Review #18: Ship Breaker

Bibliography

Bacigalupi, Paolo.  2010.  SHIP BREAKER.  New York:  Little, Brown.  ISBN 9780316056212

Summary

In a future world where advanced sailing ships have replaced powered vessels, teenage Nailer works at the harsh and dangerous business of scavenging for materials in old ships.  When he discovers a newly-wrecked vessel and its wealthy sole survivor after a hurricane he hopes for a better life, but his plans are threatened by other ruthless scavengers—including his own father.

Analysis

This science-fiction novel is set in a standard-issue dystopian future of degraded environments, extreme disparities of wealth and poverty, and feral gangs that include semi-human mutants.  The principal setting—the huge, lawless ship-breaking yard—appears to be an exaggerated version of the all-too-real salvage yards of Alang in India.  This element of the setting provides a somewhat original spin on standard genre conventions.  The setting is well-described and at times vividly realized.

Thrillers of this sort have always tended to be violent.  In keeping with general trends toward escalation in popular entertainment, the violence—and the four-letter language that goes along with it--is far more graphic than in many adult novels of only a few decades ago.  The majority of the characters are also extremely cynical and amoral, and the main protagonist is forced to fight and kill his own father at the climax. 

Science-fiction fans will likely enjoy this book.  However, it is disturbing to see that levels of “adult” violence and language have become this high in young adult fiction.

Review Excerpts

“This thriller will grab and keep readers’ attentions.”  Horn Book

“At its core the novel is an exploration of Nailer’s discovery of the nature of the world around him and his ability to transcend that world’s expectations.”  Publishers’ Weekly

Connections

Science fiction writers often create worlds of the future by extrapolating from present events and trends.  For example, Ship Breaker is set in a world where today’s trends of global warming, declining oil reserves, and growing disparities between rich and poor have reached extreme levels.  It also appears to have been inspired by the real-life salvage yards of Alang, India 

Create a list of trends students may have studied, such as developments in artificial intelligence, growing reliance on computers for all media, changes in education, medical advances, etc.  Invite students to write stories set in futures where one or more of these trends have been carried to extremes.  Alternatively, consider using articles on unusual real places and societies, such as the newly-built Middle Eastern city of Dubai or the semi-medieval Isle of Sark in the English Channel Islands, as science fiction story starters.

Review #17: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Bibliography

Lin, Grace.  2009.  WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON.  New York:  Little, Brown.  ISBN  9780316114271

Summary

Minli, a girl living a in a barren, impoverished village learns from a magic goldfish of a possible way to make the village’s land green and undertakes a journey in search of the Old Man of the Moon, who may be able to help. 

Analysis

Inspired by Chinese folk legends, this story incorporates versions of numerous such stories within the narrative.  The characters are all broadly drawn in the manner of traditional stories, but are far from flat or dull.  The story moves quickly through a series of vividly described settings, with many odd incidents and occasional humor, to a satisfying ending and a moral point made in a graceful, not overly didactic fashion.

The book is richly illustrated, with several colorful pages showing scenes that resemble images from traditional Chinese paintings and tapestry.  Each chapter also has a header illustration in the style of a woodcut or Chinese ink painting.  Reminiscent at times of Maxfield Parrish’s famous illustrated Arabian Nights, the illustrations place the book in a great tradition of illustrated works for children.   

The only real quibble with the story is the way the main narrative is interrupted every few pages when one character or another takes time out to tell a story.  The stories are usually interesting and relevant to the narrative, but the device is used so often that it becomes a bit tiresome.  A better integration of the material in the stories with the main narrative would have made the story flow more naturally and smoothly. 

Still, this is overall a wonderful story that richly deserves to be a Newbery Honor Book.  It will please any reader interested in fantastic journeys and myths and legends where anything can happen and the imagination has free reign.

Review Excerpt

“Lovely full-page illustrations in blues, reds, greens, and luminous golds as well as delicate chapter openers, all inspired by traditional Chinese art, contribute to this original, folklore-inspired fantasy’s sense of timelessness.”  Horn Book

Connections

Fold sheets of 8 ½ by 11 paper in half to make four-page “booklets.”  Invite each student to select one of the stories that characters in Lin’s book tell and draw a short comic-book adaptation of that story.  Alternatively, invite students to use illustrations from the book as story starters for a comics or non-comics story.

Review #16: Beowulf

Bibliography

Hinds, Gareth.  2007.  BEOWULF.  Somerville, MA:  Candlewick Press.  ISBN 9780763630225

Summary

This is a graphic novel adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon epic following the life of the hero Beowulf, prince and later ruler of the Geats, as he battles monsters in Denmark and is later fatally wounded defending his people from a dragon.  A very brief afterward notes the disappearance from history of Beowulf’s people in southern Sweden.

Analysis

Hinds’ art is striking.  It is dynamic and detailed and incorporates numerous symbolic motifs—a page of prologue is illustrated in the style of an Anglo-Saxon or Norse carving, glimpses of the night sky through the doorway of a great hall show the constellations, ribbons of runic lettering are shown crisscrossing the sky.  The color palette changes during different parts of the story, most notably in the dark, almost monochrome scenes at the end of Beowulf’s life.  Overall the art creates a somber mood appropriate to a story set in a violent world filled with forces of nature and destiny beyond human control.

The author notes in the introduction that he and his editors have “attempted to strike a balance between easy readability and the poetic drama found in our favorite verse translations.”  The highly abridged text does this fairly successfully.  Unfortunately the visual storytelling falls short.  Some sections are essentially illustrated text, while others are wordless sections of purely visual storytelling.  None of the story ever truly takes advantage of the comics medium’s unique ability to combine words and text through such devices as thought and word balloons—though oddly enough there is some use of the traditional device of sound effects.  The result is a story that many readers will probably have serious difficulty in following.

The emphasis upon art over clear storytelling seriously undermines what might have been a fine adaptation of a classic and potentially highly visual story.  While some readers might be drawn in sufficiently by the art to want to pursue Beowulf farther, others will be put off by the unclear storytelling.  A more straightforward comics storytelling style would have served better.

Review Excerpt

“Hinds’ graphic novel captures the passion and violence of the original Anglo-Saxon saga through masterful illustrations and a respectfully adapted text.”  Booklist

Connections

Other graphic novel adaptations of classic stories:

Bradbury, Ray and Hamilton, Tim.  RAY BRADBURY’S FAHRENHEIT 451.  ISBN 9780809051014

Butler, Nancy and Petrus, Hugo.  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.  ISBN 9780785139164

Dixon, Charles and Deming, Sean.  THE HOBBIT.  ISBN 9781435242722

Shanower, Eric.  AGE OF BRONZE:  A THOUSAND SHIPS.  ISBN 9781582402000

Review #15: Dead End in Norvelt

Review:  Dead End in Norvelt

Bibliography

Gantos, Jack.  2011.  DEAD END IN NORVELT.  New York:  Farrar Strauss Giroux.  ISBN 9780374379933

Summary

Twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, a town with an unusual history full of eccentric characters.  Grounded by parents who catch their son in the crossfire of their domestic disagreements, he is assigned to help a neighbor who writes obituaries for local residents—who for some reason seem to be dying rather frequently….

Analysis

In somewhat postmodern fashion the author tells this story in the first person under his own name.  The story is semi-autobiographical, with much fiction and fantasy blended with actual reminiscences.  The whiny, self-centered narrative voice is believable in a character at this stage of life, but no less off-putting for that.

There is a great deal of humor, much of it of the gross-out variety.  In places it is rather morbid, especially when the narrator visits the local funeral parlor.  One gets the impression that the author is trying much too hard for a whacky, edgy feel.  There is something heartless in the way so much of the novel’s humor laughs at death.  In the early chapters of this overlong story the effect is mainly annoying.  By the latter part of the novel one gets the impression that the author is trying to work through some existential despair of the sort that has become the default mood of so much “serious” adult fiction.  Whether this is appropriate in a novel for younger readers is open to debate.

One could observe that there is probably nothing in the novel that most young readers will not already have been exposed to through movies and television, and that some of them will greatly enjoy the gross-out humor.  This reviewer nonetheless finds the novel a deeply unpleasant book and would not recommend it.

Review Excerpts

“Gore is a Gantos hallmark, but the squeamish are forewarned that Jackie spends much of the book with blood running down his face and has a run-in with home cauterization.”  Publishers Weekly

“Jack makes a tremendously entertaining tour guide and foil for the town’s eccentric citizens.”  Booklist

Connections

Norvelt was a real town founded as part of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was personally involved in the project.  Talk about the Great Depression and the federal government’s efforts to create new ways to help its victims, and how these form the basis of modern programs such as Social Security.  Include discussion of the role of Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Review #14: Hattie Big Sky

Review:  Hattie Big Sky

Bibliography

Larson, Kirby.  2006.  HATTIE BIG SKY.  New York:  Delacorte Press.  ISBN 9780385903325

Summary

During World War I sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks inherits an uncle’s homesteading farm in Montana and tries to prove herself as a homesteader.  As she faces the challenges of trying to build a viable farm she forms close relationships with neighbors and deals with ethnic tensions stemming from the wartime climate of suspicion.

Analysis

Inspired by the true story of the author’s own great-grandmother’s attempts to homestead in Montana, the narrative is not actually based on a particular individual’s recollections.  It is, however, clearly carefully researched from numerous sources and gives a strong sense of what life was like in that time and place.  In particular it affords a detailed picture of the challenges that homesteaders and their communities faced on the Great Plains in the late pioneer era.

Most of the principal characters are stock figures—kindly, eccentric neighbors, a ruthless rancher, a farm wife facing childbirth in a harsh environment—familiar to anyone with any experience of the long-established pioneer family genre.  A well-meant effort to deal with the harassment often faced by German-Americans during the war makes its point well enough, but never really rises above the level of caricature.  It is at least handled with restraint.

Overall this is a well-written story and is sure to please readers interested in the genre.

Review Excerpts

“Larson’s vivid descriptions of the harshness of the work and the extreme climates, and the strength that comes from true friendship, create a masterful picture of the homesteading experience and the people who persevered.”  School Library Journal

“This fine offering may well inspire readers to find out more about their own family histories.”  Kirkus

Connections

Have the class imagine that they are a group of homesteaders on their way to settle claims.  What sorts of things will they need to take with them?  What things will they have to do when they get there?  What kinds of challenges will they face?

Other books on pioneering and pioneer life:

Josephson, Judith Pinkerton.  GROWING UP IN PIONEER AMERICA, 1800 TO 1890.  ISBN 0822506599

King, David C.  PIONEER DAYS:  REDISCOVER THE PAST WITH FUN PROJECTS, GAMES, ACTIVITIES, AND RECIPES.  ISBN 0471161691

Steele, Christy.  PIONEER LIFE IN THE AMERICAN WEST.  ISBN 0836857909

Review #13: Night of the Howling Dogs

Review:  Night of the Howling Dogs

Bibliography

Salisbury, Graham.  2007.  NIGHT OF THE HOWLING DOGS.  New York:  Random House.  ISBN 9780385901468

Summary

In 1975 Dylan and his fellow Boy Scouts on the Big Island of Hawaii go camping on an isolated section of coast.  There they are joined by a group of paniolos—native Hawaiian cowboys—who have ridden to the area to go fishing.  During the night an earthquake and tidal wave strike the area and turn the camping trip into a struggle for survival.

Analysis

This is primarily an old-fashioned, straightforward adventure narrative, based on an actual 1975 incident in which the author’s cousin participated.  Told in the first person, it has a believable narrative voice and details that give a strong sense of place, period, and culture and speech of the time.  These elements are well-integrated into the story so that they do not hold up the movement of the plot.  An early element of foreboding (the strange howling dogs) helps the reader to keep the pages turning through the initial gradual buildup of the situation and characters until the climactic disaster and its aftermath.  The actual disaster is vividly described.

There is a good balance of humor, incident, and characterization.  The main characters are well-drawn.  Young readers should have little trouble identifying with the boys in the story.  The character of Louie—a troublemaker from a deeply troubled background who rises to the emergency and shows his good qualities—is a familiar figure in juvenile fiction, but is handled in a way that makes him seem believable and human.

This is a good “boy” book about youths facing challenges and rising to the occasion, written in a way that makes the story a fairly easy yet thoughtful read.

Review Excerpts

“Salisbury weaves Hawaiian legend into the modern-day narrative to create a haunting, unusual novel that will practically booktalk itself.”  Booklist

“Like any good survival story, this will make readers ponder what they would do when survival is on the line.  A sure-fire literary thriller.”  Kirkus

Connections

The major event of the story is the sudden arrival of a tsunami, or “tidal wave.”  Describe to students what causes tsunamis.  Talk about other real-life tsunamis, such as the ones caused by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2011 Japanese earthquake.

Some characters in the story believed that the wild dogs were incarnations of the Hawaiian goddess Pele.  Talk about this and other traditional Hawaiian legends.

Review #12: Drawing From Memory

Bibliography

Say, Allen.  2011.  DRAWING FROM MEMORY.  New York:  Scholastic, Inc.  ISBN 9780545176866

Summary

Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Allen Say describes his childhood and youth in Japan in the 1940s and 1950s.  Despite a troubled family history, Say was able to get into an exclusive school and succeeded at the age of 12 in becoming an apprentice to his favorite comics artist.  This artist, Noro Shinpei, became the author’s mentor and a kind of surrogate for the father who had abandoned his family.  The memoir ends in 1952 when, at the age of 15, the author left Japan to join relatives in the United States.

Analysis

Say tells his story in a remarkable blend of text, watercolor paintings, pen-and-ink and pencil drawings, and photographs.  In several spots the illustrations form brief comics sequences; two such sequences even have word balloons. The illustrations are beautiful and complement the text perfectly.  In that sense the whole book may be considered a kind of graphic novel.

 The text is clear and lucid.  The overall tone is unusually objective by the standards of today’s memoirs, as if the author’s artistic training had made him able to step back and observe his own life as well as his surroundings.  At the same time the account of how he came to be Nobo Shinpei’s apprentice has a kind of fairy-tale quality—and makes one wonder whether perhaps some of the anecdotes have improved with the passage of time.

At any rate this is a lovely memoir of what was clearly a remarkable early life.  It is told without bitterness over the author’s childhood hardships, and with a great sense of warmth toward his kindly and wise mentor.  This would be an especially attractive read for fans of manga and anime, or for anyone interested in Japan and its culture.

Review Excerpts

“Throughout you can see canny artistic choices being made—color here, monochrome there, a cartoon, a snapshot—that reinforce content with appropriate form.”  Horn Book

“Aesthetically superb; this will fascinate comics readers and budding artists while creating new Say fans.”  Kirkus Reviews

Connections

Other artists’ memoirs:

DePaola, Tomie.  26 FAIRMONT AVENUE.  ISBN 9780698118645

Peet, Bill.  BILL PEET:  AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  ISBN 9780395689820