Wonderland

Well, got a new title in yesterday. Actually, someone else ordered it, but I asked her to. Wonderland by Tommy Kovac. It got good reviews and was recommended for the older end of the youth (not teen) spectrum, so I thought we'd give it a try. The person who ordered was a little unsure of the content, so she asked me to read it. I'm sorry to say I was bored. I'm sure other people would be entertained, but I've always been more of a spandex-fan at heart. At least I could reassure her that the picture that bothered her was the characters de-shrinking, not being de-capitated. The concept is cute (it follows the story of Maryann, the White Rabbit's unseen servant from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). Since I'm always looking for different content in Graphic Novels, I truly hope the kids enjoy it. Sorry, Mad Hatter fans, it's just not my cup of tea.

Well, I read the Yoko Tsuno book. It was written in the eighties and reads to me a lot like a Nancy Drew book from that era. Some people (presumably) died near the end, but the deaths were not seen. The plot is still sound, but the technology is a bit outdated (magnetic tape computers, for example). I think it will work for the collection, but I'm not going to get any of the others unless a patron REALLY wants them, especially since it's a $12 paperback that won't hold up well. At less than 1/2 an inch thick, 8/12x11 size pages, it's going to get mangled.

New comics/graphic novels:

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Great stuff! Good for the Captain Underpants crowd, with cleaner humor. Probably also good for Diary of a Wimpy Kid readers. I can't put it out for processing yet, since it doesn't go on sale until July 28. I'll put it on the to-do shelf when I work Saturday, since then it won't be done getting processed until well after then.

7 assorted Peanuts compilations--something some patrons have been asking for. I figure we can't go wrong with the classics.

Yoko Tsuno: The Prey and the Ghost by Roger Leloup. I ordered this because of a web review. I don't have time to read it today, so we'll see. It's a lot skinnier than I thought it would be.

Found some new(ish) superhero stuff that should be fine for kids: Tiny Titans by DC Comics, and Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors from Marvel. Chibi-style superheroes! Whee! So cute.

Edit 7/25/09
: for the record, we only have Tiny Titans in right now. Mini-Marvels are on my to-order list.

Garfield and a New Title

Added more Garfield books to the collections. Actually, I should say I added updated (i.e., colorized) versions of old Garfield titles to the collection. There are so many different Garfield books, I can't keep up. At least I don't have to try too hard, since there is no special chronology to the comic strips the books were made from.

I added a new title to the collection as well: T-Minus: The Race to the Moon. It's a fictionalized account of the Moon landing, just like the title implies, with a focus on two of the thosands of employees at NASA at the time. It's black and white, with lots of text, so I hope it gives some readers a nice challenge. (I don't want to just be stocking the shelves with fluff like Garfield.)

Dinosaurs and Fairies

Got a couple more good graphic novels in today:

Cameron and His Dinosaurs by Scott Christian Sava is really cool. Basically, an evil genius creates intelligent dinosaurs, but they don't want to work for him. (I giggled at the T-Rex telling the mad scientist to "seek professional help".) Instead, they make friends with a boy named Cameron. Meanwhile, the scientist still has to produce some dinosaurs for his more evil backers (bear in mind, some of this is firmly tongue in cheek). There's a lovely dino-vs-robot-dino battle, and all's well that ends well. Man, I hope there are sequels, though. This was great--no blood, just mashed metal, and the closest thing to sex was hand-holding (by adults). (IDW did a great job with the binding, too.)

Korgi, Book 1, by Christian Slade, is good in different ways. It's a sweet story about a "mollie" girl named Ivy and her korgie (a kind of dog/fox), Sprout. Aside from the introduction and a bit at the end describing some of the characters, the black-and-white story is wordless. Some of the monsters are scary, but Ivy and Sprout always come out right. I ordered this one after I read Book 2, actually, and wanted to add to the collection. BTW, mollies look like little people, but have wings. (More good binding, this time by Top Shelf.)

Pokemon Do Live!

Yes! Viz Comics is reissuing the Pokemon Adventures stories from at least a decade ago. We used to have several on the shelf, but they disintergrated. Believe me, I tried using as much book tape as I could on the covers to hold them together--they were that popular. With a little pre-emptive cover taping on these new digests, I should have books that last a while (Viz interior binding seems to hold up well, but any paperback graphic novel will loose its cover if not cared for after about ten circulations).

In all the time I've been working at a library, there are still kids who come up looking for Pokemon books. I would have thought the fad would have passed, but I can still find the cartoon on TV once in a while, and the video game is still going strong from Nintendo. I know kids in grade school who still pass around the trading cards. I'm glad I can re-fill the need for these books. The heavy demand was why the originals were kept in circulation as long as I could.

In other news, I found a cute little gem published by First Second called Tiny Tyrant. It looks quite well-bound.