Saturday, September 15, 2007

New Graphica



My 10-year-old daughter has still not quite latched onto reading like the rest of the family. I'm sure it will come -- she certainly loves to be read to -- but one thing she will sit down and devour is a graphic novel. In an attempt to broaden her interests beyond Bone, I'm on the prowl for new titles. Last week's Globe and Mail listed a new crop for the season, and some certainly piqued my interest.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon is wordless, but the illustrations are charming. And I love the idea of Dog and Robot being best friends. (I've just finished a book on robots, so I'm particularly cued to anything robotic!) You can have a sneak-peek of 10 pages here. Here's a bit of what Nathalie Atkinson had to say in They Grow up so Quickly (Globe and Mail, September 8, 2007): "During a summer trip to the seaside, Dog's sidekick Robot rusts stiff after playing in the surf and is left behind. The immobile Robot and the Dog, while apart, cannot help thinking of one another, although Dog soon moves through successive replacement friendships with a family of migrating ducks, a penguin and a melting snowman. It's charming, delicate and heartbreaking." I'm on the prowl for this one.

Laika by Nick Abadzis also caught my interest since I'd read up on this space puppy while working on a space issue for KNOW. Not a happy story, but it will be interesting to see how they handle this tale in graphic form. Here's a peak from New York mag and from First Second's website.

Any graphic novels to recommend?

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