Reviews: The Bramble, Nordling; Princess Princess Ever After, O'Neill; An Accident of Stars, Meadows

Title: The Bramble
Author: Lee Nordling
Illustrator: Bruce Zick
Published: Carolrhoda Books, 2013
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 308,280
Text Number: 1044
Read Because: mentioned on this list of creepy picture books, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I'm a sucker for this concept—who doesn't love a portal into a dangerous, fantastic hidden forest?—so this works for me on some level, and the minimal text centralizes the dark, thorny setting. But the narrative needs to be stronger, and I don't love the message of "tame your bullies by being tougher than they are" for many reasons; and while the art for the bramble is fine, with strong textures and a limited palette, the humans are awful, particularly their faces, and the monsters are an undifferentiated mass. This is fine, but could be way better.
Ehhhh. I'm a sucker for concept, so on some level this works for me—who doesn't love a dangerous, magical hidden forest filled with monsters? The minimal text also has potential to highlight the setting. But narrative needs to be stronger, and I just don't dig the "tame your bullies by being tougher" message; the bramble parts are fine, but nothing special. And I just couldn't get into the art. Good use of color and backgrounds, and texture works for that! Awful faces, kids; samey monsters. Ehhhh. Fine but could be way better.


Title: Princess Princess Ever After
Author: Katie O'Neill
Published: Oni Press, 2016 (2014)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 55
Total Page Count: 308,335
Text Number: 1045
Read Because: fan of the author, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A princess trapped in a tower is reluctantly rescued by a princess turned adventurer. This is very Tumblr—charming, facile, and aggressively well-intended in its diversity and character arcs; it wobbles between lovely and obnoxious, but let it be known that I have no sense of humor & thus struggled with the tone; on the whole, "lovely" wins out. I don't like the art here as much as O'Neill's lineless style elsewhere and I wish the fat princess looked fat (the soft, round art camouflages her chub), but the faces and colors are a joy. I spoiled myself for O'Neill by reading my favorite of her works (The Tea Dragon Society) first, but, while the other two comics haven't lived up to it, it's all still been a pleasure.


Title: An Accident of Stars (Manifold Worlds Book 1)
Author: Foz Meadows
Published: Angry Robot, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 475
Total Page Count: 308,810
Text Number: 1046
Read Because: multiple recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A high school girl follows a stranger through a portal, into a world remarkable for its matriarchies, political turmoil, and magics. This feels like (but isn't) a debut, with numerous niggling flaws: A huge cast of sometimes indistinguishable characters, further complicated by invented words in multiple languages—it's more frustrating to keep track of than it is complicated. Overlong, with a particularly slow start. Transparent earnestness in the themes and messages, with heart-to-hearts that read as wish-fulfillment rather than convincing dialog.

But what good intent! I appreciate the cast, its wealth of women and diversity, and the take on portal fantasy is intriguing. It lacks much of the magic and sense of wonder that distinguishes the trope (and what does come is late and bittersweet), but still invokes and challenges the concept of portal-as-escapism; and it actively engages the question central to most recent portal fantasy: how does the portal world change you? can you ever really go "home"? I wouldn't say it's more robust than similar conversations, despite the explicit focus on trauma, but I appreciate what it contributes to the trope. I enjoyed this book more in concept than in practice, but I will go on to read the sequel.

Sendak Reviews: Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, & Brundibar

I have vague memories of people talking about Sendak after his death, but didn't really internalize "queer, Jewish" until doing demographics research after reading Where the Wild Things Are in my browsing of creepy and/or classic picture books. Highly relevant to my interests! Thus I've been picking up his books on various library visits. I imagine more reviews will come later.

I will say this about reading picture books, tho: sure does fulfill goals of inflating my reading list but also means a lot of book reviews. They're actually pretty fast to write, but I'm so behind in posting them.

CW for Holocaust re: the fourth & final book.


Title: Where the Wild Things Are
Author: Maurice Sendak
Published: HarperCollins, 2012 (1963)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 308,850
Text Number: 1047
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I'm sure I read this as a kid but it wasn't a formative part of my childhood, so reading it now is like encountering it new. Nostalgia would have helped me love it, and the narrative switch from "happily living as king of monsters" to "bored now" is too sudden & unexplored, even for a picture book. But the atmosphere of wish-fulfillment and threat, the oversized monsters and Max's expressions, the texture in the inkwork are all superb and make me wish I had grown up with this in my childhood library—that concept of a monster-child coming safely home would have appealed to me.


Title: In the Night Kitchen
Author: Maurice Sendak
Published: HarperCollins, 1970
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 309,070
Text Number: 1049
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I'll admit it's easy to just see the nudity/questionable subtext; it's also a convincing dream, logically illogical, subconscious, fantastical. The flow between panels and touches like the oversized figures and found-object city skyline help create an evocative dreamscape. But there's no particular takeaway/moral message/character growth—is one necessary for a kid's book? I don't know! Probably not, with this age group; a silly dream is narrative enough. But it didn't leave an impression on me.


Title: Outside Over There
Author: Maurice Sendak
Published: HarperCollins, 1981
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 309,110
Text Number: 1050
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: "Slipping over the border into fairyland" is a phenomenal premise, and takes on it share similarities* but succeed if their journeys are evocative and thematically resonant. Ida's lesson is in engagement: not to avoid magic or risk, but to approach both proactively, eyes on the path ahead—how lovely, and perfect for a fairy story. The main plot begins in the background of the first few panels (and a subplot continues there), drawing attention to the expansive, detailed art. But the human figures are uncanny, photorealistic but exaggerated in proportion; it's good art, but not always enjoyable. That's what kept me from loving the book, but I'm still glad to've read it, and would have especially appreciated its message as a kid.

* I was going to say this feels like Labyrinth, but then I realized that Henson took at as inspiration, so...! Rather the other way around.


Title: Brundibar
Author: Tony Kushner
Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Published: Hyperion Books for Children, 2002
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 55
Total Page Count: 313,345
Text Number: 1075
Read Because: reading more of the artist, hardcover borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I'd never heard of the original opera, and appreciated discovering a relatively localized and accessible piece of Holocaust history to research. I'm not sure how that translates as a teachable moment for a child audience—nonetheleast because of the deep ambivalence in the opera's production and performance history. But I appreciate that Sendak's art doesn't shy away from this context—it's historically-set, vibrant, human. That said, I didn't like the art: his stylization, the monstrous caricatures in particular, aren't my style, and I didn't love the mixed media, especially the texture in the colored pencils and crayons. Kushner's adaptation is fairly successful—the pacing starts slow, but improves; the moral re: bullying works in a kid's book, and is affecting given the complicated historical context. This was for me more interesting than good, but I'm glad I read it.