Picture Book: Olivia

After a nice bath, and a nice dinner, it's time for bed.
But of course Olivia's not at all sleepy.
"Only five books tonight, Mommy," she says.
"No, Olivia, just one."
"How about four?"
"Two."
"Three."
"Oh, all right, three.
But that's it!"

Olivia is a fabulous book about a feisty little girl pig named Olivia; one that ought to be read aloud by all mothers to their daughters at bed time. Olivia wears everyone out, even herself, but despite this her family loves her very much. The book has some very touching scenes between family members, particularly those involving Olivia and her little brother, Ian, and Olivia and her mother. Parents and children alike will marvel at the black and white illustrations with their whimsical touches of red. Adults will appreciate how the illustrations show Olivia's love of art and literature impacting her development, filling her mind with dreams and ambitions. Recommended for any parents who want to foster lively imaginations in their children.

Rating: 5 stars/5 stars

Recommended for ages 4 and up.

The details:
Falconer, I. (2000). Olivia. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Graphic Novel 3

Mariko Tamaki's Skim, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, tells the story of Kimberly Keiko Cameron who is nicknamed Skim by her classmates because she isn't slim. Skim wants to be a Wiccan and dresses like a Goth, so when a suicide awareness group forms at her high school they assume she must be depressed and in need of an intervention. Nothing could be further from the truth. Skim is confused and questioning but she is resilient and high spirited.

Skim finds she is growing further and further apart from her best friend, Lisa Soor, and feels like there are few people in her world who comprehend her point of view. Free spriited Ms. Archer, who teaches English and Drama, really connects with Skim on a deeper level, which causes Skim to think about her sexuality.

The book deals with first loves and heartaches (gay and straight) as well as suicide, popularity and cliques while remaining hopeful about the power of human connection to help us through it all. Highly recommended for ages 14-18.

The details: Tamaki, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Skim. Toronto: Groundwood, 2008.

Graphic Novel

Sometimes I wonder: Can I go through with it? Am I committed to art all the time? Does art save? And is it going to save me?

Cecil Castellucci, a French Canadian author who now makes her home in LA, has written a funny and fun story about a girl named Jane whose world is turned inside out by a terrorist attack in Metro City (clearly an analogy for NYC). Jane's parents move to Kent Waters, Suburbia, in a misguided attempt to find somewhere where they can shield themselves from the true nature of violence in our world, as Jane notes, "as if ANYWHERE is really safe."

Jane's life is altered not just by the physical reality of the move but by seismic shifts in her own values. She immediately cuts her long blonde hair and dies it black in an attempt to signify to the outside world that something new has happened and the girl she was before died in the explosion. Jane begins to notice all the little bits of beauty that we take for granted. In the aftermath of the attack, she cradles one tiny, hardy, LIVING dandelion that managed to grow out of the steel and concrete death of the city. And she adopts the man whose life she's saved, a man now named John Doe, whose sketchbook she brings with her to suburbia.

Rather than fit in with just anyone, Jane holds out for kindred spirits. She fills the sketchbook with their dreams for a better world, a place where public acts of art bring colour and life to dreary, dying cities devoid of personality. Of course, not everyone welcomes creativity. The police begin to crack down on what they deem to be defiling of public property and the P.L.A.I.N. gang find themselves confronted with a choice: give in and live the lives expected of them or continue to be an "art girl gang." (And I use the term girl lightly since their members include the school's only openly gay male and they embrace the help of all of the teens in the city).

This book is funny and funky and highly recommended for anyone interested in the effects of art, terrorism or high school cliques on the human psyche. All ages.

The details: Castellucci, Cecil and Jim Rugg. The Plain Janes. New York: Minx, 2007.