The Bookmark

Bibliography DiCamillo, Kate. (2013). Flora and Ulysses. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0-7636-6040-6 Summary Flora is a cynic who prefers to observe instead of hope until she meets Ulysses and he changes her perception and her family forever. Analysis This book is the perfect combination of graphic novel and, well, novel! The storyline is very well told using mostly text but in occasionally complimented by a comic. The comics serve to tell parts of the story using little to no words, forcing the reader to infer exactly what is going on based on what they’ve read so far but also using the given cartoon drawings to provide tons of mental images for the reader. The protagonists are Flora and her squirrel friend Ulysses, who was unfortunately sucked up by a very powerful vacuum cleaner. As a result, he has become a super hero. In her standard style, Kate DiCamillo has taken a creature many people take for granted and given it just the right qua...

Bibliography Gaiman, Neil. (2008). The Graveyard Book. New York, New York: Harper Collins Children’s Books. ISBN: 978-0-06-053093-8 Summary Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard. Analysis This book is definitely on par with what one would expect from Neil Gaiman, but with a young-reader-friendly twist. Although the typical dark, mysterious and downright mythological theme is still present, the violence and action are a little more child friendly than some of Gaiman’s other novels. It is not quite a graphic novel and not quite a novel but instead serves more as an illustrated novel that has just enough illumination to keep the reader’s imagination fell but wanting more.                 The illustrations themselves are very creepy in that they are pen sketches that all seem cast in a peculiar shadow or fog, which really perpetu...

Bibliography Holm, Jennifer and Matthew. (2006). Babymouse: Rockstar. New York, New York: Random House Children’s Books. ISBN: 978-0-375-93232-8 Summary This book follows Babymouse’s early life in the pursuit of her dream of becoming a Rockstar. Analysis Babymouse is everyone’s favorite loveable adolescent. She is angsty in the ways that well balanced young people are and that makes her so endearing! She has a supportive family and huge dreams.  The book itself was very pleasant to read and the pink highlighting the black and white images was a nice touch. It lent just enough femininity to the drawings to attract a young female audience.                 I really loved that her dream was to become a rock star! It was a great surprise to not see a female stereotype being perpetuated. This might seem like a silly though to have about a children’s book, but they are very susceptible to hints i...

Bibliography Krosoczka, Jarrett J. (2009). Lunch Lady and the League ofLibrarians . New York, New York: Random House Publishers. ISBN: 978-0-375-94684-4 Summary The school lunch lady, a secret crime fighter, sets out to stop a group of librarians bent on destroying a shipment of video games while a group of students known as the Breakfast Bunch provides backup. Analysis This book was a hoot! The illustrations were just yellow, black and gray which was a very pleasant surprise. As someone who avoids graphic novels because of the colorful chaos they contain, I found the muted colors to make reading much more pleasant since I wasn’t being bombarded by images. Even though images can add to a reading, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. These make great starter books for kids who are beginning to find graphic novels interesting or who just don’t like to read books with just words. The plot was brief and singular, so they aren’t confusing at all and the vocabu...

Bibliography Salisbury, Graham. (2005). Eyes of the Emperor . New York, New York: Ember. ISBN 978-0-385-90874-0 Summary Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II. Analysis I had so much trouble starting this book. For some reason I just didn’t want to read it. This could be because it is from a time period that I am not overly fond of reading about but once I got past the second chapter, I was hooked. This isn’t your typical World War II novel about the big, strong, red-blooded American hero and I loved that. This book is about sixteen-year-old Eddy Okubo, a Japanese American who barely speaks Japanese and helps his dad build boats. Eddy fakes his birth certificate to join the army and is quickly swept into the cultural mess that was WWII. Typically, a novel about this time period covers the stereotypical bases that make the US look like the good guys just doing their best agai...

Bibliography William-Garcia, Rita. (2010). One Crazy Summer . New York, New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book. ISBN: 978-0-06-076088-5 Summary In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. Analysis                 This book has the potential to check so many “topic of interest” boxes, that it could appeal almost anyone. It revolves around 3 young “colored,” as they prefer to be called, girls who were abandoned by their mother at a very young age. This leads their family, father and grandmother, to resent her and, therefore, the girls resent her too.  They don’t fu...