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I Love Him to Pieces, by Evonne Tsang (book review) – Baseball and zombies! My Boyfriend is a Monster series begins

May22
book cover of My Boyfriend is a Monster by Evonne Tsang art by Jenina Gorrison published by Graphic Universe

Romance, baseball, zombies… a typical high school day, right? This is such a great comic! Its subtitles – “My Date is a Dead Weight, or He Only Loves Me For my Brains” – hint at the tone of the whole book – really funny, a little creepy, a touch slapstick.

The writer and artist together have crafted a very plausible way for the “mutated Cordyceps fungus” to infect people and, uh, dissolve their brains. And it doesn’t take long for the “zombie fungus” to do its work… Hey, the CDC just released Emergency Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse on 5/16/11 – life imitates art?!

Tsang’s writing is humorous and serious in all the right places, while Gorrissen’s drawings make every character distinctive and real – both cartoonish and lifelike at the same time (except thoroughly dead, in the zombies’ cases).

Dicey is a hoot, playing baseball on the varsity team and giving the guys back what they dish out, while Jack is super-brainy, getting totally flustered when Dicey agrees to a date = you can just see him blush, even though the whole book is in black and white.

I was excited to see that I Love Him to Pieces was nominated for YALSA‘s 2012 “Great Graphic Novels for Teens” list. So nice that they confirmed my enthusiasm!
**kmm

Book info: I Love Him to Pieces (My Boyfriend is a Monster #1) / by Evonne Tsang; art by Janina Gorrissen. Graphic Universe/Lerner, 2011. [author interview] [artist’s website] [series site] [publisher site]

My Book Talk: Who knew that being “egg parents” together for a school project would lead to making a stand against the undead on a senior skip day?

The “zombie fungus” should never have reached Florida. But suddenly varsity baseball star Dicey and her super-scientific boyfriend Jack are in the middle of it, as zombies begin to take over their city.

Are Jack’s researcher parents safe in Mexico, at the meteorite crash site where the fungus was first discovered? Are Dicey’s dad and little brother safe across the bay? What about their fantasy-gaming friends and the baseball team at St. Petersburg High School? Just one bite from a zombie, and it’s all over…

Somehow, the stunningly detailed art in black and white makes the zombies scarier than a blood-and-guts palette would – fantastic! First in the graphic novel series “My Boyfriend is a Monster,” each book featuring a different writer/artist pairup and a different variety of monstrous boyfriend. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)  Review copy  and cover art courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier (book review) – braces, school, yikes!

May13

book cover of Smile by Raina Telegemeier published by ScholasticBraces!
Junior high!
More braces!
High school!

I’ll bet that Raina felt like lots of her days as a teen were Friday the thirteenths, as this autobiographical graphic novel shows. I’ve met her at conferences, and she’s funny and cool and excited about new projects.

And her husband, Dave Roman, is a cartoonist/author, too! He proposed to her using a webcomic!
**kmm

Book info: Smile / by Raina Telgemeier. Graphix (Scholastic), 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Book Talk: A graphic novel about friends, family, boys, girls, and major dental drama! Autobiography in comic style – with braces! When Raina knocks out her 2 front teeth in sixth grade, getting braces doesn’t seem so bad. But her teeth won’t reset right, so it’s on to root canal surgery and a retainer with false front teeth and headgear to wear at night! Getting her ears pierced for her birthday makes things a little better; having a bratty little sister who teases her… well, Amara’s always like that.

Seventh grade gets interesting, with cute boys and the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 and more dental surgery (braces and headgear – again!). Raina wonders why some friends don’t stay friendly and why some boys aren’t friendly enough. She decides to try out for the basketball team in eighth grade (teeth-moving still in progress), enjoys being a Girl Scout camp counselor in the summer, and worries about going to high school.

So what will life in high school be like, with new friends and old friends, new classes and old heartaches, and her still in braces? Raina illustrates her own story with humor and style, as we walk with her through junior high and high school, with the next orthodontist’s appointment always on her mom’s calendar. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy  and cover image courtesy of the publisher.