From the cartoonist behind Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales comes a wacky new graphic novel series!
What happens when a couple of prehistoric creatures want to become internet stars? Trilobite and Amber (a walking whale) dream of fame and fortune. They don’t realize that most of the world thinks that they’re extinct. When a wandering paleo-newscaster introduces them to the world of internet videos, they hop at the chance to get behind the camera. The competition for internet fame will be fierce—Trilobite and Amber will face off against ancient sea creatures, talking cacti, floating cat heads, and more! Friendships will be tested, allies will be made, and cameras will be smashed! Our heroes will have to use all of their newfound skills when they find themselves competing in an all out video-making battle royale!
With laugh-out-loud gags and outrageous, elaborate artwork, fans of Dog Man and InvestiGators have never seen anything like Nathan Hale’s The Mighty Bite!
The Good
I. Art – there is a lot of moments with art that felt like creator was having fun. Some of the most memorable visuals was with the gorilla.
II. I could see information/the real facts about characters (extinct ones) slipping through.
III. It has seat of pants style that will be good for kids.
IV. Portion at the end – the information, inspiration, and more from author
The Meh
I did not enjoy this as much as I thought/wanted to.
Two Black sisters growing up in small-town New England fight to protect their home, their bodies, and their dreams as the Civil Rights Movement sweeps the nation in this “magical, magnificent novel” (Marlon James) from “a startlingly fresh voice” (Jacqueline Woodson).
The people of Salt Point could indeed be fearful about the world beyond themselves; most of them would be born and die without ever having gone more than twenty or thirty miles from houses that were crammed with generations of their families. . . . But something was shifting at the end of summer 1957.
The Kindred sisters–Ezra and Cinthy–have grown up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents, who let them believe that the stories they tell on stars can come true. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town, whose home is filled with spice-rubbed ribs and ground-shaking hugs. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful Maine village perched high up on coastal bluffs.
But as the girls hit adolescence, their white neighbors, including Ezra’s best friend, Ruby, start to see their maturing bodies and minds in a different way. And as the news from distant parts of the country fills with calls for freedom, equality, and justice for Black Americans, the white villagers of Salt Point begin to view the Kindreds and the Junketts as threats to their way of life. Amid escalating violence, prejudice, and fear, bold Ezra and watchful Cinthy must reach deep inside the wells of love they’ve built to commit great acts of heroism and grace on the path to survival.
In luminous, richly descriptive writing, Promise celebrates one family’s story of resistance. It’s a book that will break your heart–and then rebuild it with courage, hope, and love.
The Good
I. There is a lot to process from the story.
II. Inclusion of all the different characters and their backgrounds. It would be a good book club book or a story to study.
It made it so that there are different representations of parenthood, trauma, trajectory of lives, mothers, fathers, families (white and Black), Black families, older generation & younger and more.
It is important to emphasize that there is different representations of Black people even though there are two Black families in a majority white neighborhood.
III. Is the message of story the bittersweetness of Black life and ways Black folks survive & thrive? If that is the message it did a good job portraying that.
The Bad
I. I felt a distance in away with the Black characters because it seemed like there was something missing in their story.
II. There is a dissatisfaction I experienced with what the ultimate message(s) (or at least the messages I got) from the story.
The Meh
I think the story tried to show how Black people attempt to counterbalance the darkness of Black life, but it did not resonate emotionally with me.
Thoughts
I. Part of my reaction to this story is reading Cherokee Rose , Your Plantation Prom is Not Okay, and this back-to-back.
II. This is the second time I am seeing Black people be more well off than their white counterparts. So far it is not being explored as much as it could (or as I would like).
III. Are white characters getting more nuance than Black characters? Does it feel like they are allowed more space as characters because they get to step out of the script that is Black stories?
IV. Black story script
A. The constant feeling that Black stories are in funeral/mourning like there is a dark cloud over them.
B. Are messages, depths, and such lost because Black stories are on this script? The Black families keep finding themselves in majority white neighborhoods so that they can react to whiteness and be subjected to racial violence. Are they retracing the same messages because of all these prerequisite set ups?
II. What Stuck out to me
Intergeneration trauma but also what is passed on to deal with the roads of life.
How do you heal from intergenerational trauma? The healing part is what I am interested in now.
I won this from Random House Book Club via goodreads
themollyweather 