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juushikaTitle: Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir
Author: Liana Finck
Published: Random House, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 235
Total Page Count: 303,690
Text Number: 1015
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The memoir of an autistic woman, told through family history and creation myth. The scribbled, doodled art grew on me but never really appealed—I'd call this an issue of personal taste. The fantastical, metaphorical, metatextual concept of self is more my style, and it's successful when juxtaposed with concrete "real" events. But there's an excess of the former and a limited amount of the latter, especially in the conclusion. This has a poetic logic, but not enough to grasp on to, not enough of the author herself.
Title: Dragon Pearl
Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Published: Rick Riordan Presents, 2019
Rating: N/A
Page Count: 130 of 320
Total Page Count: 303,980
Text Number: 1017
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 40%. First person action/adventure with a trickster narrator (where "trickster" often reads as "impulsive, foolish") isn't a style that works for me. I loved the Machineries of Empire series, so I'm sad this is so far removed in tone and voice—but that's okay! I'm not the intended audience.
Title: Swimmy
Author: Leo Lionni
Published: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013 (1963)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 304,315
Text Number: 1020
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is almost exclusively stamp work, and it works well for the school of red fish (and Swimmy's contrasting sharper outline), which is prominent in my memory and but not, unfortunately, in the text. Elsewhere, it creates weird ridged textures and muddied colors; it could work to evoke the undersea, but mostly I wish for more brilliance, particularly in the travelogue aspects. The art isn't everything, but the narrative didn't really gel for me either.
Title: Nicolas, Where Have You Been?
Author: Leo Lionni
Published: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2007 (1987)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 304,345
Text Number: 1020
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The message in this has aged weirdly. It's well-intended and kind but ultimately amounts to "not all birds." It would be 100% more palatable (pun intended) if a bird didn't try to eat Nicolas, which is what tips this from a message against hate into a false equivalency between oppressor's hate and victim's anger. The art is great, though! I remember it vividly from my childhood, particularly the red berries; I love Lionni's art best in this style, combining dense textures with the crisp edges of pieced paperwork.
Author: Liana Finck
Published: Random House, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 235
Total Page Count: 303,690
Text Number: 1015
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The memoir of an autistic woman, told through family history and creation myth. The scribbled, doodled art grew on me but never really appealed—I'd call this an issue of personal taste. The fantastical, metaphorical, metatextual concept of self is more my style, and it's successful when juxtaposed with concrete "real" events. But there's an excess of the former and a limited amount of the latter, especially in the conclusion. This has a poetic logic, but not enough to grasp on to, not enough of the author herself.
Title: Dragon Pearl
Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Published: Rick Riordan Presents, 2019
Rating: N/A
Page Count: 130 of 320
Total Page Count: 303,980
Text Number: 1017
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 40%. First person action/adventure with a trickster narrator (where "trickster" often reads as "impulsive, foolish") isn't a style that works for me. I loved the Machineries of Empire series, so I'm sad this is so far removed in tone and voice—but that's okay! I'm not the intended audience.
Title: Swimmy
Author: Leo Lionni
Published: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013 (1963)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 304,315
Text Number: 1020
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is almost exclusively stamp work, and it works well for the school of red fish (and Swimmy's contrasting sharper outline), which is prominent in my memory and but not, unfortunately, in the text. Elsewhere, it creates weird ridged textures and muddied colors; it could work to evoke the undersea, but mostly I wish for more brilliance, particularly in the travelogue aspects. The art isn't everything, but the narrative didn't really gel for me either.
Title: Nicolas, Where Have You Been?
Author: Leo Lionni
Published: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2007 (1987)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 304,345
Text Number: 1020
Read Because: reading more of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The message in this has aged weirdly. It's well-intended and kind but ultimately amounts to "not all birds." It would be 100% more palatable (pun intended) if a bird didn't try to eat Nicolas, which is what tips this from a message against hate into a false equivalency between oppressor's hate and victim's anger. The art is great, though! I remember it vividly from my childhood, particularly the red berries; I love Lionni's art best in this style, combining dense textures with the crisp edges of pieced paperwork.
