Picture It. Secret of the Andes: The Graphic Novel!

Neil Gaiman reported it and Monica Edinger followed up on it. It seems that images from the upcoming Coraline graphic novel are available for viewing. This is an interesting move on Gaiman's part. Recent children's novels for the middle grade set have been adapted into graphic novel formats with reasonable success. Until now, however, most of these have been series. The Baby-Sitters Club. The Warriors. Now we've a stand alone fantasy novel in a GN format. Will this confuse those readers assigned the book in school? If other stand alone books follow suit will they all be fantasies? Or will we see things like graphic novel adaptations of things like Penny From Heaven and Rules? Frankly, the thought of GN Newbery books excites me quite a lot. One would never replace the other, but I love the idea of tackling serious children's books with new formats.

*cough* Of course, only REALLY smart and forward-thinking publishers would attempt this *cough*

And Since It's Free Comic Book Day

I'm always sobbing and crying over the dearth of quality children's graphic novels out there in the American stratosphere. Not to say there aren't some nice ones. I'd just like to see a whole heckuva lot more. Now for a while I was confused and thought that the GN series Flight was intended for kids. This turned out not to be the case, but it has led to a spinoff for the entlings called Flight Explorer.

Kazu Kibuishi: I had been hearing a lot of librarians and booksellers talk about how much they wanted good comics for younger readers, and I saw how there was so little of it out there with the exception of Jeff Smith’s Bone. Flight always contained a high percentage of material that would be perfect for young readers, but the more mature content often steered parents and librarians away from sharing the books with kids…

Random House's Ballantine Books will be putting this out in the Spring of 2008. Thanks to the Flight blog for the link.

In other comicy news there's now a graphic novel version of Redwall out there. I guess this was a natural progression. First The Warriors. Then Redwall. Then, I suppose, someone'll do Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. That'll be followed up by Poppy which, in turn, will lead to Despereaux. And so on and so forth.

2007 Booklist Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth

All righty. Let's see how we did.

Lemme see here.... out of a potential 10 Top Graphic Novels for Youth I've read and reviewed... five. Hm. 50% of the listed titles. Still, I loved all five. No objections there. Still, I wouldn't have minded seeing a Babymouse or Gray Horses inclusion.

Thanks to Flight 4 for the link.

The Pigeon Man's Checkered Past

Oh sure. He seems like a nice man. He loves his wife and daughter. He worked for Sesame Street. He does low-paying lectures to the public for free at the library (more on THAT later). But what do we really know about Mo Willems? What if he had some deep dark secret in his past. What if.... WHAT IF ....

He made graphic novels!!!

Okay. So posting this information on your blog kind of negates the whole "deep dark secret" thing. Granted. What I love about the panels I've seen is that if you're familiar with Mo's books, you can sort of piece together whether or not they look like his style. They do. It was called The 7th Helper and it was supposed to take place outside of the DC Universe. So where's the GN today? Says Mr. W, "DC said they’d release it as a B&W manga, which I don’t believe, but still hope for." It seems to me that with the rise in Mo's popularity, his audience is growing up and getting into graphic novels. And what with graphic novels being bigger than ever (i.e. bought by libraries) the time couldn't be better to release a Mo Willems bit of graphic paraphernalia. Heck, if Tek Jansen can do it, so can Mr. Mo.

Other Blogger Notes

Yesterday I watched Bridge to Terabithia and The Lives of Others in quick succession. Literally one hour passed between the two. In that state of .... severe mental confusion is the only term that comes to mind, I was not able to write up my Review of the Day (and it's a doozy too) or even scout out much interesting info. So here are just a couple things I saw recently that caught my eye on other blogs as particularly smart/funny.

First up, books you love to hate. Or, rather, the ones you couldn't finish. When Leila Roy saw an article in The Guardian discussing the books your average British reader couldn't get through (check out #2), she opened up the topic and there definitely been some interesting comments. Who knew Francine Green couldn't hold her own?

Your average Pixie Stix Kids posting tends to come in a clump. There won't be anything for a week or so, and then suddenly you'll find yourself inundated with intelligent conversation. The most recent piece of interest? A trendwatch on emerging graphic forms for children. The hypothesis is thrown out that the graphic-centered book is a trend. Which is to say, it may go away. I think it is not a trend. Feel free to discuss. (UPDATE: Oh my God, she wrote even more information on the topic! I feel exhausted just looking at it).

Now I'm always delighted when editors take the time to give some advice to their authorial charges. Cheryl Klein is one of the best, so her recent piece Slush Pile Saturday, Ms. K offers her thoughts on, "The number one problem in novel submissions," poor first chapters, and the importance of killer last lines.

Speaking of advice, here's some from another sector entirely. I'm always terrible when it comes to promoting the latest publication of the online kidlit webzine The Edge of the Forest. Well, it's out now (go, shoo) and MotherReader's Pam Coughlan has a great piece in it entitled Be a B-List Blogger. If you have ever wondered how to increase stats on your kidlit blog, this piece may help.

Sometimes we're so smothered in snark that we have a hard time appreciating the "nice". And I'm talking actual "nice" here. Not ooey-gooey saccharine-filled "nice". So there's this new thing at 7-Imp that they're trying out where every week-end people will, "gather and discuss what Beautiful and/or Kick-Ass Things Happened to You or That You Read or That You Noticed This Week." Sounds good. It'd be cool if there were a blog program that could waver between a blog and a wiki whenever the mood struck you. Technology not having progressed quite so far, this will do in the interim.

I Go Pogo. Yourself?

I'm just having a kind of Pogo-riffic week. First I hear about They Might Be Giants adapting an I Go Pogo song (thanks to Dan) and THEN I hear that Fantagraphics (the people who brought you those fab-oo Peanuts collections) will be releasing Pogo comics in the same format (thanks to Dan). And even better, they're being designed by Jeff Smith, the man behind the Bone comics. So stock up on 'em for your libraries, m'sweets. In a couple of years your kids will be asking you who exactly that Spiro Agnew guy was.

Comic Round-Up

The website poetryfoundation.org has come up with a novel idea on how to increase interest in their archive of poetic contributions. They've "let loose" (their own words) graphic novelists on their poems. The first of the series was Diane Wakoski’s 1966 work “Belly Dancer” which was reinvented by graphic novelist David Heatley. It's a fun idea. And I wouldn't mind finding a children's poetry website that does the same thing. Thanks to Bookninja for the link.

There's also a Comic Convention coming up here in New York that I get to go to for free because I'm a librarian. I'm not certain how it is that my profession gives me this perk, but I'm cool with it. Seems of particular interest then to note that the very first Kids Comic Con is about to be held at the Bronx Community College on April 28, 2007. I'm not familiar enough with that world to recognize any of the speakers, but perhaps someone else will be.

And then there have been two graphic novels as of late that have caught my eye as potential kid picks. The first is something called Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier. It came out in 2005 but has been getting all kinds of rave reviews. Clearly I am behind the times. Still, with blurbs from Dav Pilkey, Lemony Snicket, Craig Thompson, and even the CCBC, it must be doing something right.

The Brits, for their part, have given us a little something by the name of Fluffy. It's being published here in American starting February 27th and not by a children's publisher. Still, for all its adult potential it may be worth looking to see whether or not this would make a good addition to a children's GN collection.

And finally, in terms of bookstores that actually go out and SELL graphic novels, there was some sad news lately regarding Minneapolis's Dreamhaven Books. They've recently suffered a break-in and what with three bookstores recently closing in the same city, this could take a serious toll on the store. So if you're in the mood to buy a book as of late, please consider doing so through their online site. You'll be a better person if you do. Scout's honor.

Oh Warriors! Come Out and Play-yeeee!

For certain members of my generation, I will have to clarify. The film The Warriors is not being made into a graphic novel (though the odds are good that it probably was at some point). Instead, Tokyopop and Harper Collins have banded together for the first time ever to bring you Erin Hunter's ridiculously popular Warriors series. Manga cats.

Those of you familiar with the series (or who know kids that are) will find this more enlightening than I:

According to TOKYOPOP, Warriors: The Lost Warrior will feature "a very special note" from the author to Warriors fans. Warriors: The Lost Warrior manga series, created by Dan Jolley and James Barry, tells the untold tale of the feline hero Graystripe: his life with humans and his ultimate quest to be reunited with his clan. Graystripe's story in the manga series bridges the gap between Hunter's "The New Prophecy" (the second series) and the next installment of the Warriors novel series Power of Three, the beginning of the third series.

It's all due out in May of 2007. If major retailers start promoting this adequately, I suspect that the response will be massive. Stock your libraries now, kittens.

Thanks to the Sandbox for the link.