Review - Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom

Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom (Frazzled #1)
by Booki Vivat
Date: 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: MG
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 240
Format: e-book
Source: library

Meet Abbie Wu! She’s about to start middle school and she’s totally in crisis.

Abbie Wu is in crisis—and not just because she’s stuck in a family that doesn’t quite get her or because the lunch ladies at school are totally corrupt or because everyone seems to have a “Thing” except her. Abbie Wu is in crisis always.

Heavily illustrated and embarrassingly honest, Frazzled dives right into the mind of this hilariously neurotic middle school girl as she tries to figure out who she is, where she belongs, and how to survive the everyday disasters of growing up. With Abbie’s flair for the dramatic and natural tendency to freak out, middle school has never seemed so nerve-racking!

Packed with hilarious black-and-white illustrations and doodles throughout, Frazzled takes readers through Abbie Wu’s hysterical middle school adventures.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book when I started it. After all, I can't really relate to the middle school experience. I seem to have missed it! When I was in fifth grade, the K-6 school I attended made some changes that would see the sixth graders at the junior high (originally 7-8) the next year. But then I moved over the summer... to a place where elementary school was K-7. I should've gone into junior high (8-10) after that, but the year I finished grade seven, the schools combined the junior and senior highs (8-12), dumping us poor grade eights at the bottom of a very tall ladder. We endured a year of listening to the chants of, "Grade eights suck!" at every single assembly, in front of all the teachers (this was in the days before anyone cared much about bullying), and when we finally made it to grade nine, we thought the worst was over. Nope. "Grade nines suck!" echoed through the first assembly of the year.

It kind of reminded me of what happened to Abbie in this book. For whatever reason, the eighth graders at her middle school felt threatened by the incoming younger students, and took out their frustrations in the only way that was permissible: by making lunch miserable for anyone below the eighth grade. So... this is completely unrealistic (you can't tell me that you wouldn't have at least one irate parent calling in about the underhanded bullying by the older kids and the lunch ladies, which basically forced the younger kids to eat crap), but it was kind of necessary to drive the story, which revolves around Abbie finding her Thing.

I wasn't crazy about Abbie at all points during the story, but it was mostly where she felt contrived that I didn't like her as much. She whines about ending up in Study Hall for her elective, but her refusing to choose an elective is what put her there in the first place! (Of course, she needs to be in Study Hall so that she can find her Thing, so I get why it was done. Still, I didn't enjoy reading about someone complain, when she was only in that situation because of her own choices.)

The artwork kind of grew on me. At first, I thought it was too simple. I mean, it looked a lot like the doodles in my own notebooks from school! But I think it really worked here because the illustrations looked like something a middle-schooler might have scrawled during a particularly boring class.

This book would probably be enjoyed more by people who are in the midst of (or who have had) a middle-school experience, but even without that perspective, I still enjoyed it. Although the story was a bit light on plot, I liked the characters and the tone. I think I might like reading more about Abbie Wu and her melodramatic observations about the Middles.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Illustration: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets

Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets: A Muslim Book of Shapes
by Hena Khan
illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini
Date: 2018
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

From a crescent moon to a square garden to an octagonal fountain, this breathtaking picture book celebrates the shapes--and traditions--of the Muslim world. Sure to inspire questions and observations about world religions and cultures, Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets is equally at home in a classroom reading circle and on a parent's lap being read to a child.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a beautiful little book that I happened to see at the library. At first, I thought it might be aimed at toddlers (considering that it's a "book of shapes"), but it would probably be a little better suited to children who are a bit older.

The illustrations are really gorgeous, incorporating a diverse cast of Muslim characters from all over the world, along with shapes and patterns and arabesques that give the book a unique flavour. If I had one complaint, it was that I didn't realize there was a glossary at the back, and I was confused throughout much of my first reading because there were a lot of words I didn't understand. Because of that, I thought that the book might only be suitable for Muslim children whose parents could explain these words. But after I found the glossary, I went back and read the book again, and it all made sense.

Overall, this is a great little picture book for teaching children about the art and architecture of Islam. I'd definitely recommend this one!

Quotable moment:

Oval is the table
where we break our fast.
When the sun sets,
it's iftar time at last.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.86 out of 5

Review - Swing It, Sunny

Swing It, Sunny (Sunny #2)
by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Date: 2017
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Reading level: MG
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 224
Format: e-book
Source: library

Summer's over and it's time for Sunny Lewin to enter the strange and unfriendly hallways of... middle school. When her Gramps calls her from Florida to ask how she's doing, she always tells him she's fine. But the truth? Sunny is NOT having the best time.

Not only is the whole middle school thing confusing... but life at home is confusing, too. Sunny misses her brother Dale, who's been sent to boarding school. But when Dale comes back, she STILL misses him... because he's changed.

Luckily Sunny's got her best friend and a mysterious new neighbor on her side... because she is NOT going let all this confusion get her down. Instead, she's going to remain Sunny-side up!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Well, that was just as underwhelming as the first book in the series.

I know this is middle grade, so you can't get too far into the darker themes, but I really don't get Sunny's brother. Something nasty has to be going on behind the scenes, because he's so messed up. The whole time I was reading it, I was thinking about things like secret abuse, or something going on in that family. It's implied that he's a delinquent "just because", and while that might be the way it sometimes is in real life, in fiction it just seems like lazy storytelling. (I don't think that synopsis is particularly accurate, either. Other than his haircut, Dale is pretty much the same troubled teenager he always was. I was hoping for a bit more character development there.)

Aside from that, the plot is non-existent. It's just a bunch of random scenes loosely connected by Sunny's feelings about missing her brother. She meets a new neighbour, learns to play with batons, and laughs at her little brother eating sand. That's about it. It's very sparse, and it comes to a halt so abruptly that I didn't realize for a moment that the book had ended. The resolution was pat. The actual ending was abrupt.

I didn't enjoy this one any more than the first book in the series. I think I'm done with Sunny.

Plot: 1/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 2/5
Originality: 1/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 1.86 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Artificial Condition

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novella
Pages: 176
Format: e-book
Source: library

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself "Murderbot".

But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don't want to know what the "A" stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks...

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'm so glad my library got this e-book, because I just couldn't bring myself to pay full price for a novella, no matter how much I love the main character. Murderbot is back, with its unique voice and wry observations about humanity. This time, though, it's joined by another artificial intelligence named ART, who is probably my second favourite character in this installment.

As a sequel, this story is fine, but it's kind of lacking in action, especially compared to the first book. Murderbot takes on three young clients who hire it as a security consultant for a trip to a mining planet; but it has ulterior motives, since it wants to get to the planet itself and investigate what really happened when it supposedly lost its mind and slaughtered a whole bunch of humans.

The revelations about the massacre weren't all that interesting, and I have to wonder if that's the end of that thread or if there's more to it. At the end of the installment, Murderbot's off to carry out another plan (which we as readers have no knowledge of), and I'm curious to find out what will happen next.

Murderbot is a good enough character that I still enjoyed this, but I hope there's a little more action in the third and fourth books. And I hope we get to see ART again at some point! (It's really not as much of an "A" as Murderbot seems to think.)

Quotable moment:

Granted, it would have been hard to show realistic SecUnits in visual media, which would involve depicting hours of standing around in brain-numbing boredom, while your nervous clients tried to pretend you weren't there. But there weren't any depictions of SecUnits in books, either. I guess you can't tell a story from the point of view of something that you don't think has a point of view.

Premise: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Pashmina

Pashmina
by Nidhi Chanani
Date: 2017
Publisher: First Second
Reading level: YA
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 182
Format: e-book
Source: library

Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri’s mom avoids these questions―the topic of India is permanently closed.

For Pri, her mother's homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film. But is this the real India? And what is that shadow lurking in the background? To learn the truth, Pri must travel farther than she’s ever dared and find the family she never knew.

In this heartwarming graphic novel debut, Nidhi Chanani weaves a tale about the hardship and self-discovery that is born from juggling two cultures and two worlds.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a weird little book. I don't mind elements of magic in contemporary stories, but this book has a few problems that prevented me from enjoying it more.

The main issue I had was that I'm not sure who the audience is. The main character is probably around 16 (she's learning to drive, and it's mentioned that her mother was her age when she got pregnant), and there are some definite heavier issues dealt with in the story (family drama, a sick baby, abandonment, poverty). However, the pashmina element of the story was ridiculous and juvenile.

So Priyanka finds a pashmina (basically an embroidered scarf) in her mother's things. When she puts it on, she's transported in her mind to India (these sections were done in full colour, while the main narrative was black and white; I liked the contrast). I don't have a problem with this, except for the fact that she's guided around this fictional India by a talking elephant and peacock. That just felt really juvenile, and after finishing, I'm still not sure what the point of those characters was. They made me feel like I'd stepped sideways into a middle-grade title every time the switch happened. And then we discover that the pashmina itself is a lying, manipulative piece of cloth, showing the wearer an idealized version of their future, not necessarily the truth. While it's a nice notion to have the pashmina show women their potential, I think it would've been even better if it had been realistic; as it was, the accessory came across as an overselling manipulator. (I never thought I'd have to say something like that about a scarf!)

The Indian culture that was included (the fashion, food, words, and family relationships) was all done fairly well. I didn't really like Priyanka as a character, but that was probably because I had a hard time connecting with her. I'm not sure she was developed that well. A big part of the story was--or should have been--her drawing her comic books, but it wasn't really emphasized as much as it could've been (especially in the beginning) if it was that big a part of her life. Where it was included, I wasn't impressed. At one point, her teacher suggests she enter a contest. She says no. So he enters for her! I was appalled. If she said no, she might've had a very good reason; entering her comic without consent just seemed a bit creepy... especially considering the crush Priyanka had on said teacher.

Overall, it wasn't the worst graphic novel I've read, but it wasn't the best, either. The cultural elements are good, but they're not quite enough to carry the story, and the juvenile talking animals and magical manipulative pashmina rubbed me the wrong way.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - M. F. K.

M.F.K.: Book One
by Nilah Magruder
Date: 2017
Publisher: Insight Comics
Reading level: YA
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 128
Format: e-book
Source: library

A fantastic adventure following the story of Abbie, a deaf girl with a mysterious power, who is traveling across a vast desert to scatter her mother's ashes.

In a world of sleeping gods, a broken government, and a fragile peace held in the hands of the corrupt, one youth must find the strength to stand up against evil and save humanity.

This story is not about that youth.

It's about Abbie, who just wants to get to the mountain range called the Potter's Spine, scatter her mother's ashes, and then live out her life in sweet, blissful solitude. Unfortunately, everyone she meets wants to whine at her about their woes, tag along on her quest, arrest her for no reason, or blow her to bits.

Journeys are hard on the social recluses of the world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

That synopsis has got to be one of the most misleading I've ever read. It's not a fantastic adventure. I don't think I'd even call it an adventure. It was a confused mishmash that I couldn't wait to finish.

First, the art. Let's start with the cover. It's also misleading. That's a scene that must take place long before the story begins, because when we meet Abbie, her moa (the birdlike creature) is almost dead. We don't know what happened. Abbie's wounded, and it's never explained how. From there, the artwork really messed with my head. We'd jump from beautiful illustrations to sketches that looked almost like they were done by an untalented child. I almost wonder if they were placeholders and just got forgotten about during the editing process. If the whole book had been illustrated in a consistent style, I might've had a more favourable reaction to it.

The characters ranged from annoying to disgusting. Abbie herself is a bit of a mystery. She's deaf, but it plays zero role in the story. She has a hearing aid that basically erases any sort of disability, so I'm not sure why her deafness was included, other than for diversity points. Jaime, a boy who helps rescue Abbie from a sandstorm, is an irksome little twit. He also comes from a family of abusers. I don't think the author intended for it to come across like that, but they were awful. His parents abandoned him, and it's excused by saying they had to chase their own path (or some such nonsense). His grandfather and aunt are both physically abusive. It's written/drawn for laughs, but I didn't find it funny. The aunt is downright scary; I thought she was going to turn into some supernatural demon a few times. The mayor is a wimpy coward for the sake of moving the plot forward; someone that spineless wouldn't retain power for long in real life. The villains were ridiculous, and it doesn't help when they have boring names like Derek and are drawn as comical stereotypes. The main villain can't even get his own origin story straight; he mentions getting his supernatural powers from devas, and then goes on a spiel about how he's the way he is because of science. (I thought maybe the people in this story regarded the devas as part of science, but then Jaime's aunt equates them to religion... so that was confusing.)

There was very little plot to speak of. I guess there's another installment after this one, but I definitely won't be bothering. There was little enough here, other than a whole bunch of action panels with onomatopoeia and inconsistent drawings. We don't know much more about the world than we did before we started. (Is it supposed to be Earth after some calamity? If not, why does Abbie wear a pair of familiar red sneakers? Why does everyone have recognizable, rather than made-up, names?) There are some tantalizing hints about certain things, but not enough to make me want to slog through another installment of annoying characters and lagging plot.

I'm not impressed.

Plot: 1/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1.88 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Witch of Duva

The Witch of Duva (Grishaverse #0.5)
by Leigh Bardugo
Date: 2011
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 15
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls... or so the story goes. But it’s just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel, Shadow and Bone.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is the second of the companion stories I've read that are set in the world of the Grisha, the other one being The Demon in the Wood. Unlike that story, which is more of a prequel/origin story to the Grisha trilogy, The Witch of Duva is a standalone folk tale that could be read without any knowledge of the other books and stories.

I can't really find much to complain about. Although parts were graphic and disturbing, that's often the nature of stories like this. Those parts made perfect sense in the plot, though, and added a sense of urgency and peril. There's a definite Russian flavour to the story, with hints of Baba Yaga, but I also thought of Hansel and Gretel while I was reading. I can't really say much more about the plot without giving anything away.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Bardugo's writing. Perhaps this will get me motivated to check out Six of Crows.

Quotable moment:

Some wondered if the girls might have just walked into the wood, lured there by their hunger. There were smells that wafted off the trees when the wind blew a certain way, impossible scents of lamb dumplings or sour cherry babka. Nadya had smelled them herself, sitting on the porch beside her mother, trying to get her to take another spoonful of broth. She would smell roasting pumpkin, walnuts, brown sugar, and find her feet carrying her down the stairs toward the waiting shadows, where the trees shuffled and sighed as if ready to part for her.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 ladybugs