Teen summer readers highly recommend these titles:

American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
This book is a graphic novel, in which there are many different stories going on in one book. There are humans, monkey, monsters and much more. Read the book to find out. I really liked this book, because it was a comic, which made it easy and fun to read. This book is great!

- Irma M.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
In the country of Westfalin, the twelve princesses are supposedly cursed. All the princes who attempt to find out why the princesses’ slippers are all worn out after every third night are killed in unfortunate accidents or duels. The princes cannot find the solution even though the king has offered the hand of one of his daughters if the mystery is solved. Unfortunately, the girls are not talking. Galen is a young soldier returning from the war, his parents dead. He seeks work with his aunt and uncle, the king’s gardeners. He begins work as an under-gardener. He asks the king for permission to try and solve the mystery. Quietly, he follows the princesses through a secret passageway to King Under Stone’s realm, where they attend the “Midnight Ball” every night. Galen watches them dance until dawn, working out a plan to free the princesses (especially Rose). On the third day, King Under Stone finds out that some stranger is in his realm, finding some nightshade on the floor. The princesses are taken and do not return to the palace above, and the palace turns frantic. Still underground, Galen kills King Under Stone by stabbing him with a branch of one of the silver trees in the forest behind the gates. King Under Stone is killed, and his oldest son, Illikin, becomes the new King Under Stone. Illikin is killed in the same manner as the first King Under Stone, and the next brother is the King. Galen uses a black wool chain and a silver crucifix to lock the realm of King Under Stone from the regular world. They all return to the palace happily. This book was exciting, action-packed, and great! The events have you on the edge of your seat, and you can’t put the book down.

- Suzie B.

You can read more reviews by our teens here!

Did you ever wish Dostoevsky had written Crime and Punishment with Raskolnikov dressed as Batman? Have you ever thought that Waiting for Godot could be improved with Beavis and Butthead? Have you ever awoken, dripping with fear, from a nightmare in which Garfield plays a rather convincing Mephistopheles?

Then R. Sikoryak’s Masterpiece Comics might be just right for you! As the cover suggests, this over-sized, hardbound title is "where classics and cartoons collide!" Sikoryak takes the best of literature, from Shakespeare, to Brontë, to Hawthorne, and rewrites the classics as newspaper and pulp comics. So, Wuthering Heights becomes "The Crypt of Brontë," like Tales from the Crypt, and the Book of Genesis becomes "Blonde Eve," like Blondie.

This book could have been a remarkable failure, but Sikoryak is such a talented adapter and artist that both the literary sources and the comics’ artists are respected in their imitation. The perfectly mimicked visuals guide the condensed stories along, synthesizing "high art" with "low art." Moreover, the satirical contrast between the "funny paper" characters and their imitating roles as great figures of literature provides plenty of laughs for fans of either medium.

But aside from all the potential analysis you could glean from Masterpiece Comics, it’s mostly a funny little book. It’s short enough to read in an afternoon and colorful enough to give to any teen as a primer for future literary ventures. Who knows? You may even find yourself thinking about Charlie Brown and Peanuts as a Kafkaesque adventure in existential crises.

Khaleel Gheba – Miller Branch

In this energetic and fast-paced graphic novel by Kevin Cannon, we join Army Shanks, "crusty old sea dog and legendary brawler of the high arctic seas" on the search for Far Arden, a mythical tropical island in the high Canadian Arctic. All the pieces of a great adventure are here. There’s an innocent orphan child; a secret society; a femme fatale; a man-beast; two intrepid student journalists; the Royal Canadian Arctic Navy; and a magical creature, leading the way to an island paradise that may or may not contravene all the laws of nature.

Shanks’ mentor Simon Arctavius was last seen searching for Far Arden on his ship the Aereopagitica. Now the ship is back, but Arctavius is nowhere to be found. Enter Shanks — somewhat belligerent and a little the worse for drink — to pick up the search, unravel the conspiracy, and reveal some truths along the way. No one here, except perhaps Army, is who they claim to be, and there are more than enough double crosses and hidden motives to go around, with the island as the prize.

The book borrows some plot structure from classical adventure, but takes a vibrant and funny approach, making it impossible to put down. Cannon brings together the pieces of his puzzle expertly, and is not above arching an eyebrow or breaking the fourth wall as he drops in clues and characters…or resets the stage. Although the illustrations are black and white, these simple graphic elements lend a great deal to the story. Fight scenes include descriptive sound effects — just one example of why this is a story best told in the graphic novel format.

Army Shanks is a great take on the honorable and opinionated loner-hero, and the Canadian High Arctic is a new and different location for his quest. Think John Wayne in gumboots and a really heavy cable-knit sweater, and go find Far Arden if you dare!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Shaun Tan

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a wordless graphic novel that captures the immigrant experience with remarkable emotional intensity. In a series of sepia images, we follow a father as he departs his homeland and travels to a strange and distant metropolis. Fleeing unpleasant circumstances at home, represented by the scaly and shadowy dragon tails in the streets, he is thrown together with strangers, separated from his wife and child, and carried to a strange land. When he arrives, he finds an unusual written language, radically different architecture, fascinating modes of transport, and some very distinctive animals. The book’s visuals convey his culture shock and force us to share it, because there’s little here that we recognize.

Many of the illustrations expand the story and establish a broad relevance. Endpapers show us people from many lands, in different styles of dress, suggesting that the experience of the man at the center of the story is representative. “Flashback” black and white illustrations show us scenes representing war, persecution, and forced labor, depicting the reasons why three of the immigrants featured in The Arrival left their homelands. If you look closely enough, you might recognize Ellis Island and Manhattan, as seen through the eyes of a newly-arrived and culture-shocked immigrant to the U.S in the early twentieth century.

Family is a critical component of this story. Tan skillfully depicts the emotional depths of separation and reunion, and makes it clear that the bonds of family are strained by distance, but not broken. The Arrival ends with a subtle and potent inter-generational suggestion that everything is going to work out fine, and shows the process of immigration and integration to be a consistent and evolving one.

The Arrival is a masterpiece of the graphic novel form. Reserve a copy today.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Editor’s note: Highly Recommended wishes you a Happy New Year! We will return on Friday, January 2.

With the rise in popularity of the graphic novel, authors have been looking at how to let the visual elements of a given story complement the text. Come join us on November 10 at 7:00 pm at the Miller Branch to discuss American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. In American Born Chinese, the author weaves together three different stories that deal with the problems of young Chinese Americans, including shame, racism, and friendship, in a comic book format. The author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret also uses illustrations to help tell the story, but in a different way.

The Miller Branch’s Monday Night Book Club meets the second Monday of each month at 7:00 pm.

Michele Happel – Miller Branch

Following up on her grandmother’s family stories, film-maker Ann Marie Fleming embarks on an extended and global search for the truth about her family, their history, and their experiences during the mid-twentieth century. She first showcased her findings in a documentary film, and in 2007, published The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, an “illustrated memoir” that is a remarkable hybrid of non-fiction, graphic novel, and exhibit catalog. Fleming’s family story has a touch of mystery, a dash of romance, lots of celebrity, and drama that is ideally suited to this unconventional presentation.

Throughout the book, Fleming interlaces her own story of research and discovery with the extraordinary biography of Long Tack Sam. Mini-comics present various family stories about Sam, his early life, and how he received his training as a magician and acrobat in China. Photo-journal sections provide biographies of Sam’s surviving contemporaries and Fleming’s principal informants. Old photographs, handbills, and posters show Sam at work and at the height of his celebrity as a vaudeville star in New York City in the early 1920s.

The story of Sam and his family has an international dimension that makes it engaging on another level. Hailing from China, Sam travels first to Europe where he meets and marries his Austrian wife, Poldi, and then, during the First World War, moves on to the United States. Sam’s vaudeville career in New York takes a big hit from the rise of the motion picture, and eventually the family tours Australia, New Zealand, and China to find new audiences, while also performing an annual show in Hawaii. World War II and the Communist Revolution in China further disrupt the family, as they experience these global events first-hand.

Spanning the world more than once, this story is so much more than a glimpse into the heyday of magic and the theater between the wars. Prepare to be amazed by The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Heroes tells the story of ordinary people who discover that they have extraordinary powers. While their power drives some to insanity or evil pursuits, others use it to help. One hero has the power to see the future, and it doesn’t look good. Can the heroes work together to stop the end of the world?

This televison series features a complicated story line that keeps one guessing, though never so complicated that it slows down the movement of the plot. We learn about the characters as they learn about themselves. Although the series portrays some adult themes and some violence, I think viewers may like the intricate stories.

Heroes, Volume 1, the comic book companion to the TV series, uses a variety of artists and authors to tell the story. It reveals the characters in greater depth and also introduces some new personalities. The book follows the television series, and though it’s best read in conjunction with viewing the DVDs, it could also stand alone as a graphic novel.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch