Way of the House Husband (Manga series 2-7)

 

My Thoughts:

I did not know until I started reading this that Netflix has an anime version of The Way of the House Husband on its streaming service. I am currently on volume 4 of the 7 that I own and it continues to be giggle worthy with each little vignette.  Not to be missed in the manga series is the bonus scenes at the end which are sometimes funnier than the book. One of my favorite bonus scenes is when Tatsu is teaching a home ec class at the local high school. Their first assignment is to design their own apron and one teenage male just thinks itʻs lame but in true Tatsu style, Tatsu boss man shames the student and gets him to understand that if he is the only one not to create his own apron, that is really lame. 

As for the Netflix series, because it takes the stiff art from the manga, it is a little disjointed and people not familiar with the manga may not get the same laughs out of these very short snippets. I found myself laughing but I don't know if I was laughing because I know the original scenes or because on screen they were just as funny. The transitions are also too fast. When the cat is just looking at the still alive cockaroach at the end of that scene, the cat and the roach have their own page. That space and time transition is funnier because as a reader you know that Tatsu was defeated. On the screen, it just goes by quickly.

The trailer will demonstrate the look of it, and although I watched it, I prefer the manga.

Fox: A Circle of Life Story

 

Publication date: November 30, 2021

My Thoughts:

This book starts off reminding us to "look closely, listen carefully. Life is stirring in the shadows." dum, dum dum! Sorry, that is just what I heard in my head but what a fabulously simple way to pair sparse text with art to create a tone that is not over the top or obvious. It is subtle. The opening page just shows a mother holding her baby in a front carrier and another child walking ahead. Yes they are in the snow in a forest, but they are in a clearing. There is a light source, and the only darkness comes from the trees on the left margin.

This story of a fox family may be a little much for little ones, but what it does for middle grades is it provides a realistic view of death and how in nature death is a way to also give life. It is a biology lesson rolled into a children's book. I especially liked the end pages that take the science of death and present it as a "cycle of life."  If middle grades can do this type of writing to show what they learned, who needs a paper pencil test? Use this as a model for assessment. 

From the Publisher:

In the frost-covered forest of early spring, fox is on a mission to find food for her three cubs. As they grow, she teaches them how to survive in the wild. Until one day, fox dies. Her body goes back to earth and grass and air, nourishing the world around her and bringing the forest to life. Death is not just an end, it's also a beginning.

With gorgeous illustrations and lyrical, kid-friendly text, Fox: A Circle of Life Story answers the big scientific question: What happens when animals die?

1000 Storms: Graphic

 

YA, brief nudity

Author, artist Tony Sandoval

Publication date August 17, 2021

My Thoughts:

I think I got the story on the first read, but after I finished, when I read the synopsis from the publisher, then I was able to really focus in on the parts of the story that were important. In other words, I let go of the weird skips in the story that were bothering me. One reviewer said to read this like a series of episodes and that made much more sense because the gist is below, but the reader is left with many more questions and it is ok, because perhaps they are saved for the next episode. 

What makes this a 4 out of 5 star book, though is that the weird girl gets redeemed and is the hero. But more than that, the art. . . Sandoval's art is hauntingly beautiful. The loneliness seeps off the page. Who needs questions answered when there is art. 

From the Publisher:

Lisa is a lonely girl who enjoys wandering nature and collecting odd bones and pebbles. The other kids think she’s kinda weird, maybe a witch, and avoid her. When one day she discovers a tree that allows passage to a parallel world, she finds herself in the middle of a demonic invasion plot, faced with saving the very children who ridiculed her.

In this magical tale (set in the same world as WATERSNAKES), Tony Sandoval takes readers back to his world of mysterious adolescence and surreal beauty. Like WATERSNAKES, and DOOMBOY before it, the reader is faced with recognizable feelings of solitude and longing mixed with danger and adventure through a visual wonderland.

Delicates _graphic novel

 

Update: The author talks about Taking on Mental Health in YA in this Shondaland article.

My Thoughts:

This book follows Marjorie in Thummler's very poignant graphic novel Sheets.  In my original review of Sheets I say

Marjorie speaks to the teen/tween/child in all of us who wants to disappear, who holds their little family together when the adults are too sad, who longs for something they will not have again, and who finds solace and comfort in unexpected encounters.

For this second book, Marjorie may not be that awkward teen who wants to disappear, and her reliance on her best friend Wendell is starting to fray, but she is finally accepted by the popular kids. What this second book explores is the cost of "fitting" in. Marjorie is still the same person on the inside, but is she willing to wear her own sheet to hide her true self? 

When she recognizes a little of her "pre-popular/pre-accepted" self in Eliza Duncan, is she able to share Wendell with someone who also needs him? What part must she play in getting her own humanity back? What does Marjorie want acceptance to really feel like? This is again a memorable story of what true friendship and humanity feels like.

From the Publisher:

Following the events of the bestselling graphic novel, Sheets, Delicates brings Brenna Thummler’s beloved characters, artwork, and charm back to life.

Marjorie Glatt’s life hasn’t been the same ever since she discovered a group of ghosts hiding in her family’s laundromat. Wendell, who died young and now must wander Earth as a ghost with nothing more than a sheet for a body, soon became one of Marjorie’s only friends. But when Marjorie finally gets accepted by the popular kids at school, she begins to worry that if anyone learns about her secret ghost friends, she’ll be labeled as a freak who sees dead people. With Marjorie’s insistence on keeping Wendell’s ghost identity a secret from her new friends, Wendell begins to feel even more invisible than he already is.

Eliza Duncan feels invisible too. She’s an avid photographer, and her zealous interest in finding and photographing ghosts gets her labeled as “different” by all the other kids in school. Constantly feeling on the outside, Eliza begins to feel like a ghost herself. Marjorie must soon come to terms with the price she pays to be accepted by the popular kids. Is it worth losing her friend, Wendell? Is she partially to blame for the bullying Eliza endures?

Delicates tells a powerful story about what it means to fit in, and those left on the outside. It shows what it’s like to feel invisible, and the importance of feeling seen. Above all, it is a story of asking for help when all seems dark, and bringing help and light to those who need it most.

Quincredible, Vol. 1: Quest to be the Best

 

My Thoughts:

Although Black Panther has been around since 1966 in the Marvel Universe (I believe he first appears in one of the Fantastic Four comics), the movie has brought on a hunger for Black superheroes. Pair that with Spider Man: Miles Morales, and there is an even greater hunger for the superhero as nerd, weakling, average teen. Quincredible fits into this Miles Morales mold. Quin is invincible, but that does not make him incredibly strong. Instead, it makes him into a perpetual punching bag for the bullies. He is in desperate need of a mentor and a coach, but he really also just wants to get the girl and be invisible for as long as he can. 

I find Quin to be believable as the weakling, awkward, New Orleans teen who tries to hide his problems from his loving, yet clueless parents.  When his mentor, "Glow" shows up not so much as a coach, more like a facilitator, Quin is challenged to find his inner strengths. What he finds, in end scenes that remind me of the shenanigans on the Home Alone movies, is that his strengths really were always in him, and they have nothing to do with the meteor shower "Event" that made certain people into superheroes. That is really the message - your power is in you. You have always had it. This is volume 1 out of 11, so I hope he continues to use his real super powers to save his community. 

From the Publishers: 

Invulnerability is a pretty useless superpower if you’ve only got a one-hundred-pound frame to back it up. That’s what Quinton West’s life became when he went from “small guy who got beat up” to “small guy who can’t get hurt” after the meteor shower dubbed “The Event” gifted him the power of invulnerability, but no other powers to compliment it.

But there’s more to Quin than meets the eye, and after some encouragement from his new mentor—a local New Orleans–based superhero named Glow—Quin realizes that he can use his quirky hobby of creating Rube Goldberg devices to outsmart the opposition. But being a hero paints a target on your back, and Quin’s got to risk it all to join the ranks of the superheroes he looks up to. It’s a good thing he can take a punch.

Teen Titans: Raven

My Thoughts

In the world of comic book aficionado, I am not even a wannabe. I like graphic novels because I like the power of sequential art and sparse dialogue to tell a powerful story. It is probably why I actually like the manga Batman and The Justice League. The art style makes it feel fresh and new.

This is another DC based comic that feels new because they are using a YA author and the art looks more like a YA graphic novel than a DC produced comic. The original Teen Titans started in the 60's as a gathering of sidekicks like Robin, however, in the 80s they were brought back and included characters like Raven and Cyborg who are not known as former or future sidekicks for established heroes or heroines. 

This newest iteration of Teen Titans is about Raven Roth's origin story. After she loses her foster mother in a tragic accident and she loses her memory, Raven goes to New Orleans to live with her foster mother's family and finish her senior year in high school. 

This is also the story of her awakening, or reawakening as a person with powers, in her case, supernatural powers, that she must learn to control while also learning a little about herself. How can it be that she knows how to solve math equations but she is not sure what kind of music she likes? In this new Teen Titans, and under the pen of veteran YA author Kami Garcia, this scenario seems more plausible than far fetched. 

Maybe it will not impress hardcore DC readers, however, I think the feel of Picolo's art and Garcia's text will bring new readers to Teen Titans who really are looking for a more relationship forward storyline. 

An advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publishers for an honest review.

Other book reviews on this blog for Kami Garcia: Beautiful Broken Hearts

Hibakusha

Script: Thilde Barboni
Artwork: Olivier Cinna

Description:

Ludwig has never been a soldier. A childhood injury left him lame in one leg, which has allowed him to largely sit out the war on the sidelines, as a translator. Fleeing his passionless marriage, he accepts an assignment in Japan, allowing him to return to the land of his youth. But the year is 1945. It is not a good time to be Japanese, or German… much less stationed in Hiroshima. Ludwig is tempted by love and, in furtively tampering with his translations of classified documents, by the chance to do something heroic. But none of that will save him...

My Thoughts:

Hibakusha is the Japanese term for survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945. To read about the personal experience of Hibakusha, try Barefoot Gen, a graphic novel series by Keiji Nakazawa. There is also a very good multigenre novel titled Sachiko by Caron Stilson.

This is a fictional love story of a German translator and a Japanese woman in Hiroshima in 1945. What makes this intriguing is that the author starts with the haunting images of people's shadows incinerated in stone.

When I was a child, my mother and I lived in Japan so she could teach English at a Japanese high school. My maternal grandmother had family in Hiroshima so on our school holidays we would catch the shinkansen, bullet train, from Osaka to Hiroshima to stave off our homesickness by visiting relatives. At seven, I visited the peace memorial in Hiroshima and the image of the stone with the shadow of the person that was sitting on that stone continued to haunt me. Like the shoes in the Holocaust museum in DC, the shadow on the stone has stayed with me all these years. I can understand, then Barboni's desire to create a story around the shadow in the stone.

In her own haunted imagination she wonders if the stone can remember. She wants to know if the soul of the person memorialized in the stone can be immortalized in the rock. That is what is most fascinating about this story. 

A digital copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review. 

Henshin

From the Publisher:

I KILL GIANTS co-creator KEN NIIMURA (International Manga Award winner and Eisner nominee) brings a unique vision of life in Japan to the page in HENSHIN. The lives of a kid with peculiar superpowers, a lonely girl discovering herself in the big city, and a businessman on a long night out are some of the short stories included in this collection that will make you laugh, and even maybe shed a tear. Explore Tokyo as you've never seen it before under NIIMURA's masterful and imaginative storytelling, printed here for the first time in English.

My thoughts:

I like reading English translated graphic novels/manga/comics from non-American illustrator/writers because they open up a different lens for readers. The aesthetic, both in the illustration and in the story is refreshing in its non-western lens. The line for what is beauty, humor, tragedy, horror gets moved and as a reader, makes my world expand because I must face my own boundaries and outer limits. 

Niimura is an internationally recognized craftsman in his art, so these 13 vignettes, I am making up, reflect/respond to, or shine a mirror on the Japanese aesthetic in manga. If I am correct, these stories that fictionally center around the larger metropolis of Tokyo teem with hidden layers of disconnection and disenfranchised grief from other people, from nature, from ourselves. 

One of the stories, "Watermelon summer" was shocking at the end, enough so that I had to stop reading and put it down. However, the more I thought about it and acknowledged the lens with which I was judging this story, I realized that no, there was a kind of Kurosawa-ish beauty to this story, an almost honorable, poetic, Shintoist harmony to the process in the story. I stopped focusing on the end and re-looked at the journey.

I am not sure what my middle level reader will takeaway from this, but for me, this was a haiku. Seemingly simple, but metaphorically complex.

The Danes

The premise of this graphic novel may seem fantastical, but the appeal is in the realism of both the pictures and the plot. After all, mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus can infect pregnant women causing their babies to be born with the birth defect microcephaly. The drug Thalidomade, touted to ease morning sickness in pregnant women resulted in more than 10,000 babies worldwide to be born with malformations, bone hypo plasticity and congenital defects before it was pulled off the shelves in the early 1960s.

It is not far fetched, then, to imagine a world where a retrovirus in pregnant women might produce blond, blue eyed babies even when parents are ethnically different. It is also not far fetched to imagine that the outward appearance, rather than the paternity test markers would cause ethnic unrest, disbelief, racism and chaos. Nor is it implausible that the pharmaceutical companies would race to try and create a vaccine for such retrovirus.

This story does a realistic job of imagining such a scenario, clearly playing out the stakeholders and balancing the unrest and corruption with a human story of love and family.

Ironically, I had a job working in South Africa in 2014 and I rented a movie to watch in the B&B called Skin which told the true story of an Afrikaans (Dutch that settled in South Africa) girl born in South Africa in 1955 to two white Afrikaners. Sandra, the daughter looked coloured, or part black but genetically she was the product of these two white parents. How ironic that this true story and this made story are both about the Dutch. To be fair, though, Sandra Laine is a product of a genetic case of atavism, which basically is that a gene from a very distant ancestral traits resurfaces after generations. I feel like Skin predicts the kind of life that Sorraya and Ibraham's baby will go through if this story were also a memoir.

Magic Box

This is just a well drawn, mystery/fantasy/coming of age story about a sad little girl, Nola, who recently lost her mother. For her 8th birthday, her father gives her a music box that belonged to her mother when she was a young girl.

Nola is transported to the world of Pandorient (within the music box) and the people there seem to be familiar with Nola's mother. Her new friend Andrea needs Nola to help save Andrea's mother and figure out what is making her sick. Part mystery, part adventure, Nola must rely on the tips she picked up from her mom in order to help these friends. 

For elementary and tween readers, the fast paced story, attractive illustrations and a precocious main character will pull readers in.

An advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine

Green Almonds is a personal memoir of Palestine and Israel through postcards and correspondence by two sisters. Anaele, a writer, spends half a year volunteering with an aid program in Palestine. Her sister Delphine, the artist, stays behind in Liege, Belgium. As Anaele writes about her experiences in Palestine, Delphine draws out her sister's story. 

In the simple drawings and text, Anaele and Delphine share an on the ground story of the complexity and pain of a community severed because of religion, politics, and ethnicity. Anaele makes friends, but as an outsider, is not able to make any kind of real change. It seems like Anaele's relationships with others seem one sided. I am not sure what kind of help she offers, except to be a sympathetic ear for these people. Perhaps this comic is also her way of being witness for the people she works with and telling her story beyond the walls of Palestine. 

For me, this is both a frustrating and realistic look at living as a marginalized citizen in your own land. 

Digital copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

Sea Of Love

Publishing date: July 31, 2018
Diamond Book Distributors
Lion Forge

In this wordless comic about an old fisherman lost at sea and the wife who goes to the ends of her earth to find him, this is a powerful story not just of love but about the damage we are doing to our oceans and to each other. This is also a story of carelessness and blind industrialization.

How do I get all of this from a wordless story? Because there are no words, I had to bring my experiences to the book. When his fishing boat gets blindly caught in the nets of an industrial fishing trawler and there are no humans to see him, I think of my oldest son on his little kayak fishing in Kaneʻohe Bay last week. He saw a commercial shuttle boat moving quickly towards him, so my son maneuvered his kayak to sit almost on the reef to leave the channel free. The commercial boat zoomed past him so close that it snagged his line, pulled out 300 yards of line and his lure. My son blew his emergency whistle to let them know he was snagged on them and the boat just blew past him. As a mother, I am thankful that he is ok, and I am grateful that the captain of the larger ship that this shuttle was meeting beyond the reef actually heard the whistle, saw the recklessness of one of his skippers and suspended his license, but it helped me to bring my son's experience into this story. 

This very cute story also has the power to bring more awareness to current issues like the large trash pile floating in the ocean. I wish there were some resources at the end of this to highlight some organizations that are connected to this tale.

Chimera 1: The Righteous and the Lost

Description:

Haunted by their pasts, a crew of thieves is hired for a covert mission in the midst of a galaxy being ripped apart by an interstellar holy war. If they want to survive - much less succeed - they must navigate hostile worlds, vengeful aliens, a deranged demon, and betrayal from within.  Collects the first six issues of the acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy series, as well as a pin-up and cover gallery.  Perfect for fans of STAR WARS, FIREFLY, or SAGA.

My Thoughts:

This is a good start to a series. A group is given an impossible mission. Powerful forces are in their way. Loyalty and betrayal have a price. 

The illustrations are beautiful and there is an LGBTQ character as well as a mixture of human and non-human characters perfect for an adventure that spans universes.

An advanced digital copy provided by Net Galley and the Publisher for an honest review.

Sheets

Release Date: August 28, 2018
Lion Forge

My Thoughts:

I wrote about this graphic novel, Sheets, before and put it on my TBR wish list. Sometimes wanting something and then getting it is disappointing, but this story did not disappoint. My husband cries over children's books about dogs dying and moms getting older. It is the combination of the illustrations and the simple words.

This graphic novel does the same thing. Marjorie speaks to the teen/tween/child in all of us who wants to disappear, who holds their little family together when the adults are too sad, who longs for something they will not have again, and who finds solace and comfort in unexpected encounters.

At the laundromat this morning, I caught myself staring at the dryer and feeling like a ghost spa would be the most indulgent idea ever. This is one to own, just so you have it on hand when someone needs it.

*An advanced digital copy provided by Net Galley and the Publisher for an honest review.

Can't Wait to Read

Release date: August 28, 2018
Writer, illustrator: Brenna Thummler
Publisher: Lion Forge

I got a little preview of the advanced digital reader copy of this graphic novel from my Diamond Bookshelf newsletter and I will definitely put this on my watch and wait list. The cover is already charming and the voice of the main character fits the coloring and art style.

Congratulations to Brenna Thummler on her first original graphic novel. I can't wait to read this. 

Description:

A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, Marjorie's daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she's worked for.

Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world.

When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt's Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.

Puerto Rico Strong (Comic Book)

My thoughts:

As someone who lives on an island, as someone who is Indigenous to a nation that has been colonized and illegally overthrown by the United States, I know a little bit about the struggles of living and thriving on an island. I know that when times get tough, we rally together because if not us, who? If not now, when?

That island survival mentality is what makes Puerto Rico Strong so powerful. This is comics at its most political and most powerful. The authors/artists saw that help for their people was not coming from the US, and they were left with the questions if not me, who; if not now, when? The introductions tell a moving story of why them and why now.

These 21 pieces in this anthology are different in voice, style, coloring. However, what they all have in common is the immense pride and love they have for Puerto Rico. These stories educate, entertain and imagine a future for Puerto Rico that carries forward culture, values and sovereignty. These stories privilege what we Hawaiians call aloha ʻāina, in simplistic terms not just a love for land but a political connection to the land, her people, her culture. 

This is a book worth owning and all profits go to the disaster relief and recovery programs.

Description:

Puerto Rico Strong is a comics anthology that explores what it means to be Puerto Rican and the diversity that exists within that concept, from today's most exciting Puerto Rican comics creators. All profits will go to towards disaster relief and recovery programs to support Puerto Rico. Despite being a US territory, Puerto Rico is often thought of as a foreign land, if it's even a thought in the mind of the average American at all. Its people exist in all corners of America; some of them have parents who immigrated from the home island, others are a part of families that have been on the mainland for generations. Then there are those who have come to the states in search of a dream but struggle to integrate into an unfamiliar culture, while there are those who have lived in the United States all of their lives but still have the same struggle because of the color of their skin or their sexual identity. These stories follow individuals from diverse walks of life but are all part of the culture that is Puerto Rico.Puerto Rico Strong features art and writing by Rosa Colon, Vita Ayala, Naomi Franquiz, Javier Cruz Winnik, Sabrina Cintron, Ronnie Garcia, Fabian Nicieza, Joamette Gil, and many more!

I received an advanced digital copy from Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review. 

Noble V2: Never Events

I compared Noble V1: God Shots to the X-Men movie Logan or the TV series Gifted but this second volume comes right after Black Panther has made Afrofuturism a utopian response to the violent struggles of African Americans that birthed movements like #blacklivesmatter.

Noble is not quite the political statement that Black Panther is, however, I appreciate the strong role models of African Americans in this series. David finally remembers his wife Astrid and his son Eli. He is committed to his family and to being a present father in his son's life, but he is also aware that his new powers give him the obligation to save the world, so he understands the "with great power comes great responsibility" motto from Spiderman.

Granted this volume ends right before the action starts, however, the artwork and the vibrant colors of this comic really create an aesthetically pleasing story.

Description:
After months of hiding in South America and running from the ever-watchful eye of the Foresight Corporation, David has begun to fill in the gaps to his missing memories. Armed with a new suit, David continues his search for answers to regain his lost identity.

Meanwhile, Astrid continues her mission to bring David back home. Their reunion and David’s missing memories of her leave her emotionally raw but more determined to bring him back to their family. With aid from an unlikely ally in Lorena Payan, the two combine forces to bring David back while fighting off Doctor DeMarcus Mayes’s newly formed group of enhanced humans.

Collecting the second arc of Catalyst Prime’s Noble series with art by series regular Roger Robinson and Jamal Igle (Supergirl, Black) is collected in this action packed second volume!

Last Words:

I'll save them all.

Goldfisch - or why manga needs to be in the classroom

Description: from the publisher

Say hi to Morrey Gibbs! A fisher-boy in a flooded world overrun with dangerous mutated animals known as "anomals," he's got his own problems to worry about. Namely, how everything he touches turns to gold! Sure it sounds great, but gold underpants aren't exactly stylish -- or comfortable!

Together with his otter buddy and new inventor friend Shelly, Morrey's on a quest to rid himself of his blessing-turned-curse and undo the tragedy it caused. That is of course, if they can dodge the treasure-hungry bounty hunters... 

My thoughts:

Back when our island used to have chain bookstores, teens would always be around the manga section just standing there reading. This is what real reading looks like to me. How does that translate to the English classroom? Unfortunately, it does not. Too few middle and secondary English teachers see manga as real reading for real readers. Even teachers who do regular SSR in their classrooms (sustained silent reading) do not include manga series in their classroom libraries. That's a shame.

Here is a non secret that we do not seem to believe fully: readers get better at reading by. . .reading. So is it more important to dictate what they cannot read or is it more important to let students read what they enjoy reading, regardless of our thoughts on the "literary value" of that reading? 

This first volume of Goldfisch is typical of most Tokyo Pop manga. At a little over 200 pages, this is not a lightweight book. It follows the typical plot pyramid and because it is made to be a series, it ends at a point where there is a hanging conflict that will bring readers into the next volume. Increasing the volume of reading also helps readers learn new words (Allen), so the more students read, the more they will learn. 

Finally, when working with middle and secondary students who struggle, I found that they do not visualize while reading. The manga, which holds tone, mood, even irony in the context of the words combined with the graphics and the shape/size of the block helps with visualization of text. 

As teachers, it is up to us to up our manga game and bring more graphic novels and manga into our classroom libraries. Just read them first as publishers like Tokyo Pop may look like they are created for YA and tween readers because of the cuteness factor but some series are for older students. 

March: Like Deja Vu

March is a graphic memoir trilogy by and about Congressman John Lewis' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. It is co-written by Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell. 

The first book in the trilogy focuses in on the early years of John Lewis' life in Alabama juxtaposed with a modern view of him getting ready for the first inauguration of our first African American President of the United States, Barack Obama. Book two recounts the Freedom Riders and their work to try and register voters in the south. Book three continues their efforts after the Freedom Rider summer to continue to find ways to register voters and try and get southern blacks to stand up for themselves and demand their rights in a living democracy. It ends with John Lewis invited to witness the signing of the 1965 voting rights act and travels again closes on the inauguration of the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama. 

The book focuses on Lewis' beliefs in both civil rights and non violence. It shows his early commitment as a young college student to righting injustice through his help in forming the Nashville Student Movement and their preparatory training for the non violent lunch counter sit ins. This is not a holier than thou account. Mr. Lewis shares the struggles of the group as well as his own personal struggles to try and do what he believes, even when he finds himself standing alone. He candidly shows a moment when he almost lashes back and breaks his non violence stand. He also shares his frustration about getting so many northern blacks and whites mobilized to help southern blacks who seem to just complacently accept the inequality and also see these young blacks as outsider instigators for violence in their own community.

I gave this book to one of my teacher prep students, a history major and future social studies teacher. He devoured it quietly and when he was done he said "this book is like deja vu." When I asked him what he meant, he just said that it is obvious that John Lewis really remembers what happened at that time and lived that life because it just mirrors and gives life to the primary source photos from that time and it makes it come alive from his perspective as if we are there and have been there before. 

What I liked about this book is that we see the historical figures in the movement including Martin Luther King Jr. as mentors and friends. It does not put them up as heroes but shows that in the midst of their now historic work, they continued to be human with missteps, insecurities and fear even as they kept doing the work they felt necessary. 

When I think about how little has changed and how violence and segregation still occurs, this trilogy holds more power to propel the next generations to non violent change.

Sun Dragon's Song #1

by Joyce Chng and Kim Miranda

Rosarium Publishing

Publication date: September 21, 2016

Ho Yi wants to be a sun dragon rider like his parents, but he uses a crutch to get around and he is often bullied by a larger pupil at his school. Still, he feels their song in his heart and he believes that despite his disability, he can become a rider. 

Set in a distant land, this origin story sets up a little of young Ho Yi's life. The reader sees a little of his grit personality. We learn a bit about his parents and the struggles that this young boy goes through. However, there is much left unanswered, which I think will keep young tweens invested in reading. For example, what is he gathering in the cave and why does he have to wash it down? What happened to his legs? Why does the bully hate him so much? And will the feisty young girl that his father released at the border play a part in the next installments?

If readers liked Avatar, they will like Sun Dragon's Song. 

An e-galley provided by Net Galley and the publishers for an honest review.