Little Robot by Ben Hatke

September 10, 2015 |

We’re taking part in the blog tour for Ben Hatke’s brand new graphic novel for kids, Little Robot. You can see the full schedule here and you should visit all of the sites to check out what they have to say about this delightful read.

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Ben Hatke’s Little Robot is a near-wordless graphic novel suitable for upper elementary, middle grade, and older readers — and more than that, it’s a sweet story about friendship, about girls who do and make things, and about how it’s not always a bad thing to be different. It is a feminist graphic novel for even the youngest of readers.

Our main character is a young black girl, and while she’s unnamed, we know a lot about her. She lives in a poor area, in a trailer home, and she often feels left out by her peers and siblings. During the time other kids are at school, she prefers to sneak through the fence to one of the neighborhood backyards and swing on their swing set. This is an activity that seems to be noticed by the homeowner, but it’s not something he shoos her away from.

One day, though, the main character decides to go on an adventure. When she wanders down to the dump to wander around through the broken and abandoned pieces of other people’s lives, she sees a box floating in the nearby creek. Upon further investigation, she discovers it’s not just a box; inside is a robot.

Using her skills, she builds the robot into a complete creature, and they quickly become close friends.

It becomes apparent quickly, though, that something is odd about the robot being discovered. As readers, we’re privy to it because we’ve seen the beginning of the book, but neither the young girl nor the robot know. The robot had fallen off a truck heading to a plant where he’d be shipped elsewhere, and now, machines are out on the hunt to recover the lost robot. When the robot is discovered and his return to the warehouse seems inevitable, can the little girl use her strengths to keep her friend near her? Or will she lose him?

Little Robot, being as light on text as it is, relies on story telling through its pictures, and those pictures are, without question, the stars of the book. Each little detail is carefully drawn, and emotions and thoughts are depicted clearly through slight changes in character faces, stances, and actions. This is true of both the girl and the robot, and seeing how they interact with one another is sweet without being saccharine or cloying:

But what really makes this graphic novel resonate is the way that the main character is a girl who loves science and technology. She’s clever and she’s industrious, with no fear of trying new things, even if they don’t always work out the way she hopes. There’s curiosity and interest in trying and in making, and seeing that played out in such a fearless manner is memorable. More, that it’s a black girl who isn’t from the best of circumstances makes it even more powerful — STEM is for anyone who wants to explore science and tech, and Hatke does a major service in showing this through his story. Girls will see someone like them tinkering and toying and having fun with it. The gleeful expression in the very last panel above says it all.

Graphic novels like this are so enjoyable to read, and Little Robot is no exception. In many ways, this reminded me of Sara Varon’s work, particularly Robot Dreams. It’s smart, charming, funny, and full of heart without shying away from tackling some big complex issues on a level that young readers just “get.” This is a must-purchase for libraries and school classrooms, though because it’s by Ben Hatke, I probably don’t even need to say that.

Some Girls Are Donation Drive: The Response

September 9, 2015 |

A quick post to share a few links to stories that wrap up and are the direct result of the amazing outpouring of donations to get Some Girls Are into the hands of teens in Charleston.

First, I wrote about the process and final send out results at Book Riot. This post hit reddit, and then later on, it hit the front page of reddit. That sort of readership — and the result was overwhelmingly positive — made me even prouder of what we were able to make happen. Along with getting books to teens, we raised the issue of censorship with a huge audience that may otherwise never understood how it works. Here’s the piece.

Meanwhile, down in Charleston, the local news channels have been running with the story. ABC 4 interviewed Andria about the donation drive, and that helped get the word out to the community to come out and pick up books. According to Andria, the library nearest to West Ashley is already asking for more copies since they’ve been being picked up quickly.

CBS 5 in Charleston also interviewed Andria, and this particular video is more than worth the watch. One of the teens who read the book talks about it and how much it mattered to her. A mother, too, is interviewed about the book and both highlight why I wanted to help with this initiative. Watch it here and prepare to get misty-eyed like me.

This afternoon, a reporter from the Charleston Post and Courier gave me a call, and we talked about book challenges, my experiences working with teens, and I rambled at great length about intellectual freedom and teenagers. Here’s the piece.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. The impact is not small, and I couldn’t be prouder than seeing and hearing about the teens who are picking up the book and opening up conversations, among themselves and with adults in their lives.

Long Weekend Reading Part 2: Princeless

September 9, 2015 |

After finishing up Lumberjanes this weekend (and being very sad I didn’t have more to read immediately), I started on Princeless by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin. This comic ticks so many of my boxes: fairy tale re-telling, a smart girl who can fight, a little big of magic, plenty of snark.

The protagonist of Princeless is Adrienne, a princess whose parents (the king and queen) have imprisoned her in a tower guarded by a dragon. It’s a tradition in their kingdom; the idea is that only the bravest, best (male) warrior will be able to defeat the dragon and rescue the princess, thereby earning the right to be the next king (women and girls cannot rule in their own right, of course). Adrienne learns of this tradition in a very Disney-fied way when she’s a little girl, and there’s some awesome snark where she just rails against this terrible story, begging her mother not to lock her up like that. But of course, that’s how it goes for her. At least at first.

Adrienne doesn’t put up with it for long. She’s formed a bond with her dragon, who has eaten many would-be dragon-slayers over the months (years?) she’s been in the tower. And when Adrienne decides enough is enough, the dragon – Sparky – helps her stage her own death so she can go rescue her sisters, who are similarly locked up in towers.

I love how Princeless plays with fairy tale tropes, mocking them in a loving sort of way. There’s one awesome scene where Adrienne decides to stop by a shop to get some armor that fits her (she had previously cobbled a set together from the dead knights’ leftovers). The female armor offered has names like the Diana, and it’s as impractical as the name would suggest. Of course, Adrienne is able to convince the smith (another girl who becomes her friend and adventures with her) that armor for women and girls doesn’t have to differ that much from armor for men and boys. It’s a perfect scene, great for the comic’s intended age group of middle grade readers.

One of the most important aspects of Princeless is that Adrienne is black. It’s really, really rare to find a black princess in a fairy tale story, particularly one so uber-white as Rapunzel. Whitley and Goodwin call attention to this, too, in an early part of the story, when one of Adrienne’s would-be rescuers refers to her as “fair,” as many fairy-tale knights do in other tales. “Be you a moron?” she says to him. “Do you know what fair means? You’re so anxious to take a wife! Why don’t you take a book first?”

I was reminded strongly of Shannon Hale and Dean Hale’s Rapunzel’s Revenge while reading this, as both focus on a re-telling of Rapunzel where the princess uses her own ingenuity to rescue herself. They’re natural readalikes for each other, though they’re not quite the same in tone, and the story post-escape plays out much differently. There’s also a strong Dealing With Dragons feel to it. I’m not sure how much today’s kids are still reading that series, but the relationship between Adrienne and Sparky is similar to that between Cimorene and her dragon. I have a feeling Cimorene and Adrienne would be great friends.

The art is great, perfectly friendly for a middle grade audience with character expressions full of personality. I’ve only read the first volume, which collects issues 1-4, but there’s a second one out that collects 5-8, plus a handful of other stories. Highly recommended.

Long weekend reading part 1: Lumberjanes

September 8, 2015 |

Long weekends are for reading comics about girls who go on adventures. Or at least, that’s how my Labor Day weekend shaped up. First up was Lumberjanes, which I’d actually tried to purchase from two different comic book stores on two separate occasions and failed both times, as they had run out. Luckily, my library has all of the digital singles.

I’m a little late to the party on the Lumberjanes love, but if you’re like me and haven’t read it yet, here’s the gist: a group of five girls (they all seem to be around 12) are rooming in the same cabin at a camp similar to a Girl Scout camp. It’s a camp for “hard-core lady-types,” aka the Lumberjanes. They get caught up in a series of adventures involving a woman who turns into a bear, foxes who disappear, a secret underground cave, and lots of other fun magic. They also do the normal camp stuff like play capture the flag and make friendship bracelets.

The premise on its own sounds fun (and it is), but what makes this comic special is the humor, most of which is derived from the really great friendships between the girls. This is the first comic I’ve read where it feels like making the reader laugh is one of the main goals, not just a secondary one. And it succeeds really well – I was chuckling aloud to myself the entire time. This is actually a swear-free comic, so the girls say things like “What the junk!” and “What the Phillis Wheatley were you thinking?” instead. They earn badges like “naval gauging” and “everything under the sum” (a math-related badge). And the girls are awesome friends. One of their catchphrases is “Friendship to the max!” which serves as a sort of battle cry as they head into their next adventure. Their friendship is important to each other and it’s clear they care deeply for each other. I feel like they could be the pre-teen versions of the Rat Queens in some ways. And each girl is distinct in personality as well as look (including skin tone).

As a girl who went to Girl Scout summer camp a few times growing up, I appreciate the clever ways Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Brooke Allen work with the tropes of such a camp. I can say that I probably would have had a much better time if we fought raptors and solved anagrams in underground caves guarded by animated statues, but then it probably also would have been shut down pretty quickly. (One of the main points of humor in the story is the girls’ hapless counselor who can’t keep her wayward campers from getting into scrapes or make the boss lady understand there are really weird things going on). There’s an overarching storyline – what exactly is going on at the camp? – which provides the impetus to keep reading, but really, I’d read it even if each issue were a totally different story. This is definitely a winner (literally, too, since it’s won two Eisners). One of those Eisners was for best publication for teens, but I’d say this is totally appropriate for and appealing to middle grade readers as well. Highly recommended.

This Week at Book Riot

September 4, 2015 |

Here’s a round-up of my (very busy) week over at Book Riot:

I fell down a rabbit hole looking at sand sculptures last week and decided to do a big round-up of bookish sand sculptures. And they are nothing short of amazing.

I followed that up with a round-up of some awesome book shelves for you real or imaginary home.

In this week’s “3 on a YA Theme,” I highlighted a handful of witch and witchcraft in YA books.

I’m starting a new monthly feature about the month in YA news, highlighting some of the biggest stories, discussions, and deals in the world of YA. Here’s the first edition.