li'l rip.

There are SO many amazing middle grade novels and graphic novels coming out this year. 12-year-olds are tough customers when it comes to reading, so I am pretty ecstatic to feature the Li'l Rip Haywire Adventures: Escape from Camp Cooties which came out last month. Author, Dan Thompson writes the Rip Haywire graphic novels and I love that he took this popular character back to his childhood to gear his talents toward kids.

Rip isn't your average kid. He gets to join his dad on dangerous international missions, this one being at an all-girls summer camp, where strange things are happening. Following Rip (and his sidekick who is also his dog) as he tries to solve the mystery is hilarious. Your kid will love the story and the illustrations.

beautiful graphics, great themes.

The Hockey Saint is the second installment in the Forever Friends trilogy by Howard Shapiro, following the extremely popular, The Stereotypical Freaks. Graphic novels are all my middle grade boys want to read at this point, so Shapiro has been a real lifesaver. This sports-oriented graphic novel revolves around world renowned Canadian hockey player Jeramiah Jacobson and his huge fan, an ordinary college kid named Tom Leonard who is still grieving the loss of his parents. The two meet by chance, become friends, and Tom learns that celebrities really don't have it all. The fame and spotlight is slowly eating away at Jeramiah, and although Tom has a lot of his own stuff to deal with, he realizes that by putting forth the effort to save others, you can also save yourself.

Shapiro has a huge win here. A graphic novel carrying themes such as depression, helping others, the meaning of true friendship, and addiction. The Hockey Saint carries with it a moral compass and takeaway values for an age group that desperately needs both.

1914 history.

Touching again on the 100th anniversary of WWI, I was sent a very unusual account of a soldier's time spent during the first world war in the form of a graphic novel titled Line of Fire: Diary of an Unknown Soldier. The diary includes the first months of the war that everyone thought would be over by Christmas, yet lasted 4 years killing millions. No one has any idea who the author is, what happened to him, or why he stopped writing, although we can imagine. The graphic novel part isn't even the strangest part of this book, the strangest part is that its illustrator Barroux, found a diary on an ordinary day, walking the streets of Paris, in the trash. He scooped it up, created some drawings to go along with the writing, and now we have a truly unique piece of history to enjoy.

a love/hate relationship with money.

I hate money. Probably because I don't have any. I have been working this whole summer school gig for almost five weeks, and I JUST got paid for the first time. It was nice, but also kind of annoying after seeing all of the taxes that were taken out. Blah. I hate money.

Eddie Campbell is an award-winning graphic novelist who titled his latest, The Lovely Horrible Stuff. I bet a dollar that my relationship with money is worse than Campbell's, but I can't help but like the guy. Eddie Campbell himself is the one constant in this graphic novel about money, and he makes me laugh a lot. He mocks the value of money, and jokes about all of the things people do or don't do to save money - like don't beat the crap out of your son because you'll just have to pay the medical bills. Gems like that.