Tag: graphic novels

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Baltimore, Vol. 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s dark and dingy but it has this throwback, homage feeling to it that really appealed to my sense of design. The story uses many archetypes and predictable twists and turns as there is a plague, and zombie-esque creatures and […]

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The Complete Essex County by Jeff Lemire My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was deeply touched by Jeff Lemire’s Essex County, as to me, it portrays my version of home in Southwestern Ontario. The contrast between his drawing of Toronto’s hubbub and Essex County’s stark isolation is vivid and particularly resonates with my experience […]

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Drama by Raina Telgemeier My rating: 5 of 5 stars I am so thrilled that there is a female protagonist who loves theatre and isn’t dying to be onstage. Callie is a great role model for pre-teens and teens alike as she is the master of her own learning of stagecraft in order to help […]

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I really enjoyed the tone of Satrapi’s writing….a combination of harsh truth and the quirky humour of a young teenager.  Whether Satrapi has written this memoir as a young woman or older, she remembers accurately what it was like to appear fundamentalist in her public life but to be a rebellious teenager in her personal […]

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Skim by Mariko Tamaki My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was actually first turned on to Mariko and Jillian Tamaki when I read Hiromi Goto’s young adult novel Half World, which was nominated in Ontario for a White Pine award. I just can’t get enough of Tamaki’s style of elegance and simplicity in her […]

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Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Brian K. Vaughan has written the graphic novel that may be my entry point into adult graphic novels that will keep me hooked. The characters are likeable but deeply flawed. If the story had kept to the main plot of Alana and […]

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“>Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks My rating: 4 of 5 stars I think my favourite thing about the main character, Maggie, is that her personality is so well-developed. Before the ghost is even introduced we find out that: she’s the only girl with 3 brothers, her Dad has a new job, and her […]

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DC: The New Frontier, Vol. 1 by Darwyn Cooke My rating: 5 of 5 stars I selfishly chose to read DC: The New Frontier because I’m doing an assignment on DC and I wanted more meat. I’m a self-acclaimed noob when it comes to graphic novels and The New Frontier was my first foray into […]

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Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s not surprising to me that Vera Brosgol, author/illustrator of Anya’s Ghost, has chosen Neil Gaiman’s critique to highlight on her front cover of this graphic novel. I can make a direct comparison between Gaiman’s character Coraline and Brosgol’s Anya who are both ordinary […]

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In this article Martha Cornog, longtime reviewer for Library Journal, interviews Graterford Corrections librarian, Philip Ephraim, about the inclusion of comics in his prison library.  Ephraim talks about the circulation statistics of comics noting that they are a small portion of the collection but well-used by patrons.    As a result, Ephraim has observed an increase […]

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Owly, Vol. 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I can’t say this with any certainty but Owly has the feeling of being written for school-aged children. The pictures are sweet and the text is minimal but the stories themselves seem to have a moral […]

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The Arrival by Shaun Tan My rating: 5 of 5 stars The universal human experience of moving or migrating is beautifully illustrated in The Arrival. The fact that the story is told without words somehow brings more emphasis to the language of the new city where the main character travels to. Anyone who has travelled […]

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So many of the changes in our library, representing the new Ontario School Library Association’s document Together for Learning, are fundamentally shifting how we see popular culture’s role in education. The document recognizes the need for social networking and meeting the students where they are whether interested in graphic novels, anime or gaming. I allow gaming […]

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