Book of the Week

Today, Mrs Cummings recommends Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick, and Chie Kutsuwada.

Told through a mix of prose and manga, Tsunami Girl relates the story of  fifteen year-old Yuki. Struggling at school in England, she is sent to stay with her grandfather in Japan. They are caught in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the book tells the disaster’s aftermath and her struggle to cope.

 

An early page from Tsunami Girl

Cleverly mixing manga with Japanese folk tales, ghost stories and real-life events this is a really emotional read. It’s quietly told, but the description of the wave itself is so realistic it sets your heart racing. I loved the believable relationships between the characters and how they developed over the book. It is also a story of family and love and resilience. This is a really compelling story, as well as a really interesting book stylistically.  

The novel was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2021, and its illustrator, Chie Kusuwada, is visiting the School on Saturday 1st October as part of our first ever Games and Comic Con.

 

Chie Kusuwada at work

She will be giving two workshops on telling stories using manga, one introductory and one more advanced. If you are interested in attending please sign up via the posters around the school.

If you're keen on manga and graphic novels, the Kayton Library has loads: just ask the librarians and they can show you where they're shelved (or search the library catalogue using terms such as 'manga' or 'graphic novels'). You might also be interested in checking out some of the blog's other posts on this topic. For instance, you can read Jake Curtis's top five recommendations here, and Charles Cavalla's article on the evolution of the graphic novel here, as well as Mr Kemp's article about Alison Bechdel here. We also have plenty of reviews: The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf, Building Stories by Chris Ware, and Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, all reviewed by Mr Kemp, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, reviewed by Alessandro Comoli -  just click on the title for the link. 

Book of the Week

Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

Recommended by Mr Kemp

I have been really impressed with this. But I’m not convinced that it’s the masterpiece that some people have been suggesting. This is the first graphic novel to be long-listed for the Booker Prize, and so it has perhaps predictably garnered quite a lot attention from the broadsheets. Indeed, my copy took about a month to arrive because the publishers hadn’t anticipated such a wide interest.

Building Stories

Mr Kemp

Building Stories by Chris Ware is a jigsaw puzzle box filled with 14 various different types of comic (as in graphic novel) text: newspapers, clothbound books, flyers and pamphlets.

It tells the story of a Chicago house and the people who live in it, principally, a disabled and lonely florist. Other characters include the senescent landlady, and a youngish woman trapped in a rather miserable and antagonist relationship. Also a bee, called Branford, who has two comics devoted to him out of the fourteen. You can read the comics in any order.

Reading Queer: Alison Bechdel

Mr Kemp

Alison Bechdel’s rather parlous day job from 1983-2008 was the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, a long running series about a large cast of (predominantly gay) women living in the US.

It’s been hailed as groundbreaking for its frank and witty presentations of lesbian lifestyles, and the Omnibus is on my Christmas list. It’s also got, for my money, one of the best titles of any literary work I’ve ever heard.

Book of the Week

The Arab of the Future, Volumes 1 and 2, by Riad Sattouf

Recommended by Mr Kemp

We have been here before. Nonfiction comics have for a long time now used simplistic cartoons to add something to the grimmer moments of the twentieth century. Art Spiegelman’s Maus does it for the Holocaust, Joe Sacco’s Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza document the turbulence of the Levant, and Iran’s Islamic Revolution is beautifully filigreed by Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis. 

The two volumes of Riad Sattouf’s The Arab of the Future could therefore quite easily be an interesting but rehashed version of all these masterpieces, but it is credit to the book that it manages to be original and thoughtful, brutal and charming, and, most importantly, as good as all the others.

The Evolution of the Graphic Novel

Charles Cavalla

The definition of the graphic novel has often been a contentious issue: does it have to be fiction? how does it differ from a comic book? and should we really consider a graphic novel as worth studying?

 

If you had asked me that last question two years ago, I would have said probably not - but my answer now, having read much more of the genre, would be the contrary. Graphic novels have evolved over the last forty years and have come from being simple cartoon strips to fully fleshed out, interesting narratives

Book of the Week

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Recommended by Alessandro Comoli

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel written from a unique perspective. It is based on a true story concerning Satrapi’s childhood and upbringing during the turbulent time of the Iraqi-Iranian war and the aftermath in Iran and Austria.

The book commences in Iran, before the aforementioned war. The protagonist was brought up by radical Marxists who supported the Islamic revolution and overthrowing of the Shah. The war occurred largely because after various negotiations relating to the resources of the country, with the UK and the U.S., the Iranian people saw the Shah as a puppet and rebelled until they felt justice had been done.

Fist of Five: Graphic Novels

Jake Curtis

Asterios Polyp

David Mazzuchelli was at one point one of the most successful comic book writers around, having done Dark Knight Returns (which is also fantastic and you should read) and then he disappeared from the public eye completely