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juushikaTitle: Come to the Fairies' Ball
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Gary Lippincott
Published: Wordsong, 2009
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 307,460
Text Number: 1039
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Lippincott's style is reminiscent of the 1980s-90s fairy boom—dense, ornate, evocative watercolors; unthreatening but trickster-ish in tone. I don't love his rubbery, exaggerated faces, but it's fine in a kid's book. Fairies and rhyming is a winning combination, and there's a good balance of message/narrative to pure aesthetics. This is nothing special, it's no Froud, but it delivers on its potential.
Title: Aquicorn Cove
Author: Katie O'Neill
Published: Oni Press, 2018
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 95
Total Page Count: 307,555
Text Number: 1040
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A girl travels to her childhood home on a fishing island and rescues a sea dragon. O'Neill's art is consistently beautiful, and this has one of the more competent environmentalist messages I've seen (in a kids' book or otherwise): well-balanced against the protagonist's arc, sincere but not preachy, and acknowledging the importance of community-wide and global change while maintaining a sense of individual purpose. And O'Neill's ethos, diversity, and kindness is, always, superb. But I had a lukewarm reaction to this, and I blame it on hydrophobia: lovely settings, strong message, but not at all to my taste.
Title: The Creeps
Author: Fran Krause
Published: Ten Speed Press, 2017
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 145
Total Page Count: 307,700
Text Number: 1041
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: 100-some comics, most 4 panels long, about fears and nightmares. This has more variety in framing than the first collection, Deep Dark Fears—more nightmares, some longer comics—and while I understand the context from reading the blog, I wish it were offered here; without it, the collection feels disjointed. It's also weaker than the first collection, less chilling or horrific, more haunted and sad. But I still love Klaus's off-kilter art and subject matter, and love the online comic, so I'm unsurprised to find this a solid, if less remarkable, success.
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Gary Lippincott
Published: Wordsong, 2009
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 307,460
Text Number: 1039
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Lippincott's style is reminiscent of the 1980s-90s fairy boom—dense, ornate, evocative watercolors; unthreatening but trickster-ish in tone. I don't love his rubbery, exaggerated faces, but it's fine in a kid's book. Fairies and rhyming is a winning combination, and there's a good balance of message/narrative to pure aesthetics. This is nothing special, it's no Froud, but it delivers on its potential.
Title: Aquicorn Cove
Author: Katie O'Neill
Published: Oni Press, 2018
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 95
Total Page Count: 307,555
Text Number: 1040
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A girl travels to her childhood home on a fishing island and rescues a sea dragon. O'Neill's art is consistently beautiful, and this has one of the more competent environmentalist messages I've seen (in a kids' book or otherwise): well-balanced against the protagonist's arc, sincere but not preachy, and acknowledging the importance of community-wide and global change while maintaining a sense of individual purpose. And O'Neill's ethos, diversity, and kindness is, always, superb. But I had a lukewarm reaction to this, and I blame it on hydrophobia: lovely settings, strong message, but not at all to my taste.
Title: The Creeps
Author: Fran Krause
Published: Ten Speed Press, 2017
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 145
Total Page Count: 307,700
Text Number: 1041
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: 100-some comics, most 4 panels long, about fears and nightmares. This has more variety in framing than the first collection, Deep Dark Fears—more nightmares, some longer comics—and while I understand the context from reading the blog, I wish it were offered here; without it, the collection feels disjointed. It's also weaker than the first collection, less chilling or horrific, more haunted and sad. But I still love Klaus's off-kilter art and subject matter, and love the online comic, so I'm unsurprised to find this a solid, if less remarkable, success.
