Jellaby - Kean Soo

here it is. the 50th post of 2008. i did it. i have officially read 50 books this year. take that 50 book challenge! if you're interested google "50 book challenge" and check it out. mind you i've actually read much more than 50 books this year, but i only blog about the kid and teen books i read. i decided that my reading of grown up books shouldn't come with additional homework.

i think "jellaby" is a good book to hit 50 with. a graphic novel i've been meaning to read for a while. thank you kean soo for such a cute book. told in shades of purple, with the odd dash of colour, such as portia's red hair clip or jason's orange t-shirt, i couldn't help but be reminded of "harold and the purple crayon". and you could certainly do worse than that.

when portia and her mom move to a new town, portia has difficulty making new friends. of course i'm sure it doesn't help when her classmates are giving book reports on "horton hatches the egg" and portia decides to do "reason and emotion: classical and romantic philosophies in tom stoppard's arcadia". thankfully this is the only bit of academia in the book, otherwise i'm sure it would alienate it's intended audience.

one night portia looks out her window to see a strange dragon-like creature running off into the woods. she gives chase and brings the lost and frightened creature home with her. this is jellaby. although jellaby is a creature of few words, he is very expressive, and has a well-defined sense of right and wrong. when portia and jellaby witness the school bullies picking on the aforementioned jason, jellaby spurs portia to action. the three become friends and decide to work together to get jellaby to toronto where he will hopefully be reunited with his family. there's a great illustration of a go train station that really brought me back to my days in outer suburbia.

a wonderful graphic novel by a regular contributor to the popular "flight" anthologies.

Aya and Aya of Yop City - Marguerite Abouet

a pair of beautifully packaged graphic novels depicting urban middle class life in the ivory coast in the 1970s. the story (started in "aya" and continued in "aya of yop city") focuses on a female high school student named aya, her two girlfriends adjoua and bintou, and their families. i really enjoyed these two books. clement oubrerie's illustrations offer wonderful depictions of abouet's simple story about young women growing up in africa. sort of how "persepolis" offered us a glimpse into the life of a young woman growing up in revolutionary iran, "aya" gives us a glimpse of growing up in africa. one of the nice things about this story is that abouet presents the africa of her childhood, and although in abouet's africa things are not perfect, this is also not the negatively sensationalized africa of the evening news plagued by war, famine and aids. if you are a fan of more mature graphic novels like "persepolis" or guy delisle's travelogues, i highly recommend taking the time to read "aya" and "aya of yop city".

Life Sucks - Jessica Abel

abel's graphic novel offers up a hilarious addition to an already well-populated canon of vampire lit. if "clerks" and "buffy the vampire slayer" managed to procreate, "life sucks" would be the result of that unholy union.

dave miller is a vampire stuck in a dead end job. he's the night manager at the last stop convenience store. dave is to dante as his buddy jerome is to randall. dave is the conscientious schmuck that is not only doomed to an eternal hell of vampiric convenience store employment, but must also compete for the affections of human goth beauty rosa with his psychotic surfer jock tormentor wes.

and if that's not the makings of a classic movie, i don't know what is. though i must warn you, i thought the harold and kumar movies were quite witty.

Paul Goes Fishing - Michel Rabagliati

i really do love paul. i read "paul moves out" a couple of years ago and was really blown away by the honesty of it. although rabagliati's "paul" books can be read as standalones, "paul goes fishing" is actually a continuation of "paul moves out". paul and lucie are settled into their new apartment and settling into life as "real grown-ups". these are lovely quiet books, that ring so true to life i have to keep reminding myself that paul is not michel. rabagliati has a way of celebrating and immortalizing the real day-to-day lives of his characters. of course, he does find ways to tie in, through paul's musings, comments on society and provide a larger picture of the world that paul and his friends and family inhabit, but it is done in a very natural way. very much as though you or i were walking down the street and something like the building of a new large drug store caused us to think about the old building that had been torn down and what this new structure would do to the downtown. if you want a book to read while on your summer vacation that will make you smile in small ways, then may i suggest "paul goes fishing"?