Cardboard, by Doug TenNapel

I was expecting to like Cardboard, by Doug TenNapel, a lot more than I actually did. I had one of his other graphic novels, Ghostopolis, in my classroom library, and it was such a crowd-pleaser that it actually went missing. 

Cardboard is about a boy named Cam who lives with his father; his mother is dead. Cam's father is struggling to find work, and the novel opens as he tries to find something to buy for Cam's birthday. He winds up getting him a cardboard box, being convinced by the toy-peddler that it is a gift that will inspire the imagination and lead to father-son bonding. It's pretty predictable when the toy seller gives the two rules of the cardboard (you can't have more and you have to return the scraps) that something is up with this particular box of cardboard. Sure enough, it turns out to be magic, and Cam and his father ultimately find themselves working against an evil neighborhood boy, Marcus, to keep their find from turning evil. 

I did really like the premise of the graphic novel, but I felt like there were too many facets to the story that were underdeveloped. For instance, Cam and his father both mourn the mother, but it's kind of brushed on and left. Also, Marcus - the evil neighbor - mentions that he has bipolar disorder, but then that's dropped. 

I do think that this book will be popular in my classroom, I guess I'm just not a huge graphic novel fan. 

Also Try: Ghostopolis and Bad Island, by Doug TenNapel; Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, by G. Neri

I read Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty because I'm participating in Book Boot Camp, an online reading club focusing on one middle grade genre per month. July's genre is graphic novels/manga. I've heard a lot about Yummy before, but just never got around to reading it - Book Boot Camp was the push I needed!

Yummy is narrated by a boy named Roger, a classmate of Chicago's infamous Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, who was murdered at 11 after killing a 14 year old girl. As is so often the case with youth violence, Yummy was a member of a notorious gang, the Black Disciple Nation, or BDN. Yummy's story got a lot of press nationwide, as people tried to reason out how someone's life could take such a terrible turn so early on, and how gang violence had become so pervasive. Yummy was featured on the cover of an issue of TIME magazine (view article here), and President Clinton spoke out about the incident.

In the novel, Roger, whose brother is affiliated with the BDN, tries to decipher Yummy's short life, asking some really important questions: "If I grew up like him, would I have turned out the same?" and is a person like Yummy, in his circumstances, more of a bully or more of a victim? Yummy didn't take very long to read - honestly about 35 minutes - but I found myself sitting and pondering these questions for much longer.  That's what you want in a book, isn't it?

I was so impressed with Yummy. It dealt with some really harsh realities and mature content, but I felt like it could have been (and was expecting it to be) a lot more graphic and violent than it was. I do think the image of Yummy, with his teddy bear, will stay with me for a while.

Drama, Raina Telgemeier

I think that I would go so far as to say that this is my FAVORITE graphic novel I've ever read. Now, I haven't actually read that many graphic novels, but this one was awesome.

It's about a middle school drama club, and their production of Moon Over Mississippi . It follows one particular theater geek, Callie. She's the set designer for the play and is faced with tons of problems. First, she has decided that she just HAS to have a live cannon for the set. Her director tells her no pyrotechnics on stage, but she's determined to find a way. Then there's the fact that the lead female in the play is the girlfriend of the boy that Callie has a (not-so) secret crush on. All of this, compounded by the fact that two new boys, one of whom happens to be homosexual, have joined the production. This could be a touch controversial for some middle school readers, but the presentation of the issue is so casual and not a big deal, that I don't think it would be a problem for most.

I loved the way the author captured the true dynamics of a middle school group, and the inner workings/plottings of a middle school girl's mind.

A couple of things I loved, aside from the plot, were that the book, aside from being a graphic novel, maintained ideas reminiscent of an actual play. It was broken up into 'Acts', rather than chapters, and it had an "Intermission". Additionally, I loved the color scheme of the novel. It stuck to very bold, striking colors, that really added to the overall reading.

Like I said, I LOVED this book, and will now have to try the author's previous novel, Smile.