Lunch, Camera, Snacktion!

I originally intended to post these in October, but the end of the year got away from me. Since I can’t draw, in honor of Inktober 2017 I searched out a graphic novel to fit each daily theme presented. Now that October is over, I finally have a chance to catch up on my blogging. Here’s my submission for the theme from October 2nd: divided.

Title: Lights, Camera, Snacktion!
Series: Space Battle Lunchtime Volume One
Author/Illustrator: Natalie Riess
ISBN: 9781620103135
Pages: 119 pages
Publisher/Date: Oni Press, Inc. c2016. (Originally published as Issues 1-4 of the Oni Press Comic Series Space Battle Lunchtime)

Peony gets snagged at the very last minute by a talking frog to serve as a replacement contestant in an intergalactic cooking competition. She’s the underdog, but serves up some superior dishes that keep her advancing through the rounds. But it might not be her dishes that are keeping her, as funny business is afoot, as tampering with cooking equipment and ingredients leads to two eliminations. Peony uncovers more about the suspicious circumstances that led to her serving as a replacement. Are the stakes too high? Is someone intent in making sure Peony’s goose is cooked!?

Peony, dressed in white and pink chef’s outfit decorated with hearts, is obviously the naive, sweetheart that readers are meant to cheer. The bad guy is also quite obvious from the beginning, and there is no surprise when the two collide. A budding friendship with a producer and another contestant might mean Peony will have some help in getting herself out of the hot water she’s found herself. No actual recipes are shared, as the ingredients consist of the mundane and made-up. Diagonally shaped panels contribute to fast-paced feel, with three “episodes” of the competition happening within this first compilation volume. The parts of the story that take place behind the scenes of the show slow the pace substantially.  Aliens are a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, although most could be described as humanoid or similar to an Earth animal (shrimp, fish, frogs, and insects to name a few). A sugary sweet submission to the graphic novel genre that covers a topic not often seen. Fans will look forward to seconds, as the first leaves off on a cliffhanger.

The Fog Diver

Title: The Fog Diver
Author: Joel Ross
ISBN: 9780062352934
Pages: 328 pages
Publisher/Date: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, c2015.

My name is Chess, and I was born inside a cage.
Imagine a wooden platform jutting from a mountain cliff. Now picture a chain falling from that platform and vanishing into the Fog, a deadly white mist that covers the entire Earth.
That’s where I was born: locked in a cage, at the end of a chain, inside the Fog.
And I would’ve died there, too, if Mrs. E hadn’t saved me.
When she saw my face for the first time, wisps of Fog swirled inside my right eye, shimmering white shapes that marked me as a freak. That’s why I’ve spent thirteen years keeping my head down, staying quiet and afraid–but now Mrs. E needs help, now <em>she</em> needs saving.
It’s time to stop hiding. Everything is going to change. (1-2)

Scientists built nanites to clean up the polluted Earth, only they made them too smart. The nanites turned on their creators, scrubbing the Earth clean not just of pollution, but of the creators of the pollution. Now mankind has retreated to the mountain tops, and fog divers like Chess literally dive into the fog from flying barges to scavenge for resources. He and his rag-tag team of orphans were brought together by Mrs. E. Dreams of ascending to the safer parts of the mountain have always been a dream, but now they need money and resources to get Mrs. E the help she needs as fog sickness starts taking over. Fog sickness isn’t the only risk though, as the past Mrs. E rescued Chess from comes back to haunt him and hunt for him. Will they be able to escape all the dangers, or will Chess take his last dive?

For fans of the television series Firefly (which I’m watching right now for the first time), this street urchin crew may seem familiar. Maybe author Joel Ross, making his middle-grade debut, is a fan himself? Chess takes the place of River, being hidden in plain sight and with skills no one fully understands. But he is also part Zoe, serving as a second-in-command position to Hazel. Hazel is the captain of the crew, and much like Mal she has her unexpected soft side. Chess says she “wore long, flowing skirts, dreamed of fancy dances, loved pretty sunsets . . . and could bark out orders faster than the toughest junkyard boss.” (28-29) Pilot Swedish has the skills of Wash but the attitude of Jayne. Bea is Kaylee, the spunky, overly enthusiastic and optimistic mechanic, down to talking to the electronics and naming them.

The crew members are unique and highly developed, with characteristics and flaws that will allow readers to relate with at least someone, whether it’s the snarky asides of sarcasm, quick-witted thinking, or the more vulnerable moments of emotion. They form a tight-knit family who cares about and trusts one another, even when they are surprised by another’s actions or a never-before revealed secret. It reads like a swashbuckling pirate adventure, with rigging and scavengers, hidden treasures and double crosses. Highly recommended to those readers looking for something unique, or maybe those too young for the airships of Westerfeld’s Leviathan series.

The allusions to the world before are the basis for most of the laughs in this post-apocalyptic, dystopian world. There is little in the way of modern day conveniences, but that goes unremarked upon as they wrap their heads around what little they do know, and make up their own explanations for what they don’t understand. The characters routinely improvise, interchange, and just plain invent references. Primarily, these confusions come from Chess, who has a scrapbook made by his father of various cultural references from before the fog.

• Chess decides against repeating the “old tale of ‘Skywalker Trek,’ about a space war between the Klingons and the Jedi, set in a future when people lived on distant planets and fought Tribbles, Ewoks, and Borgs.” (17-18).
• He describes Valentine’s Day as “an old holiday […] when they used to wear green and say ‘be mine’ and kiss under a shamrock. […] They gave flowers to their sweethearts.” (82)
• “I’m not sure the shell actually snaps.”
  “Of course it does! A snapping turtle is a turtle that snaps, like a bobcat is a cat that bobs. It says so in the name.”
  “Sure,” I said. “And grizzly bears loooove to grizz.” (178)
• There’s also a reference to weird animals of the past like spelling bees and Hello Kitties which of course I can’t locate currently.

There are a lot of tight escapes, narrow misses, and nail-biting excitement, which is completely inline with the life they lead. While their actions are slightly more legal than the ones seen in Firefly, they are still the underdog in a rigged system. They don’t even own the ship outright, renting it from corrupt folks, making every effort to get out from under the debt and find that big score that will put them on the top. The technology is slightly steampunk in nature, although I would have liked more details on how they were able to adapt to this world above the clouds that today we would deem uninhabitable. While Chess’s rumored existence is initially stereotypical and his ability to go unnoticed for 13 years remarkable, the sudden interest in his skills and presence is explained adequately. The climatic end is just that, and it’s only at the last heart-stopping page that you receive a sudden but satisfactory resolution to the story, worthy of Ocean’s Eleven. While enjoyable as a stand-alone, there is definitely a sequel in the making, with The Lost Compass arriving in May 2016 which will hopefully bring more answers.

Fuzzy Mud

Title: Fuzzy Mud
Author: Louis Sachar
ISBN: 9780385743785
Pages: 183 pages
Publisher/Date: Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, c2015.

With sudden ferocity, Chad lunged at him. He slugged Marshall in the face, and then in the side of the neck.
Tamaya screamed.
Marshall tried to protect himself, but Chad hit him twice more, then grabbed him by the head and threw him to the ground.
“Leave him alone!” Tamaya shouted.
Chad glared at her. “You’re next, Tamaya,” he said.
Marshall tried to get up, but Chad’s knee caught the side of his head, knocking him back down.
Tamaya didn’t think. She just reacted.
She reached into the fuzzy mud and grabbed a handful of thick and gooey muck. She ran at Chad, and as he turned toward her, she shoved it into his face. (32-33)

Marshall always walks younger neighbor Tamaya home from their prestigious school. In order to avoid a fight with antagonistic new kid Chad, Marshall takes them deep into the neighboring woods, but Chad follows. They escape, although the next day they realize they might have discovered something that impacts not just them but possibly the entire world. Sachar makes it pretty clear that the fuzzy mud is the culprit for all their troubles, especially since the book is titled after the substance. Excerpts from public hearings that take place prior to and after the primary events are lightly interspersed, but they serve more as info dumps and red herrings in building suspense then actually advancing the plot. The happy ending is plausible if a little convenient, but sometimes scientific discoveries happen that way. For younger readers not ready for Hiassen, this might be a good introduction to the eco thriller genre.

Cosmoe’s Wiener Getaway

Title: Galactic Hot Dogs: Cosmoe’s Wiener Getaway
Author: Max Brallier
Illustrator: Rachel Maguire and Nichole Kelley
ISBN: 9781481424943
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher/Date: Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, c2015.

It’s Evil Princess Dagger.
And she’s aboard our ship!
“What the butt?! What are you doing here?!”
“Stealing your ship, silly. I’m an evil princess. Y’know?”
I start stuttering, “NO-NO. NO-NO. NO. You can’t be here! Your evil mom is gonna think we kidnapped you. She’ll KILL us!”
Princess Dagger is about to respond, when—BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP “Brace for impact,” our pet robot, F.R.E.D., says.
“SMUDGE!” I exclaim. “They’re trying to shoot us out of space!”
The princess has a sly smile on her face. “Duh! They think you kidnapped me.” (18-19)

Cosmoe is in TROUBLE! All he did was enter a giant hot dog into the Intragalactic Food Truck Cook-Off, which then got stolen by the Evil Princess Dagger, who then stows away on their ship. The ship is being chased by the Evil Queen Dagger and all her minions, initially just to reclaim her run-away daughter. But when the whole galaxy is informed that Cosmoe found a stranded zombie pirate ship yielding a piece of a Map-O-Sphere that reveals the location of an extreme evil when fully assembled, Cosmoe, his buddy Humphree, and the princess have more than the Evil Queen to worry about.

Yes, the book is just as wildly frenetic as that summary. Zombie pirates, references to movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Indiana Jones (even though Cosmoe is the only Earthling in the cast and therefore the only one who understands them) and ongoing laser blasts battles are found within the pages. If Cosmoe is comparable to Han Solo, and Humphree is the equivalent to Chewie, then I guess that means the Evil Princess assumes the role of Leia and the Evil Queen a version of Darth Vader, but that would be doing an injustice to both the original and this not quite parody. Made up slang makes it very younger kid friendly, including “What the Butt!” and “Smudge!” and silly stupidity fills the pages alongside the graphic novel style illustrations. Longer then Captain Underpants or Geronimo Stilton, it’s still accessible to that audience while appealing to older readers. There is very little character development, with no explanation as to why Princess Dagger feels this compulsion to be evil only in the presence of her mother, why Humphree retired from piracy (supposedly it’s “long and complicated” and involves Cosmoe), or even why Cosmoe is riding around on a flying food truck. But in all honesty, it doesn’t matter, because just like a themed roller coaster, it is the ride you are there to enjoy, and readers will enjoy this fast paced, space odyssey which I predict will continue in future installments.

Cleopatra in Space

Today, in honor of World Space Week, we’ve got two reviews on the first two books in the Cleopatra in Space series. Each month for a previous job, I wrote a maximum 150 word review of a new book that came into the library during the month. I’ve expanded that idea to the blog in a feature I’m calling To the Point Tuesdays. The review of the second book (The Thief and the Sword) meets this criteria. If you want to play along, just post a link in the comments and I’ll add them to the post.

Title: Target Practice
Series: Cleopatra in Space #1
Author/Illustrator: Mike Maihack
ISBN: 9780545528429
Pages: 172 pages
Publisher/Date: Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2014.

“It was during this recovery that an ancient scroll detailing the arrival of a hero was uncovered. A hero who would appear at this exact time and place to defeat the Xerx and restore peace and order to the galaxy.”
“You are that hero in the scroll, Cleopatra” (51)

Cleopatra (yes, the queen from the history books) is teleported from her time into a very different future. Expected to save the world from the Xerx and their leader, Xaius Octavian, Cleopatra is flummoxed by the need to attend classes, where she excels at combat but is exasperated by everything else. Guided by Khensu, the ancestor of her long-dead pet cat and monitored by a council of cats and alien teachers, Cleopatra isn’t sure what to think of this new world. When her first assignment lands her in hot water, Khensu realizes the council might not have his protégé’s best interests in mind.

Although she may be old as a mummy, Cleopatra is anything but a relic from the past. Preferring to be called Cleo, using modern day slang such as “Yup” and “Jeez” even before she time travels, and adapting seemingly instantaneously to things like paper books. It’s all done very tongue and cheek, with her Egyptian friend Goz calling out her smack talking “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a pyramid” with an equally sarcastic “That doesn’t even make sense.” before getting cut off (29-30). The fast and furious action-packed opening scene begins with her assignment mission before going back in time and then forward again all within the first 50 pages. Maihack smartly skips over several months of classwork so we can then get some additional action sequences with her assignment, finishing up at the end of the first semester. Hopefully all the subsequent volumes don’t progress as quickly.

Title: The Thief and the Sword
Series: Cleopatra in Space #2
Author/Illustrator: Mike Maihack
ISBN: 9780545528443
Pages: 190 pages
Publisher/Date: Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., c2015.

”Xaius Octavian, I presume? I hear you’re looking for a thief.” (19-20)

A nearly wordless fifteen page opening introduces a cocky but highly capable African-American thief hired to steal an artifact being temporarily stored in military headquarters. Next door, Yasiro Academy is having their winter dance for military cadets, including the time-teleported Cleopatra, who hinders but doesn’t catch the thief in a madcap chase scene through the school and city. Meanwhile Cleo’s friend Brian has discovered there may be a way to send savior Cleo back to her own time, whether she wants to or not. Their search begins, but advisor Khensu isn’t telling them everything. The cityscapes are gorgeous, reminiscent of Gotham and Giza, and the action sequences demand your attention. Readers should appreciate the little details, like Cleo taking off her shoes before beginning the chase. The characters are beginning to evolve, with back stories that unavoidably slow the plot. I look forward to upcoming revelations, especially about the thief.