Review: The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley

 
Title: The Dumbest Idea Ever!
Author: Jimmy Gownley
Illustrator: Jimmy Gownley
Publisher: Scholastic Graphix
Copyright: 2014
Price: $11.99

ISBN: 978-0545453479
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: Being a teenager sucks, but for Jimmy, he's having a tough time. First he gets sick and misses school, then he gets sick AGAIN and misses more school. He stops caring about school and starts focusing on his comics. A friend suggests a comic book idea for him, but he decides it's the dumbest idea. Only when his first idea flops, does he give it a chance and lands on possibly the best idea ever. As Jimmy rise in fame, he's also dealing with normal teenage things like first loves and changing friendships.
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Recommended Audience: Middle School
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Things to be aware of: Nothing.
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Further Thoughts:  Jimmy Gownley is probably best known for his Amelia Rules series, which is very popular (it is in my library), so this will probably be snatched up by readers who love the series. To be honest, readers will probably read this because it's a Scholastic middle school slice of life graphic novel with praises from Jeff Smith (Bone), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Sisters), and Jeff Kinney.

Take all that away though and you have a great biographical story about how Jimmy Gownley's teen years helped him become a graphic novel artist. He shows how he did research, practiced drawing, and had a good support system, including supportive parents. This graphic novel is perfect for any budding artist, writer, or creator to see how Jimmy survived his teen years and made it.

There are a few fantastical elements that help him. Jimmy talks to the Grim Reaper, showing at least twice how he thinks he wants to die, only to realize he wanted to press on. For me, this was a strong point in the story and helped me become invested in it. When it ended, I didn't want it to end. Thankfully there's an afterward that expands on it.


Overall feeling: Cartoonish art, inspiration, slice of life, and teen years combine for a powerful story that begs to be read multiple times and shared with friends. A must have.
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Bonus: Jimmy Gownley is from PA (according to the bio). He spoke at PaLA in 2008.
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Source: Library/Review copy

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

Title: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
Author: Prudence Shen
Illustrator: Faith Erin Hicks
Publisher: First Second (:01)
Copyright: 2013
Price: $18.99
ISBN: 978-1596436596
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: Nerds versus jocks. Who will win in securing the student body president victory in the name of their own goals? Or will they come together and work toward a compromise? When the school has extra money to allocate, it is the Cheerleaders versus the Robot Team. The Cheerleaders want new outfits. The Robotics Team wants an opportunity to compete. The only way they can get that money is to become friends with the new student body president.

Nate, the Nerd, and Charlie, the Jock, are friends. Neither of them knows exactly why they are friends, but somehow, they keep coming to each other for their problems. Their friendship is tested when Holly, ex-girlfriend to Charlie and head cheerleader, sets Charlie up to run against Nate, who is running for his own team. Can they overcome this issue in their friendship? Is it even worth it for Charlie? He’s not exactly running anyway.

A wrench is thrown into everyone’s plan when politics goes just a little too far and it is up to The Robotics Team and the Cheerleaders to consider a plan of action that will benefit them both. Will it though?
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Recommended Audience: high school
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Things to be aware of: crude humor; mild violence; robot violence; challenge to authority; mild swearing
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Further Thoughts: The eternal struggle between Nerds and Jocks is highlighted in this story as the Robotics Team and Cheerleaders fight for their goals. The strength in this one is that it highlights the idea that sometimes, you need to work together.

The Nerd group is a diverse group of people but none of them ever exactly fit the “stereotype.” They are all aspects of the stereotype but are their own person. It is a fun group to watch interact, even as some characters take a backseat to others (which is highlighted in a surprise twist ending). They are willing to fight for what they believe in and they are pretty level headed. Except Nate. Nate is a bit narrow minded, which helps the story as he only wants a certain end goal and will do anything to achieve it.

The Cheerleaders are everything you think of when it comes to cheerleaders, but again, we’ve got a diverse group of characters. The humor in their characters comes from the fact that they are so regimented and so stuck up. They are also a pretty smart group. Not “nerd smart” but enough that they do have their part in the story.

And then there is Charlie. He straddles the line with his friendship to Nate and his participation in sports (and at one point “dating” Holly). It is his character that is probably the center of this story and the common thread. He’s got his own problems outside of the high school drama that Nate and the Cheerleaders are making with him. He’s mad at his parents and would prefer not to get on anyone’s bad side. In the beginning, he’s still willing to do what he needs to do to not challenge the status quo. By the end though, he’s challenged it and finally found his voice for his problems at home.

Black and white illustrations tell this story in Faith Erin Hicks’s style. If you haven’t read her other work, you’ll recognize this as her style. Ironically, I kept forgetting I wasn’t reading a work by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim). Her own style is very close. You could probably say it is part Hope Larson and part O’Malley. It’s definitely great art. The only downside is that the robot actions get a bit confusing, but that’s for only two panels.

Highly recommended and I’ll be picking up a copy.
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Bonus: Did you see my post about the Interesting Marketing Strategy for this one? Faith Erin Hicks was/is a webcomic artist (according to Wikipedia).

Source: Netgalley Request. (Pub date: May 7, 2013)

Linky Link: Plagiarism and Copyright for this week

Part 1: Hot Topic, the store
First, flying around on my [private] Twitter Feed this week was the accusation that Hot Topic (popular teen "punk/goth" store) ripped off yet another Indie Artist with a t-shirt design. Since this is buried so deep in Twitter now (and was Retweeted [RT] often by web comic artists who fall under the "Indie Artist" category), see this link for thoughts and links to the original design. It seems Hot Topic did keep to their word and took the work down.

Now, just two days ago I saw this RT from web comic artist Rene Engstrom (of AndersLovesMaria fame - NSFW) saying Hot Topic had ripped off artist Kawaii Not by using her images in two buttons without her permission. Kawaii Not's images are difficult to link to as the buttons were all listed on the same page and hard to find without serious searching, but the images were basically the same as the Hot Topic buttons. The Hot Topic image links are in the RT and it seems, just two days later that Hot Topic has taken these buttons down as well (they are "Error Links").

I bring this up because one of my favorite web comic artists (Jess Fink - def. NSFW) had a design of hers taken about 2 years ago which was already a Threadless shirt at that point. Here's an excellent write up about that issue.

While I seriously should be more angry at the designers (and I am), it is Hot Topic's fault to be selling it. Hot Topic has been very good at taking stuff down when asked, but I can't help but wonder what is or isn't original about the stuff that isn't Twilight, Invader Zim, Lenore or "brand names" any more.

Part 2: Bleach Vs. Incarnate
I'm really not going to go into this one mainly because I have not read Bleach yet and Johanna Draper Carlson (I hope I'm attributing this to the right author) does a beautiful write up at Comics Worth Reading. She's included most of the links I've seen just browsing on this topic and I think it brings up a great point about "scanlations" (scans of titles unreleased in the U.S.A. [usually Japanese Manga] available freely on the Internet that may be in the original language or "fan subbed" [translated into English by fans]). I honestly did not know all of the history about scanlations or how the Japanese felt about plagiarism until I read this article.

Why bring these up? As I write these, I realize they are more relevant plagiarism cases for teens. Here are some great "real world" examples of what happens when you are caught and how fast this stuff moves. Basically, I think lessons like the two above are more likely to stick with students than those of "don't copy an author's work for your paper."

Part 3: Books too!!
Music, movies, TV shows, and other general media aren't the only things getting pirated any more and as librarians we need to be aware of this. Books are going that way too. Laurie Halse Anderson recently posted about "Book Pirates": Part 1 and Part 2. I suspect that the more we see eReaders coming out, the more book pirating will happen. I believe that as librarians, we need to be aware that this exists and try to do our little part in educating users.

Still Here

I had to put off posting for a while as I had to determine my username for here and for work (wanted them separate). It was possible I was going to have to change this one. Luckly enough, I figured out a new username for there to keep the one here. YAY.

In other news, I'm progressing SLOWLY through Love*Com. Why did I agree to read this one? I mean, I saw a review in passing, started reading it and to me, it's a little better than a soap but he's yanking her around way to much to make me happy. She was sure, confident and then fell in love and is all weak and whiney. UGH. At least volume 7 shows some progress which makes me wonder what volume 8 looks like. Unforutnately, the next batch I'm reviewing is Love*Com 4-7. It is surprisingly clean though and perfect for the teen angst/drama club (I can't stop reading for the drama. The Philsopher Musician is surprised I'm still reading it).

I really have to point you to this post (a good friend of mine). When in doubt about graphic novels, all I can say is read them. Unless you know someone like me who will grab a copy of League [of Extraordinary Gentleman] and say "Oh, here's a naughty bit, oh and this one, and this one..." and show them to you because I've read it. Although, I don't remember the implied stuff like in Wish (which I'll have to re-read).

November is NaNoWriMo

Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? It seems teen authors may or have in the past taken part in this national writing campaign. Do you know what it is? NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month,” which, if I remember correctly was started by a small group of writers needing a way to write. NaNoWriMo is pretty simple: write a 50,000 word novel about anything and then you can say you wrote a novel. The point is just to write, write, write and about quantity and not quality. Although, that’s not to say quality work isn’t written. Heck, a few NaNoWriMo projects have been published as books.

Why should you care? The short answer: teens. How often have you seen an article about a teen writing group? Seen a program write up on hosting a writing group? Writing workshop? I’ve seen quite a bit from ideas in professional works to an article in Voya. Teens write. I used to be a prolific writer as a teen to help sort through my anxieties and problems. NaNoWriMo now provides a division for younger writers such as teens and some schools have even hosted their own NaNoWriMos and it is simple if you just tell writers to scramble the word and do a word count.

Programming Connections: Does your library have a writing group? See if teens can become involved. Offer writing workshops this month, author visits, or host a writing group once a week this month.

You get the idea. :)