Animal Crackers: A Gene Luen Yang Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animal Crackers: A Gene Luen Yang Collection

• author & illustrator:  Gene Luen Yang:  http://geneyang.com/
• medium:  pencil & ink
• year of publication:  2010
• publication city:  San Jose, CA
• publisher:  SLG
• ISBN:  978-1-59362-183-4

Annotation:  A not-very-deep-thinking high school student has his life as a bully disrupted when a tiny alien aircraft lodges in his nostril and he must make an ally of his former prime bullying target.

 

Personal Thoughts:  This graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, has a very obscure sense of humor.  Completely random events occur to drive the narrative.  In “Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks”, we are introduced to big dumb lug, Gordon who continues to pick on the Geek King, even if his conscience is telling him not to.  When a tiny spaceship lodges into his nose, Gordon has to meet up with the Geek King to dislodge the vessel.  Unfortunately, Gordon ends up ingesting all of the Geek King’s evil childhood memories and knowledge.  When he finally gets the evil memories out, they possess a box of Gordon’s favorite snack, Animal Crackers, anthropomorphosisze them and wreak havoc about town.

This book made me laugh out loud!  I think Yang’s goofy personality comes out in his writing and he was probably that funny, goofy kid in high school that served as a class clown.  With that plot, you know you are not dealing with a traditional story.  Anything seems to go and everything that happens is strange, involving nose-invading flying saucers, demonic donuts, and possessed animal crackers.  Gene Yang is definitely a good author to read if you’re in the mood to laugh.

Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country)

 Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country)

• author:  Kathllen Krull  http://www.kathleenkrull.com/  &  Paul Brewer  http://www.paulbrewer.com/
• illustrator:  Stacy Innerst  http://www.stacyinnerst.com/stacyinnerst.com/Home.html
• medium:  acrylic on illustration board

•  year of publication:  2010
• publication city: Boston
• publisher:  Harcourt Children's Books
• ISBN:  978-0-15-206639-0

Annotation:  A biographical portrait of the sixteenth U.S. President emphasizing Lincoln’s use of humor to get through good times and bad, for the benefit of himself, his friends, and the entire count.

Personal Thoughts:  This is a different Lincoln biography.  Like other picture books on the same subject, Lincoln Tells a Joke covers his birth in a log cabin, his marriage to Mary Todd, and his rise to presidency and the abolishment of slavery.  Where this book differs from the rest of the pack is in its emphasis on Lincoln’s reliance on humor to get through tough and dismal periods.  The book is filled with actual witticisms by Lincoln.  An author’s note explains the jokes were collected by his admirers, post mortem and caught through eyewitness accounts, written records and second-hand, third –hand and further removed accounts.  Some of the humor is great!  When criticizing a lawyer Lincoln disliked, he said “That man can pack the most words into the least ideas of any man I know.”  Funny stuff.  However, some of the jokes are little short on laughs, for my tastes.  Lincoln describing his lack of combat in the army stated that he survived “a good many bloody battles – with mosquitoes.”  Ahem.  I guess that was funnier in the 1800s. 

I was surprised to hear some of the famous lines Lincoln came up with, not knowing he was the author.  “It’s a great day for the race,” he said.  “What race?” his neighbor questioned.  “The human race,” Lincoln answered.  The first time I heard that joke was in a David Mamet movie.  To think the playwright Mamet borrowed from Lincoln is funny in itself.  The artwork is best described as cute.  It’s jovial and reflects what’s being presented on the page.   This is a decent picturebook that has chosen to combine a famous subject and a popular theme: Abraham Lincoln and using humor to win hearts.  How can you go wrong with that?

Hogwash

Hogwash

• author & illustrator:  Arthur Geisert  "no author website"
• year of publication:  2008
• city of publication:  Boston
• publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Company
• ISBN:  978-0-618-77332-9

Annotation:  Illustrations, and no workds, depict the enormous and complicated contraption that Mama Pig uses to get her little piglets clean. 

Personal Thoughts: 

Anthropomorphic pigs?  A desert setting and contraptions from the era of the Dust-bowl?  A weird etching illustration style reminiscent of an earlier time?  I’ll take it!!

Hogwash is wordless, but it has a lot to say, if the reader slows down and examines the pictures and the silent narrative.  See and learn how these clothes wearing pigs stay cool in mud  baths the size of Olympic swimming pools.  Then witness their bathing process to get them clean, and the strange machinations involved, including windmills, steam engines, copper tubes and magnets, among others.

Author Geisert has put onto page a  window to his imagination and Hogwash is fun to look at and wonder why things are presented as they are.  Why does this take place in the desert?  Why is the machinery all from the 19th and 20th century?  How could pigs have created this?  It's a fun and silly book with beautiful artwork. 

***Artwork - Geisert's artwork is amazing to look at for its antiquated style.  It's look is old-timey, with lots of tin shacks, wooden structures and outdated technology.  The shading is incredible and the pictures are all hand sketched.  If I could describe the style, I'd say it has a "hipster" edge where it's very innocent and childlike, but it is grounded in history and comes from an era where life was hard.  I would consider Geisert's illustrations as true "art" in the traditional form.  While many picturebooks today have a commercial and polished look to them, Hogwash has an underground quality that kids and adults will be interested in. 

***Curricular Connection- 6th grade Art, Mechanical Drawing
6th grade Science, Inventions, Complex Devices

***Lesson Plans - Have students create their own devices like those in the book Hogwash.  Use a prompt to get them started, such as, "Create a machine/device that will get your pigs clean", or "Create a machine/device that powers the city for the pigs", etc.  

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

• author:  Sid Jacobson  "no author website"
• illustrator:  Ernie Colon  "no author website"
• medium: pencils, ink, digital color and

• year of publication: 2006
• publication city: New York
• publisher:  Hill and Wang
• ISBN:  978-0-8090-5739-9

Annotation:  A graphic adaptation of the lead-up to the destructive events on September 11, 2001 and the events that followed, from the report by the 9/11 commission.

Personal Reaction:   This is a very thorough presentation in graphic novel form of the 9/11 report, that is accessible to older readers who will not complete the original document that consists of multiple thousands of pages.  This adaptation slowly and meticulously explains the events that lead to the horrific September 11, 2001 day of infamy, and the events that followed, including the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. 

The book is an impressive piece of work.  The authors successfully explain the events that occurred during the hijackings of four commercial airplanes on September 11, 2001.  Then they present the history of the development of Al Quaida, leading back to the wars between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan.  The authors describe the dysfunction between the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI, and the conditions that allowed the terrorists to carry out the plot on U.S. soil.  The authors also present the possible theoretical and political plans of action the U.S. can choose to take to fight terrorism and win the war on terror. 

While the book is filled with immense and complicated amounts of information, it is not inaccessible.  The story is told methodically and an intelligent older reader will be able to follow the events.  I would recommend this book to a reader in high school or a high level middle school student. 

***Curriculum connection – Grades 8-12 World History, Current Affairs, Civics