Book-It 'o11! Book #36
Sep. 19th, 2011 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Details: Copyright 2011, First Second Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century.
Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might actually be worse. She’s embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she’s pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.
Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn’t kidding about the “Forever” part . . ."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The AV Club Comics Panel reviewed this and it looked interesting.
How I Liked It: I'm not the intended audience for this book, but I've read plenty of "young adult" novels that suited an adult and I figured a good book is a good book.
Brosgol's style recalls Kim Possible and similar animation, but the textured black and white the story is rendered in is surprisingly beautiful.
The story is a bit rickety (even for a young adult novel) and the moral it leads up to isn't clear enough to justify it being the crescendo of the book.
Still, the author's characters are distinct enough (particularly with the undercurrent of the lead desperately trying to shed her Russian heritage) to warrant another, hopefully better-developed story (or several). The themes of individuality and assimilation (and non-conformity) are rich enough and are the most winning parts of this novel. The author plumbing Anya's rise to adulthood (she's high schooler, either a junior or sophomore) would potentially make for strong, entertaining stories.
Notable: The most interesting about the narrative is the (apparently genuine; the author is Russian-American) yearning for the American identity. Anya takes pride in the fact she "got rid of [her] accent" and consoles a more recent immigrant classmate that he'll probably lose his, too.
This is many scenes after Anya dismissively explains to an observer (while they watch the boy being bullied) that "You act like a fobby creep, you get creamed."
She defines "fobby" with a chilling resonance to a modern adolescent (the author is presumably drawing on her own personal experiences, which would be tinged with a Cold War mentality towards all things Russian), particularly in a Lou Dobbs world: "Fobby"= "Fresh Off the Boat".
Title: Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Details: Copyright 2011, First Second Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century.
Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might actually be worse. She’s embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she’s pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.
Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn’t kidding about the “Forever” part . . ."
Why I Wanted to Read It: The AV Club Comics Panel reviewed this and it looked interesting.
How I Liked It: I'm not the intended audience for this book, but I've read plenty of "young adult" novels that suited an adult and I figured a good book is a good book.
Brosgol's style recalls Kim Possible and similar animation, but the textured black and white the story is rendered in is surprisingly beautiful.
The story is a bit rickety (even for a young adult novel) and the moral it leads up to isn't clear enough to justify it being the crescendo of the book.
Still, the author's characters are distinct enough (particularly with the undercurrent of the lead desperately trying to shed her Russian heritage) to warrant another, hopefully better-developed story (or several). The themes of individuality and assimilation (and non-conformity) are rich enough and are the most winning parts of this novel. The author plumbing Anya's rise to adulthood (she's high schooler, either a junior or sophomore) would potentially make for strong, entertaining stories.
Notable: The most interesting about the narrative is the (apparently genuine; the author is Russian-American) yearning for the American identity. Anya takes pride in the fact she "got rid of [her] accent" and consoles a more recent immigrant classmate that he'll probably lose his, too.
This is many scenes after Anya dismissively explains to an observer (while they watch the boy being bullied) that "You act like a fobby creep, you get creamed."
She defines "fobby" with a chilling resonance to a modern adolescent (the author is presumably drawing on her own personal experiences, which would be tinged with a Cold War mentality towards all things Russian), particularly in a Lou Dobbs world: "Fobby"= "Fresh Off the Boat".
