Jane Eyre: the graphic novel by Charlotte Bronte

Book:  Jane Eyre:  the graphic novel

Author: Charlotte Brontë

Publisher:  Classical Comics

Year:  2008

Reason I read it:  I had to read 2 graphic novels for my YA lit class and I’ve never gotten around to reading “Jane Eyre” but I’ve always wanted to.  It was win-win.

My grade:  B+

Jane Eyre is a plain, determined and intelligent child. Orphaned and poor, she is adopted by her Aunt and Uncle Reed. The death of Uncle Reed allows her unpleasant aunt to send her away to a grim charity school, where she continues her harsh upbringing, but is given the education that finally frees her. Once old enough, she becomes a teacher and takes the role of governess in a large manor house, where she falls in love with her employer. But Rochester is hiding a secret that, when revealed, forces Jane to choose between following her head and her heart.

Both critically acclaimed and immensely popular, Jane Eyre dealt with concepts of class discrimination, morality, equality for women, and freedom of choice. Designed to encourage readers to enjoy classical literature, Jane Eyre The Graphic Novel stays true to Brontë's original vision. The book includes 125 pages of story artwork (by the legendary comic book artist, John M. Burns) and fascinating support material detailing the life of Charlotte Brontë.

My Review

I’m ashamed to admit that I have never read “Jane Eyre”.  I’ve wanted to for a while but I just never seem to get around to it.  So, when I went to the library and saw this sitting on the shelf in the graphic novel section, I jumped at the chance to read it.

I liked this graphic novel.  It uses Bronte’s original text for the dialogue and of course, the illustrations tell the rest of the story.  I’m not going to review Bronte’s original story, because that sort of speaks for itself.

I liked reading the graphic novel format of the classic.  Especially with the original text being used, I felt like I wasn’t cheating quite as much.  Although, I think that I missed things with the graphic novel format, because there were times when I was a little confused or the story felt choppy or abrupt. 

However, I do think that I now have a basic understanding of the story and I could carry on an intelligent discussion with someone about the book.  I also think that the graphic novel gave me enough outline of the story that if I picked up the book now, it would flow more easily and I could probably read it more quickly.

Both of those reasons would be good enough to use a novel like this with a class of high school students.  If our goal is to expose students to literature, this graphic novel does that.  The average American teenager is just not going to spend hours poring over 18^th century British writing.  It’s just not going to happen.  But if a teacher could show a class just how good the STORY is, then students who are not serious at least get exposure to the novel and more serious students may then be inspired to move on the actual novel.

I still don’t think that the comic form is going to get any 17 year old boy excited about “Jane Eyre”, but a comic version might get them excited about “Hamlet” or “Beowulf” or some other equally gory, sword-fighting sort of tale. 

Classical Comics is a publisher from Great Britain and they offer lots of titles, including Shakespeare, Dickens and many other classics.  They come in several varieties such as Original Text, Quick Text(the full story in modern English) and Shakespeare graphic novels also have an option called Plain Text, which is the entire play translated into “plain English”.

I think this is a great, fun way to introduce students to classic literature in a way that helps them understand it.  In my opinion, it’s better to read “Macbeth” in comic book form than to never read it at all.

I gave this novel a B+.  I enjoyed the story and it was a fast, easy read, but I still felt like I missed some of the story.  In August, I’ll probably be picking up “ Jane Eyre” proper.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Book:  American Born Chinese

Author:  Gene Luen Yang

Publisher:  First Second

Year:  2006
Reason I read it:  I had to read 2 graphic novels for my YA lit class.  This one was a Printz Award winner and an ALA Top Ten.

My Grade:  A

A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny’s life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax. 

My Review

Wow!  Just, wow!  My head is reeling from the epicness that is “American Born Chinese”!  First, I have to say that this book is funny.  Really funny.  There were so many funny parts, I was in stitches a good portion of the time.  There were 3 separate stories, or so I thought.  There was a story about a young boy named Jin who is the American born Chinese boy.  There is a legend about a Chinese monkey king.  There is a story about a white boy named Danny who has a Chinese cousin named Chin-kee.

Yes, Chin-kee…..obviously a play on the horrible racist term. And he is the stereotypical Chinese person and personifies every single bad stereotype.  The book is full of that sort of thing.  Like when Jin calls his friend an “FOB” for fresh off the boat!  There are lots of references to the mixing of cultures and how difficult it is to grow up Asian in a white society.

The book is very quick to read because it is a graphic novel, so I found myself constantly turning pages.  Yet, it is very interesting to read and quite entertaining.  I kept wondering why there seemed to be 3 separate story lines.  Then, wham!  What does the author do?  He combines them and packs a huge punch of an ending that left me reeling!  I couldn’t believe that he could use that much humor and entertainment to bring the novel to an end with such profundity.  It was amazing.

Gene Luen Yang, I bow to your greatness.

This book was a solid A.  If you’re looking for a quick read, that’s funny and entertaining but packs a whopper of a message, “American Born Chinese” is the book for you!

Girl by Bart Bare

Book:  Girl

Author:  Bart Bare

Publisher:  Canterbury House

Year:  2010

Reason I read it:  Required read for my YA lit class

My grade: D-

After her mother dies, Loren Creek, a precocious 14-year-old, flees the foster-care system in Tennessee by moving to North Carolina. With the help of a curmudgeonly mountain man, she manages to evade detection by assuming the identity of a boy. Having studied dance and gymnastics at her mother's insistence, Loren has a lean, muscular appearance, which allows her to easily pass as a boy when she enters high school. She reluctantly becomes the kicker on the school football team and grows popular with boys and girls alike, causing some stressful, confusing, even dangerous situations.
Meanwhile, Loren's foster-care guardian takes her disappearance personally. He won't give up until he finds her and places her with what he considers a good family. A confrontation is inevitable.

My Review

Where to start?  There were so many problems with this book.  First and foremost, it needs an editor.  Badly.  Someone was very comma happy, but seriously, even my 13 year old knows that commas are not used to separate the subject and the verb and she writes in text speak most of the time.  There were quotation marks missing all over the place.  In addition to a usage editor, someone needed to edit the writing style as well.  Too many long, drawn out descriptions and lots of choppy dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue, the use of the dialect was a little too much.  It was very distracting.  I’m from the region and it felt overdone to me.  I don’t know.  Maybe in other places people think that we really speak that way, but for a young girl to be so “precocious” and intelligent, she really sounded like a backwoods redneck.  I didn’t buy it.

I also had a hard time buying the whole premise of the book.  I don’t understand why it was ok to live with Grandpa Gragg away from her home, but she left the last foster family immediately, even though they seemed nice and grandparent-like as well.  She wasn’t on her own in NC any more than she was on her own before.  I thought she wanted to live alone on her farm, so this just didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Another part that was difficult to believe is the fact that she was born and raised on a backwoods farm in Tennessee that she learned to tend to all alone, but there was a state-of-the-art dance and gymnastics room there that her mom used to teach her about dance and gymnastics.  Oh, and her mom was too sick to do those things herself but could teach the daughter.  Now, I’m a former dance teacher and my daughter was a competitive gymnast.  You don’t teach those things if you can’t do them yourself because you have to demonstrate them.
 
In fact, there were so many instances of this sort of thing that I found myself just laughing at the book most of the time.  I pretty much skimmed it in order to finish it.  Then the ending was totally lame and laughable.  They find the dad after all these years?  And they live happily ever after and he marries the very judge whose daughters have been helping Loren “hide” for 2 years?  And she stays in NC with Grandpa Gragg?  What happened to her beloved farm in Tennessee?

Puh-lease!  Sparkly virgin vampires are easier to believe in than this book’s story.

This book is a D-.  It should probably be an F, but I didn’t read it closely enough to do that.  I couldn’t bring myself to do it and so I give it the benefit of the doubt with a 70.

Kick by Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman

Book:  Kick

Authors:  Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman

Publisher:  Harper Collins

Year:  2011

Reason I read it:  This is one of 8 required reads for my YA lit class

My grade:  C

Kevin Johnson is thirteen years old. And heading for juvie. He's a good kid, a great friend, and a star striker for his Highland, New Jersey, soccer team. His team is competing for the State Cup, and he wants to prove he has more than just star-player potential. Kevin's never been in any serious trouble . . . until the night he ends up in jail. Enter Sergeant Brown, a cop assigned to be Kevin's mentor. If Kevin and Brown can learn to trust each other, they might be able to turn things around before it's too late.

My Review

This book had an interesting premise.  Walter Dean Myers, prolific YA writer, paired up with a teen fan to write this book.  Every other chapter is in a different point of view, with Ross Workman writing the POV of the teen and Myers writing the POV of the adult police officer.

The book is not very long and the writing is fine, even from the teen fan, but there’s just not a lot going on.  There are descriptions of games and the whole mystery of why Kevin was driving at age 13 with his friend Christy in her dad’s car.  Of course, the story progresses through the eyes of both characters as they grow closer and learn to trust one another.

I was very disappointed by the ending.  I’m still not sure why Kevin didn’t tell someone what the real story was to begin with.  I kept reading because I wanted to know what had really been going on that night and when I found out, it felt anti-climactic at best.

I think this is a good book for middle school boys who like sports but don’t like reading.  It’s short and fast-paced with lots of descriptions of soccer games.  More serious readers will probably be bored by it and high school students will not find a lot to which they will relate.

My grade is a C.  The book was ok, but it was nothing to write home about.  I honestly expected more from such a legend of YA lit.  It makes me wonder if I should bother with any of his other books.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Book:  Twisted

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Publisher:  Viking

Year:  2007

Reason I read it:  I had to choose 2 books for my YA lit class that deal with “teen issues”.  This one deals with how to become a man.

My grade:  A+

High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn’t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father’s boss’s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy—and Tyler’s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family, and in the world.

In Twisted, the acclaimed Laurie Halse Anderson tackles a very controversial subject: what it means to be a man today. Fans and new readers alike will be captured by Tyler’s pitchperfect, funny voice, the surprising narrative arc, and the thoughtful moral dilemmas that are at the heart of all of the author’s award-winning, widely read work.

My Review

I’ve wanted to read some LHA books for a while, and honestly, “Speak” was the book I wanted to choose, but it has a publication date of 1999 and my professor wanted books with dates from 2001 to now, so I had to choose something else.

The thing that grabbed me about this book was the summary on the inside of the front of the book jacket.  It said:  “Everyone told me to be a man.  Nobody told me how.”  And that was it for the summary.  I thought that was extremely intriguing and also very timely.  There is a lot of research out there now about the mixed messages that boys are getting about what society expects them to be.  There is also a lot of research in education about how boys are falling through the cracks and smart boys are not achieving and boys who struggle are dropping out altogether.  I hoped that this book would give me some insight into the mind of a teenage boy.

I got that plus so much more in this book.  I hate to say it, but I’m actually glad that I had to choose this book instead of “Speak”.  I still want to read it, but I loved the way this book helped get inside the head of a teenage boy.  I’m not sure how a female writer was able to do that, but I felt like she captured the voice perfectly.

This book is about Tyler, a former geek who pulls a prank to get noticed and ends up getting arrested.  Over the summer, he is forced to do a lot of manual labor as part of his community service and he also experiences a growth spurt.  So, he starts school the next year with height, muscles and a tan and is suddenly not the geeky outcast he was before.  Everything should be perfect for him now, right?

Wrong!  Tyler has a distant, angry father who always puts him down, a doting mother who drinks away her problems and a still geeky best friend.  He is constantly thinking about death and dying.  The most popular girl at school starts to like him, which should be a good thing, but it’s a bad thing.

Of course, like any 18 year old boy, he is constantly thinking about sex.  So when a drunk Bethany comes on to him at a party, he thinks it’s a dream come true.  But, like the good guy that he is, he realizes that he’s not going to take advantage of a drunk girl and rebuffs her.  She gets mad and goes off with other people.  Through a series of various events however, Tyler ends up driving home Bethany and her drunk brother and his friend, who just so happens to be the same football jock that Tyler had roughed up earlier in the week for picking on his best friend.

The next day, a bunch of nude pictures of Bethany show up on the internet.  The police show up and Tyler finds out he is the prime suspect.  Needless to say, things go downhill from there for Tyler.  In fact, they go all the way to rock bottom for him, until he has to come to terms with his own life and decisions and try to learn for himself what it means to be a man.

This book was unbelievable.  First, I can’t believe how well LHA was able to get inside of Tyler’s head.  I felt everything that he did, and being inside the head of an adolescent male is not always the most comfortable place to be!  She never shied away from tough issues or controversial subjects and there were many moments where I held my breath, hoping that Tyler would make the right decision.

This book was also on the challenged book list for 2010, probably because there is a very graphic scene of almost suicide.  It was disturbing, but in the best sort of way because it was so thought-provoking, gritty and honest.  I almost cried when it was over.

I think this book was an amazing journey of one young man’s quest to determine for himself what sort of man he will be.  It will take your breath away.

My grade?  Nothing but an A+ will do for this one.  Do yourself a favor and go read this book now.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Title:  Just Listen

Author:  Sarah Dessen

Publisher:  Viking Juvenile

Year:  2006

Reason for reading it:  I needed to choose 2 books that dealt with “issues” in teen fiction.  This one deals with eating disorders and date rape.

My grade:  A+

Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"—at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

My Review

To say that I am stunned would be a gross understatement.  This book blew me away.  I have always avoided Sarah Dessen, thinking that she was sort of a fluff romance writer for teens.

I could not have been further away from the truth in any way, shape or form.

This book was both heart wrenching and heartwarming.  I didn’t think that was possible for a book, but this book gets top marks in both of those areas.  It was honest and haunting.  It made me cry, it made me smile and it made me stop and ponder things.  It made me think a lot about what goes on behind the mask of our families.

My heart ached for Annabel.  At the same time, I wanted to sometimes shake her and make her actually stand up and react to something.  She was very real, though.  I think there are a lot of teen girls who get caught up in following a stronger personality, even when they don’t necessarily agree with what that person is doing or asking them to do.  I see it all the time.  I even see it in myself, this attempt to avoid conflict at all costs.

I loved Owen as a character. It was nice to see him teach Annabel how to be a stronger person.  He is flawed with his anger management issues, but he is good for her.  Of course, she’s good for him as well.  She teaches him to reach out to others and together, they both become better people.

I had a hard time putting this book down.  I kept wanting to see Annabel finally step up to the plate and DO something with all the issues in her life.  I was thrilled when she was finally able to do that.  In fact, I was thrilled to see her whole family come to terms with their issues, open up and deal with them.

I loved the way Sarah Dessen started this novel after the “event” that precipitated everything and then builds a story while giving the reader glimpses into the past and what led up to the present situation.  I think she did a fabulous job of balancing out the past and present to keep building to the climax of the book.  It was just enough information to keep me interested and yet, yearning for more information. 

I liked the ending a lot.  It was not a happily ever after and they were all friends again forever and ever.  But it was happy and hopeful and realistic.

I think this book was excellent at showing how a family grappled with an eating disorder and how a young woman struggled with coming to terms with an almost rape.  I should warn readers that even though the would-be rape gets interrupted, there is a description of what happens.  It is not graphic, but it is disturbing.

I have to give this book an A+.  It took on difficult issues and dealt with them in an open and honest way while weaving a fabulous story of love, growth and acceptance.  It has definitely changed my perception of Sarah Dessen and I will be reading more of her stuff in the future.

Oh, and I loved it when Owen punched Will.  Just sayin’……

Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher

Book:  Playing with Matches
Author:  Brian Katcher
Publisher:  Random House Children’s Books
Year:  2008
Reason I read it:  It is a required read for my YA lit class
My grade:  A

Some guys are born handsome, but seventeen-year-old Leon Sanders has a mug that looks like it should be hanging in a post office with the caption “wanted for shoplifting and credit card fraud”. Thanks to his twisted sense of humor, he’s managed to go from nerdy to unknown. Leon’s new locker neighbor is Melody Hennon, an unfortunate girl whose face was horribly disfigured from a childhood accident. When Leon takes a chance and makes her laugh, he discovers that underneath the scarred skin, Melody is a funny, smart, and interesting person. Leon never predicted that he and Melody would become good friends…and maybe more.

Although Leon second-guesses his own growing feelings for Melody and worries about what people will think of the two of them dating, he’s happy to have someone in his life who treats him like he’s special. But when Amy Green, cheerleader and Leon’s long-time crush, asks him out, his devotion to Melody hangs in the balance. Leon tries to find a way out of this dilemma without hurting anyone, but soon realizes–a little too late–that playing with someone’s heart is as dangerous as playing with matches.

My Review

This is really a case of “don’t judge a book by its cover”.  I HATED this cover and when it arrived as one of my required reads, I was sort of dreading it.

I am sooooooooo glad that I had to read this book!

Now, I understand why this was a YALSA Top Ten pick.  This book was wonderful.  It was poignant, bittersweet and heart wrenching.  I loved Leon, then I wanted to punch him and then I felt sorry for him.  I loved Melody.  I felt sorry for her, then I rejoiced with her, then I got angry for her and finally, I was thrilled to see her think highly of herself.

Leon is the main character in this book, but the whole cast of characters is incredible.  The rude and crude twins are so funny.  I loved Samantha, the militant feminist and Rob “one of 10 black kids in the school” is such a conundrum.  Dan is the devil worshipping weirdo, but he may be my favorite secondary character.  Of course, Melody is a show stealer in this book.  The characters were so rich and often they were laugh out loud funny.  At first, I felt sorry for them as the group of outcasts, but of course, in the end, they turn out to be the better group of people.

This book is about Leon’s growth, but it was nice to see the growth that EVERYONE made in the novel.  I’m not sure how Brian Katcher managed to portray that, but even the twins were able to refrain themselves from making rude comments to Melody and in the end, they all were able to see past her outside scars.  What was especially touching was how Leon started to realize that there was more to all of his friends on the inside and by the end of the book, this group of seeming misfits had grown closer because of Melody.

I loved the ending.  It was perfect.  

I am so afraid of giving too much away with the plot.  Is it cliched?  Yes.  Does that make it any less wonderful?  No.  I think that it is realistic and the author seems to capture the voice of a teenage boy perfectly.  Leon’s inside running monologue was humorous and often very one-track.  Of course, he is a seventeen year old boy!

This book does have some references to sex, since that’s all seventeen year old boys think of, really.  However, there is no portrayal of sex, much to Leon’s chagrin!  There is a smattering of language, but it’s tame.  There is some underage drinking and smoking, but it’s not glamorized or described in great detail.  It just is there.

My grade for this book is an A.  It was an exceptional story about an exceptional group of friends who learn to see themselves in a better light when they open up to another outcast.  I thought it was inspiring.