Comic Book Review: I Smell a Pop Quiz (Big Nate)

Big Nate is great.

I mean, as a teacher of sixth graders, the lead character in the Big Nate comic and books is like a collection of quirks from my own students (in a smaller body). This collection — I Smell a Pop Quiz! —  from creator Lincoln Peirce is another funny look at school through the eyes of Nate, who seems immune to most criticism, engulfed with big ideas that rarely pan out, and engaged with his odd assortment of teachers whose patience is continually tested.

Every now and then, I make copies of educationally-related comics and put them up anonymously through the areas where teachers go: in the copy room, in the mail room, etc. Hopefully, it generates a little levity with my colleagues.  I have a few panels from I Smell a Pop Quiz earmarked and ready to go. If you are a teacher, you can find plenty to laugh at here. And your students will enjoy this collection, too. While Peirce has also tried his hand at making novelized versions of Big Nate, they don’t work so well, in my opinion.

Big Nate belongs on the very small stage — in those three or four panels of funnies where the confines of the writing actually brings out the very best in Peirce’s writing and art.

Peace (in the panels),
Kevin

 

Top Ten Things I Heard People Say About My Nerdy Book Club Sweatshirt

Yesterday was dress-down day at our school, where staff can dress casual and donate money into a fund to support families and staff of our school who might need a little extra help. Normally, I just wear jeans and a dress shirt. But yesterday, as we were about head into February break, I decided to put on my Nerdy Book Club sweatshirt. (For those not in the know, the Nerdy Book Club is an online collection of teachers, librarians, writers and others who like books. There is a blog website and a #nerdybookclub hashtag on Twitter. You can join, too. You just did. That’s how simple it is.)

I got a lot of interesting reactions to wearing the sweatshirt, which I had hoped would generate some conversation. Here are some of them — from students and colleagues.

  • What books are they reading? They don’t really have titles.
  • Nerdy Book Club? Where does that meet? In a library?
  • That’s my husband… right …. there. (points to the Nerd in image)
  • Let me get this straight. You’re all teachers. You love books. And yet, you are nerds? That’s so weird.
  • Those kids look pretty happy on your shirt, Mr. H. Must be good books.
  • I think my mom is part of that Nerdy Bookie Club. Or, she should be. She reads, like, all the time.
  • Do Kindles count for your club?
  • No offense, Mr. H, but I don’t think I’d want to be in that club. Sitting around, reading? No thanks.
  • I get the nerd part. That’s you, Mr. H. But how do books fit into it?
  • There’s a stain there, Mr. H. Looks like you spilled juice or something.

Peace (in the nerdiness),
Kevin

My Pile of Books to Be Read

Kevin's Books
Over at the Nerdy Book Club, there was a call recently for photos of our piles of books “to be read.” Here is mine. Some of these have been there for a few months, but most are fairly new to the pile. I am currently reading Larry McMurty’s The Berrybender Narratives and may wander into I Walked with Giants or the William Gibson essays next. Not sure.

Peace (in the piles of books),
Kevin
PS — and the video compilation of all of the Nerdy Book Club TBR books was released yesterday, too.

 

Book Review: Horton Halfpott

I’ll be the first to admit that it took me about halfway through Tom Angleberger’s humorous novel to really get the flow of it. But I didn’t give up — partially because my son (whom I was reading it to) needed to know what would happen to Horton Halfpott and partially because, well, I was having fun reading it out loud (even though the Old English inflections and difficult vocabularly at times made me stop to explain a few things to my son). I should probably pause here, dear reader, to give the full title of this book, since it says so much about the tone of the book:

Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset

Horton Halfpott himself is a kitchen boy in a castle who falls in love with an heiress, and all sorts of mischief abounds — from the above-mentioned “loosening of the corset” to a world famous detective come to find some missing objects to shipless pirates caught up in a kidnapping, and more and more craziness. But the story is told in a very formal tone, with addresses to the reader at times, and other odd narrative twists that take some getting used to.

But stick with it.

The book kicks into full gear about halfway through and steams right to the end, complete with a scene involving pickle eclairs that will do doubt have you laughing as hard we were. What more can you ask of a book than that?

Peace (in the mire),
Kevin
PS — this is an odd book trailer.

 

Book Review: Best Music Writing of 2011

Alex Ross is the guest editor for the 2011 version of Best Music Writing, which collects and highlights some of the most interesting magazine and journal articles about the music scene. The Best Music Writing of 2011 is a fantastic look at music from multiple angles, and (give Ross’s involvement and his role in writing about classical music for the New Yorker) the focus shifts from classical to jazz to heavy metal and beyond. Topics from Lady Gaga to the use of the vocoder device in music (from its origins in the spy services) to the plight of making a living as a wedding singer in the days of the DJ are like touchstones of the music world. These pieces move beyond our expectations of what music is and how music affects us. Ross has done a nice job of culling out intriguing topics.

This genre-jumping is right up my alley, and although I find some articles I just skim, I am always apt to stumble into interesting pieces that I would have otherwise missed. The article in here that remains fresh in my mind is one that explores one night at the Fillmore when Miles Davis and Neil Young performed on the same stage, on the same night (not together, though, but Davis opened for Young). Both artist were in the midst of change, and exploration, and I just had that “wow” reaction to thinking what it must have been like to hear Davis just as Bitches Brew was to be released and Young with the original incarnation of Crazy Horse on the same stage.

If you like music, and if you like reading about music, this collection is a keeper.

Peace (in the music),
Kevin

PS — I am reading now that the publisher of the series has pulled the plug. But series editor Daphne Carr is pushing ahead with a plan to raise money and publish next year’s collection independently. I’m in!

 

Book Review: Steve Jobs the book vs Steve Jobs the comic book

At the holidays, I received the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. And while the story was familiar — I already knew much of Jobs’ history from other books and profiles — I still found it pretty fascinating. Let’s face it: if Jobs were our boss, we would have strangled him. If Jobs were our principal, we might have revolved against him. His temperament and lack of emotional connections, and drive to create his vision or else, made his companies at least very interesting to watch. But I would have hated to work under him.

The bio does a nice job of peeling the outer layer off Jobs, though, and allows us to understanding him a bit more through the very personal interviews that Jobs granted Isaacson. For me, I was most fascinated by his intense desire for design, and how that need for intuitive design elements shaped all of the products he would be putting into the market — from the devices that hold music to the stores that sell machines, and even in the layout of the Pixar offices. Design considerations also went into the insides of devices — things most people would never see. So much of what we see is so ugly, but not Apple products.

Isaacson nicely explores this area of Jobs’ life, and how that need for perfect design affected his dealings with other people. (And it is also so intriguing the parts where we see Jobs and Bill Gates interacting, and how different their approaches were to technology – particularly around design: Gates could not understand the fuss and Jobs could not comprehend how one could not fuss over it. That dichotomy could be a whole book in itself. I’d love to see a bio on Gates that goes as deep as Isaacson goes here, but somehow, I doubt that will ever happen. He’s not that kind of person, as far as I can tell.).

Two weeks ago, I got a comic book biography of Jobs. Needless to say, Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple by Bluewater Productions was a lot thinner. But the comic book bio touched on some important moments of Jobs’ life, and accomplishments, and does not quite skirt his explosive personality, but doesn’t dwell on it much, either. Reading the comic book version after Isaacson’s version was like watching a highlights real. I suppose if you have students interested in Steve Jobs, and the biography is just too much, the comic book version might be worth putting into their hands. You can tell, though, that the publisher rushed to get it onto the market to ride the wave of interest following Jobs’ death and Isaacson’s book. I found a few proofreading errors, and the writing is weak at times.

Both of these books give a view of Jobs as someone who has made a mark on modern life, and you can’t argue against that.

Peace (in the bio),
Kevin

 

 

Book Review: Gregor the Overlander

My son and I were about 25 pages into Gregor the Overlander as a read-aloud when I finally realized that the writer — Suzanne Collins — is the writer of The Hunger Games, too. It was an interesting connections — Gregor was one of her first series, and Collins notes in the book that she was inspired to write Gregor after thinking of Alice in Wonderland, and how her fall into the rabbit hole opened up a portal to a strange world.

Gregor the Overlander tells the story of Gregor, and his little sister, Boots, who fall through a grate in their New York City laundry room, and land in the Underland — a world below the surface of the city. Here, huge rats, cockroaches, bats and more live with a forgotten band of human refugees, and the world is in danger.  A prophecy says a hero will come to save the day, and of course, it is Gregor, on a mission to rescue his father (who has been captured by the evil rats).

I can’t say that Gregor is all that original. Even my seven-year-old son asked why so many stories have the sons saving their fathers (to which I replied that I expect him to save me if I ever get captured by evil rats or, as in Summerland, a trickster god. He was non-committal – which makes me a little nervous). And I feel as if Neil Gaiman did a better job of this underworld with his Neverwhere novel, albeit for an older reader. But still, for the age level, Gregor moved along at nice pace, with pretty decent characters, and enough hints to keep the series going.

As luck with have it, a neighbor has the entire series of Gregor and are eager to lend them to us, to share the story. So, I guess we’re going back into the world beneath the streets to continue the story.

Peace (in the world beneath the world),
Kevin

 

Book Review: RT, Margaret and the Rats of NIMH

Well, my son and I finished up our read aloud of the NIMH series with the third installment — RT, Margaret and the Rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Connly — and while it was enjoyable, I didn’t feel it held quite the same power as the first two (and nothing compares to the first one). It may be that introducing humans as the main characters instead of animals took away some of the magical qualities of the story. Or it may be that the plot device — two kids lost in the woods, rescued by the rats, have to keep the secret — just didn’t have quite enough conflict to keep the novel going as much as the other two did.

That said, my son loved it. He is quite sad that the series is now over, and we both chewed over some of the mysteries left unexplained in this third book – where has Nicodemus gone (he is nearing death in the book and has a “journey” that he embarks on) and where have the rats gone (when the kids take adults to Thorn Valley, the rats’ home is deserted and more).

Still, jumping into the world of the rats and their adventures, and concerns, is highly entertaining and this third book still keeps that part of the story alive, and allows you to think about rats in a different way. It also makes you wonder about those scientists in their labs, using rats and mice for experiments. At one point, my son said, “I don’t like the people in this book. Only the rats.”

But RT (real name: Artie) and Margaret as fine as characters, too, undergoing character changes as Margaret learns to be a bit more self-reliant and less harsh with the world, and Artie (who starts the book out as as a sort of “mute” child) begins to find his voice, and (in a nice touch) begins writing the story of the rats with a crayon on the wall of his closet, so that it won’t be forgotten.

Peace (in NIMH),
Kevin

 

Book Review: The Best Teen Writing of 2011

At a Western Massachusetts Writing Project meeting last week, we were given free sample editions of The Best of Teen Writing 2011, which is an anthology from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. It’s just page after page of wonderful writing, and the stories and essays and poems give such a great insight into not just the abilities of these young writers, but also their worlds. Loss and tragedy do filter through a bit too much in many of the stories, but I suspect those raw emotions are most powerful and most easily harnessed by the teens.

Each year, the Alliance accepts submissions from young people and then works it ways through the writing to come up with some of the best writing around. The stories here are from young authors who won medals in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. If they published this without the moniker of “teen writing,” you would assume they were professional and published authors — that’s how polished and inventive and wonderful the writing is.

I haven’t gotten through the entire anthology yet, but I will. You should, too, and if you teach middle school or high school and you are looking to inspire some of your own students as writers, hand them a copy of this. It’s full of possibilities and inspiration. (One note of caution: there is profanity in here, so one option is to pick and choose the stories to share with your students.)

Peace (in the pages),
Kevin

 

Literary Recipes: Ricky Ricotta and His Mighty Robot

Over at our iAnthology network, where teachers write every week, the prompt this week is to create a “literary recipe” as creative writing. I was mulling over what to write about when I noticed my young son completely immersed in the Dav Pilkey’s Ricky Ricotta series. So, here is my recipe for the books:


Take one tiny mouse and add a dose of smarts and courage.

Introduce giant robot who loves the mouse. Add “protector” to robot personality.

Toss in some villains from distant planets.

  • Jurassic Jackrabbits
  • Stupid Stinkbugs
  • Mutant Mosquitoes
  • Voodoo Vultures
  • Mecha-Monkeys

Be sure to dose liberally with alliteration spices. Shake thoroughly. Shake ’em hard.

Add a bit of mayhem to the plot. It helps if the world is about to be taken over by villains and Ricky is the only one who can thwart the aliens.

Place mouse in danger. Maybe, have his held captive. Let robot know mouse is in danger. Watch robot act.

Sprinkle witty dialogue here and there. If you can add a pun, do so. In fact, be generous with puns.

Make sure the illustrations move the story along. For extra taste, add a few flip-o-rama pages for the battle scenes.

Flip the flip-o-rama. Flip – Flip – Flip.

Bake entire book .. eh, I mean read … for about ten minutes from start to finish. (Five minutes, if you are an adult).

Savor the goofy aftertaste of a fun Dav Pilkey yarn, and then move on to the next book.

Repeat as needed.

Peace (in the robot),
Kevin