Recent Reads

I love graphic novels - they were called comics when I was a kid. I remember endless hours of pleasure reading the stories and looking at the illustrations, and wanted to expose my nieces and nephews to some of that joy. My nieces all have birthdays in a couple of weeks, so I read my way through several likely candidates to determine which ones I would send them. These are the ones that made the list:

1. The Stonekeeper
This is the first book of the four part Amulet series, and I love the story - has a strong girl character. I could loose myself for hours in the lush illustrations. I had not heard of the author before and will looking into more of his work. Fab.

2. The Stonekeeper's Curse
Book 2 of the Amulet series.

3. The Cloud Searchers
Book 3 of the Amulet series. Am looking forward to book 4 due out in September.

4. Flight Explorer (Vol 1)
Same author as above, but the book consists of shorter stories by different artists. A fun romp.

Some of the other books I read:
5. Still Missing
This books got great reviews and while I thought the writing was interesting, I did not love it. The story is a hard one to read - a woman gets abducted by a man and kept prisoner in an isolated cabin. Tough content, and the writing was not good enough to convey the material convincingly. Interesting twist in the end.

6. Artist to Artist
23 major illustrators talk to their kids about art. This book is a great read for young and old - anyone interested in the creative process of book illustration. Loved it.