S. Ramsay LSC530

  Informational Book Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera  written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Eric Rohmann. Published by Holiday House (2020) This non-fiction book narrates the lifespan and stages of a western honeybee From one female worker bee's birth through the many tasks in her short lifespan, climaxing with a double foldout spread where she takes flight, and working hard until one day she remains still. Then, a new honeybee pushes through the cell they hatched in and starts a new life. I really appreciate a good picture book, and I really appreciate accessible non-fiction so this is the best of both worlds. When I want to learn some broad strokes about a subject but don't want to invest too much time, I like to check out the children's nonfiction. Here Fleming has packed a great deal of information into a picture book, that was really a pleasure to read (and kind of emotional, from Apis's flight into the great blue sky above a field of wildflowers,

  Book Discussion In my group, we talked about Raina Telgemeier's most recent graphic memoir, Guts . I prepared by reading the book, refreshing myself on some of Raina's biographical information from her website, and seeing what she is up to right now. At the moment, her art is on exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. The exhibit, "Facing Feelings," is all about the emotions Raina is able to convey in her art. Raina's use of emanata came up in discussion, a term made up by cartoonist Mort Walker in his Lexicon of Comicana  originally to describe the squiggly lines above a character's head, but now more generically applies to all sorts of squiggles, marks and symbols in comics. We all agreed that Raina was able to convey a lot of emotion, and did focus on the facial expressions used, some like subtle shifts of the eyes, and others an aura of dread with eyes changing color and teeth clenched (big emotions here). My only expectations going i

Audiobook   I Talk Like A River written and narrated by Jordan Scott. Published by Dreamscape Media (2020). Jordan Scott speaks from his own experiences with stuttering in this audiobook, originally published as a picture book. In the book, a boy is full of language but cannot get the words out, he has a stutter and hides in the back of class to avoid talking. He is picked to talk in front of the class, and he doesn't feel great about it. Later his father takes him to the river and likens the way he talks to the way the river rolls over rocks and "stutters" like the boy. The boy goes to school and talks about the river. I really like the book to begin with, Jordan Scott uses some beautiful language in the book, and Smith's illustrations are fantastic as usual. Here, in the audiobook, we lose the illustrations but they've added ambient music and sound effects for things like the river, most importantly (I think) we get to hear Scott narrate the book. The book helps

  Graphic Novel Guts  written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier. Published by Graphix (2019) This is the third graphic memoir Raina has written. This installation deals with Raina's increasing anxiety and stomach aches during her fourth and fifth grade years of school. Raina finds ways to cope with the anxiety, but as she notes in her author's note, both the anxiety and stomach issues are an ever-present part of her life. Raina Telgemeier is a bit of a trailblazer in the children's comics/graphic novel scene. Within the format, she has become an expert in expressing emotions on character's faces, and in this novel it is hard not to at least sympathize with Raina when her character is surrounded by a sickly green aura that seems to crush her and make her grit her teeth (23). This is her latest book, and even 4 years later it is still a book that is unlikely to sit on the shelf. I really like Guts because it may give some kids the means to communicate what they may be f