children’s – Page 3

Zita the Spacegirl (Ben Hatke)

The Plot
Zita and her friend Joseph are on their way home from school when a meteor crashes nearby. Upon finding a mysterious red button concealed within the meteorite, Zita naturally wants to press it — and press it she does. After this results in Joseph being kidnapped by aliens, Zita finds her courage and goes after him, knowing that she may be his only chance of getting home again.

My Thoughts
First impressions are key, they say, and this graphic novel makes a marvelous first impression. The book is in full, vibrant color and composed of sturdy, thick paper pages which not only don’t bleed through, but which look and feel like they’ll stand up very well to small hands and repeated readings.

Zita manages to live up to the great first impression. The artwork, a pleasing mixture of cute and weird, manages somehow to present a detailed and exciting setting while still remaining simple enough that the panels never feel cluttered and the characters overpowered by the backgrounds. As the story got underway, part of me couldn’t help trying to picture how the graphic novel would translate to a movie — and if said movie should be animated by Studio Ghibli or done in live action by the Jim Henson Company. (Sorry, Disney-Pixar, I don’t think you could handle it.)

The story itself is straightforward: girl in a strange land collects a group of rag-tag misfits and heads off to ~~find the wizard~~ ~~summon one of the four gods~~ rescue her friend, but it’s very well-done and effectively told through the artwork and dialogue. I was hooked from the beginning, when Zita and her friend Joseph encounter the meteorite (called a meteoroid in the text, which I’m pretty sure is only what they’re called when they’re still in space) and the mysterious red button. Joseph’s abrupt abduction leads to easily the most realistic reaction I’ve seen in a long time: Zita panics and runs away. But she masters her fears and comes back again, making her effort to rescue him clearly much more considered (and brave!) than a story in which she impulsively and recklessly leapt through the portal right away.

I really had only one major problem with this work. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of it, but it’s not a minor concern, either. It is this: after I finished the book, I sat back with a feeling of vague confusion. I could not remember a single identifiably female character other than Zita — not just among the named characters, but even as scenery in the background*. Then I wondered why I remembered all of the other named characters as male. Some of them were robots, and surely they weren’t assigned a gender? So I went back through the book again, and as it turns out, my impression was unfortunately correct. Not only is Zita the only identifiably female character in the book, every other named character (with the exception of Strong-strong) is referred to with a male pronoun.

I was shocked by this. Was this an oversight on the author’s part, or a conscious decision? Either way, it doesn’t look good. The default gender in the universe should not be ‘male’. Unfortunately, this is pretty common in properties which are aimed toward a cross-gender or male market — but that doesn’t make it okay, less offensive, or less obvious to girls that they’re being dissed. (I was one of those girls, and marketing people can say all they like about girls being willing to watch/read/enjoy things with boy characters — it may be true but we NOTICE.)

The book is good, and I’d like to see more. I can’t give author Ben Hatke a ‘bye’ for this, but I can hope he will strive to provide a more gender diverse cast in any future Zita installments.

*Toward the end, there appears to be an extremely random cameo by Marzipan, but I don’t know if I want to count that.

In Short
Zita the Spacegirl is fantastic. As a character, Zita is believable, interesting and charismatic. The artwork supports the story perfectly, and makes it feel like a movie even while remaining still on the page. I’ll certainly be purchasing a copy of my own, and I’ll probably be recommending that the library purchase it as well. The one major flaw in this work is an egregious gender imbalance, with Zita being the only female character I was able to identify in the entire book — I’m hopeful this is something the author will correct in future installments.

A review copy of Zita the Spacegirl was provided by the publisher.

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit: A

From the back cover:
When Father goes away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their happy life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station, and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. But the mystery remains: where is Father, and will he ever return?
Continue reading “The Railway Children by E. Nesbit: A”

J’s Take on Warriors of Alavna

Warriors of Alavna was M’s choice for this month. Meaning she already read it and suggested we read it.

For that reason, I wanted to like it. Alas, I did not.

The problems started right off, and while it did improve after that, its other problems became more obvious.

The basic plot is that two kids get transported to the past. Or another world. Just which it is is never clear. (Until you get to the afterward.) They get caught up in the local Celts’ battle with invading Romans.

In the beginning, I thought what the book needed was a good editor. So I was surprised to find the publisher was Bloomsbury. Do they not have editors at Bloomsbury?

The story starts en media res. (Did I spell that right?) Unfortunately, that is not always the best tack to take! We start with the boy, Dan, going through a mysterious mist. We learn through an almost immediate flashbacktracking that he’s chasing a girl in his class. They were on a class trip. So right there, I would’ve started the story on the class trip, so we get to see their normal environment and normal interactions with each other (if any). And then have this weird mist show up at the end of chapter one.

We then proceed to jump from his point of view to that of Ursula’s. And then for a number of chapters there is no dialogue. Another problem! At least for me. I think I need dialogue to keep me interested. Which is a definite benefit to first person — the whole story is a dialogue between the narrator and the reader. At any rate, once we do have people talking to each other, it gets better.

But it still has problems. There’s one paragraph that goes on for 3 pages. There’s another paragraph with 13 different names in it. And the tentative hold the author had on point of view and point of view shifts goes out the window. To mix my metaphors.

So that’s my opinion on the writing. As for the characters, they’re.. well, I was going to say they’re all right, they’re interesting. But no, actually, because Dan and Ursula are very passive. They’re swept up in things way too easily. Oh, you want me to kill people? Okay, if I have to. Oh, you want me to take an oath? Okay. Ursula figures out how to summon up the mist stuff. But does she use it to take them home? No. She decides that to help fight a Roman legion, you need… to drag in another Roman legion! What. The. Frell?

I did like that Ursula is mistaken for a boy, and then uses her newfound magic to make that rather more of a reality. And I do have a newish interest in British history. Unfortunately, those two aspects aren’t enough to overcome the other problems I had with the book.

One final comment I have is on Alavna. There’s this village that was pillaged and burned by the Romans. It’s called Alavna. The two kids and the people they’re with go check it out, knowing it’s been burned and whatnot, and decide to take Alavna into their hearts, or something, by naming themselves after it, and seeking revenge for it.

Which would be all fine and stuff if I had felt any emotional attachment to what happened at Alavna whatsoever. But I did not. I think it must have been described in very vague terms, with no clear visual, and done altogether too briefly for it to have any impact on me whatsoever. So I had trouble understanding why it had an impact on them.

To end with, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t like this. And I could find little to redeem it either. I will not be seeking out more books by the rather mysterious N. M. Browne either.

Though I still feel an editor could’ve improved this greatly. That’s an editor’s job!

Theodosia and the Last Pharaoh (R.L. LaFevers)

The Plot
At the end of the last book, Theodosia set out with her mother to Egypt. Their avowed purpose was to search for the temple of Thutmose III, but Theodosia had a secret mission of her own: to return the Emerald Tablet to the secret wedjadeen before the Serpents of Chaos could get their hands on it. She soon manages to make contact with the wedjadeen, but not before she discovers Chaos is on her trail.

My Thoughts
Far from the flying visit to Egypt which encompassed the last couple of chapters of Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Egypt is the main setting for this book. Theodosia and her mother have set out on an archaeological expedition to discover the temple of Thutmose III before someone else can locate and get the credit for it. In addition to this, Theo has brought along some of the powerful Egyptian artifacts she’s come into possession of through the course of the series, with the intention of returning them to their rightful guardians.

The journey into Egypt is full of period detail, most of which seems reasonably historically accurate based on my own limited knowledge of Egyptian-British history and some quick internet research. Theodosia finds herself in the midst of some political unrest, with the Egyptian Nationalist party protesting and agitating for the British colonial rule to end. This is of limited interest to her, as her own tasks occupy her thoughts and provide her with plenty to worry about.

Because Theo’s mother is not ‘in the know’ with respect to her involvement with various secret societies and ancient magics, the book’s plot develops along parallel lines even moreso than in previous installments, where Theo’s time with her parents was more incidental. So part of the time we spend with Mrs. Throckmorton on the “dig”. Her lack of interest in following any sort of procedure or, apparently, any archaeological methods is rather more Tomb Raider than not — not atypical for the period, not unforeshadowed, but surprising to the reader and also to Theodosia herself. This is also the first time we really see Theodosia spend any extended time with one of her parents, and I was left with an uneasy feeling from the interactions with her mother.

But that may just be par for the course: I get an uneasy feeling when Theodosia deals with almost any adult in this series, including her parents, something which continues through this volume. Whether or not this is purposeful on the part of LaFevers I’m not sure, but the only adult character I’ve been able to accept at face value is Theodosia’s grandmother. All the others seem to have their own hidden agenda with the potential of turning out to be traitorous evildoers at any moment.

Her child-companions do not present this problem, and Theo acquires a new one very early on in this book, the Egyptian donkey boy Gadji whom she ‘hires’ as a servant. I admit that I spent the first third of the book bracing myself for either Theo’s brother or her street-urchin friend Sticky Will to pop out of nowhere and it was a relief when they did not. Gadji is necessarily less developed than either of those two boys, but his arrival is handled well and his participation is not heavy handed.

The book does an excellent job in forwarding the ongoing plot with new revelations and clues while also providing a story which wraps up by the final chapter. I certainly wouldn’t recommend jumping into the series on this book, but the point is you probably could. There are also quite a few nice little bits sprinkled in (Habiba, for one — I could have stood to see more of her) and one or two things that I thought could have used more explanation (the wedjadeen’s insistence upon a male pharaoh — since we know there is precedent otherwise). But overall it was a strong installment; the decision to change the setting was wise, as the middle of a continuing series can bog down and this kept things from feeling stale.

In Short
As we become more embroiled in the ongoing plot, the Theodosia series continues to improve from its so-so beginnings. This entry in the series shifts its setting from London to Egypt, meaning that a number of recurring characters do not appear — a wise choice on the part of LaFevers, who resisted what must have been a real temptation to have one or two of them pop up to lend a hand. It’s unclear if the new characters introduced here will have a continuing role in the series, but they were interesting enough that I can hope for their return. We also get a more revealing glimpse of Theodosia’s mother, which felt as if it might be setting up for conflict later on. The introduction of new players in the game and the new setting helps build this volume to a satisfying conclusion while still driving the whole of the series toward a climax that feels as if it must come relatively soon.

eARC was provided by netGalley. Theodosia and the Last Pharaoh will be available in April, 2011.

J’s Take on The Railway Children

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit is K’s suggestion to the two of us to read. I didn’t really know much about this book going into it. I had read probably only one other book by the author, and that was Five Children and It. So I suppose I had a rough time period in my head, an idea that it might be fantasy. And would involve children and trains.

I read this off of Project Gutenberg, first online (for something to do while trapped at a computer) and then on my Sony e-reader. Let me just take one paragraph to rave about PG. They have free, legal books! In nicely-formatted EPUB! DRM-free! Did I mention free? And quality? We should read more public domain books so I can read them this way. Only one minor quibble: in one instance the children all run their words together without spaces. The EPUB format and my e-reader combined meant I only saw part of that. It didn’t line-wrap. The condition was made worse when I increased the font size. So that’s something to be ware of if you’re editing your work and youhaveasentenceyou’vewrittenlikethisforeffect. Maybe throw in a space. I don’t think a hyphen will work, but it might.

Moving on..

Three siblings are the focus of this story. We meet them in their natural habitat, living a comfortable life in the city with servants and whatnot. But foreshadowing and then calamitous circumstances befall them. Rather mysterious ones. Their father goes off and their mother is in tears, but won’t tell them anything. And at first I made the connection with things that were said with the title of the story and thought we were in for a story about the child evacuation of London. Until I recalled that this book was at least 20 years older than that. And a vague idea it was closer to 40 years before that.

Once I got over that notion, it didn’t take long to realize where their father had gone. If I had read this when I was a kid, I don’t think I would’ve picked up on it quite so quickly. But since I did, it was a little annoying that their mother wasn’t just straight with them and telling them what was going on. Just that all of a sudden they’re poor and have to move to the country.

Once there, their mother spends all her time writing, so the kids are left on their own to amuse themselves. They discover the train station and spend a lot of time there after that. And I learned way more about trains than I ever really wanted to know.

The chapters tended to be episodic. Not quite like short stories strung together, but quite like a serial. And the impression that it was a serial became very strong near the end where one chapter ends with the kids shouting, and the next chapter picks up with them repeating it and a short reiteration of their circumstances.

So if it was a serial, I will forgive one quibble I had with it, which is that time will have passed and they’ll be on to something new and the author will throw in like ‘oh yea, when they first got here, they each started a garden’. This wasn’t important to mention at the time it happened? I hate when authors do that.

As for the episodes, the children explore places and meet new people. And do rather a lot of saving people. When their mother is sick, when debris falls on the tracks, when a kid hurts his leg, when a boat catches on fire. I think England was a dangerous place a hundred years ago!

On to things I particularly liked. I liked that the girls had male nicknames. And that right in the first chapter, their father is telling them that the girls can fix engines or be a firewoman (meaning, I believe, the person who chucks coals into the er.. furnace, steam, thingee). What was I saying about knowing more about trains now? Heh.

I also liked that the author described some of the emotional, relationship stuff that was going on. I can’t quickly lay my hands on an example, but such as explaining why someone said something or acted the way they did. Or why their mother was reluctant to let them walk on the rails, but ultimately let them, though it hurt her to let them. Just things like that. Which I think would be very helpful to a kid reading the book, especially when it comes to understanding the adult characters. And it was done in a way that didn’t annoy me. Though it probably does require authorial intrusion to get away with it. And reminds me of Lemony Snicket.

As with any story where one of the characters is a writer, as a reader I have to wonder if any of it was autobiographical. I shouldn’t do that, but it’s difficult when she deliberately omits a character’s name. Like if she said it, it would give away the whole game. Or something.

While in the end it wasn’t a fantasy, the detail about the trains that she went into did remind me of science fiction of the 40s and 50s. It could’ve easily been a spaceport and rockets she was describing the workings and everyday running of.

So in the end, I like that this story exposed girls to train technology and exposed boys to interpersonal dynamics. Because I’m quite sure this is a story boys and girls would equally read.

Would I have liked it as a kid? Honestly, I don’t think so. Between the trains and the unfamiliar setting and language of Edwardian England, I think I’d’ve had trouble being interested. Though how I went so long without encountering any of her books, I don’t know.

There’s a WGBH live action of this book, produced in 2000 (the image above is from there). Unfortunately, it looks like our library’s copy is missing. I would like to watch it now. K, you have a copy of it on your DVD shelf?