. 
Weaknesses: This might be a bit challenging for younger readers to comprehend, although they will find the artwork appealing. There is a quirky, allegorical feel to this that readers might not have seen before.
What I really think: Readers will be glad to see Feiffer's classic style of artwork appear in this popular modern format, and will giggle at the vintage goofiness of this Daniel Pinkwater-style fantasy adventure. As a bonus for long time fans, this has more than a few nods to the classic The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which Feiffer illustrated.

Patton, Jay Jay, Patton, Antoine, Valdez, Kiara, and Jenai, Markia (illus.)
Dear Dad: Growing Up with a Parent in Prison -- and How We Stayed Connected
September 17, 2024 by Graphix
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Jay Jay's father was in prison from time she was three until she was ten, but her mother made sure that the two kept in contact. The father earns a college degree in computer coding during his time inside. When he is released, he returns to the family home in Buffalo with Jay Jay and Jayden, her younger brother, but feels that he must move to Florida for a better chance. It is a few months until the rest of the family is able to follow him. It is sometimes rocky, with the father sometimes treating Jay Jay like she is much younger, but the two bond over coding. The father puts together an app called Photo Patch that allows children of incarcerated people to write letters and upload pictures, which Photo Patch then prints and sends to the parents, since there are very strict ways of communicating. This is based on the true story of the Pattons. 

This was very interesting, but the title was a little misleading. I've had several students with parents in prison, but only a very small part of the book was about dealing with that situation. There was a lot of information that could have been included but wasn't, and this left me wanting to know a lot more. The graphic novel format will appeal to many readers, but perhaps didn't give as many details as a regular novel might have.