What we’re reading this week (August 3)

We’re running a bit late this week, due to an unfortunately timed dentist appointment, but better late than never! Here’s what the Good Comics for Kids gang has been reading this week:

Esther Keller: Compared to last week, I haven’t really read many comics. I did get an ARC of Hereville from Abrams. It’s about a young Orthodox Jewish Girl in a sort of hybrid of an old European town and present day setting who wants to fight a dragon one day. The book is filled with humor and has a heroine with a lot of spunk. This was originally
available as a webcomic, though it was changed some and updated. It was a real fun read, and I’m glad I got an advance peek at this very entertaining title.

Eva Volin: I can tell you what I didn’t get to read this weekend. I brought home from the library the first two volumes of Lucky Luke, by Morris and Goscinny, but before I had a chance to open them up, my nine-year-old niece ripped them from my hands and ran off to the living room. She kept them with her all weekend long, reading them at dinner, at the pool, at Nana’s house (we made her leave them in the car during church). When I tried to interrupt her reading to ask her what she thought of the books I got one word answers: “Good.” “Cowboy.” “Yes.” “Funny.” So there’s your recommendation, folks: It’s a good book about a funny cowboy. Yes, you should buy it. At least my team of experts thinks so.

Kate Dacey: This week, I’ve been reading two soon-to-be-released titles, Brain Camp and The Unsinkable Walker Bean. The first is a horror story about two slackers who are sent to a summer enrichment program by their parents, only to discover that Camp Fielding is really a laboratory for a sinister, top-secret project. Having grown up in the kind of community where all the kids did something purposeful in the summer—the better to burnish their college applications—I loved the way that Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, and Faith Erin Hicks used horror tropes to poke fun at helicopter parenting and college-prep hysteria. (In one of the series’ better jokes, the students receive no formal instruction in foreign languages, music, or chemistry; they’re supposed to learn by osmosis, apparently.) Brain Camp debuts this week (on August 3rd, to be exact). It’d make a great gift for a teen who’s slaving away at, say, SAT camp. Just a thought.

The second book, The Unsinkable Walker Bean, is aimed at younger readers. As befits a story about boy inventors and pirates, the illustrations are imaginative and detailed, inviting readers to linger over the images; Aaron Reiner’s teeming streetscapes put Where’s Waldo to shame! Better still, Walker Bean is funny and engaging without relying on pop-culture references or snarky humor; Reiner is sincere without being square, a rarity among children’s writers. Walker Bean arrives in stores on August 17th.

Lori Henderson: I’ve been working through my to be read pile, getting through some of the teen + titles I had sitting around. Two teen titles I read though were Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story and volume 2 of Natsume’s Book of Friends. Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story is a collection of short stories about growing up, following your heart, duty and the last story…I’m still trying to figure out. But overall it was an enjoyable read.

I’m still enjoying Natsume’s Book of Friends. The stories are sweet as Natsume learns to appreciate both people and yokai. The yokai are still the draw of this series with so many different and interesting beings being introduced and returning. Misuzu, the horse shaped yokai was fairly entertaining, and Nyako-sensei is always fun. The only thing that’s getting old is that every story starts with the same narrative of how Natsume has powers he has to keep secret and how he doesn’t want to be a burden on the relatives that have taken him in. It’s a minor annoyance, and doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the chapters overall.

Mike Pawuk: ‘ve been reading Boom! Studios line of Disney Comics. I just read the 2nd
volume of Donald Duck & Friends: Double Duck and it’s a fun, action-packed adventure with Donald Duck as a secret agent who in typical Donald Duck form is way over his head in trouble, not only against the bad guys, but Daisy Duck’s as well. It’s a continuation of Boom! Studios reprinting Italian Disney Comics and I’m so glad these stories are finally being made available in the United States.

So there you have it. What are you reading this week? Check in with your own selections in comments.

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