Neil Gaiman writes The death of Batman

I picked up What Ever Happened to the Caped Crusader? a graphic novel/comic collection, when I was browsing the Denver Public Library’s graphic novel selection.  I was intrigued to see that Neil Gaiman wrote a Batman story and even more interested to see that he was invited to write the death of Batman.

I found this collection really interesting because of Gaiman’s stature as a young adult author.  Naturally, Batman has more name recognition but Gaiman might bring some young adult fans to Batman who wouldn’t otherwise consider the comic book genre. I also wanted to see how a well regarded novelist would treat a traditional comic book character. To me, this is like fan fiction written by a fiction expert. All very interesting…

The story opens with an introduction where Gaiman explains his choice to write the episode along with his approach to writing a “death of Batman” story.  I found out that Gaiman had written comics before and included Batman in his story in cameo type appearances. Knowing the genre well, he knew Batman’s death would inevitably be followed by Batman’s revival or Batman’s resurrection, so he endeavored, he explains in the introduction, to write a death that will stick.

At the beginning of the story, he puts Batman in a coffin, with all the most popular villains coming to pay their respects. A few of the time-honored characters step up to explain Batman’s demise, offering wildly different accounts.

In the end, this Batman comic ends up being a very complex treatment of the death of Batman. I definitely enjoyed it and I feel that I got my money’s worth, since I guessed that Gaiman would do something unexpected with this “final” episode.  The story does have some mature scenes, with some suggestion of sex and violence, so I would recommend it for readers 7^th grade or older. 

Since they probably have to read about war

Bull Run, by Paul Fleischman

This short, historical fiction tells the story of the first battle of the Civil War from the perspective of 16 narrators from all walks of life and both sides of the Mason Dixon line. By weaving together so many narrative perspectives in short, one or two page increments, author Paul Fleischman paints a rich, if sometimes disjointed, portrait of a divided nation on the brink of war.

Early in the book, I made the choice not to list the characters and their backstories, though it might have made for a little bit more cohesive read. Instead, I found myself backtracking a little and trying to keep track of which narrative voice was whose on a lot of occasions.

Some of my favorite characters were Shem Suggs, an illiterate southern man who joins the cavalry because of his love for horses, and Gideon Adams, a light-skinned black man who shaves his head to pass as white in order to join the Union army. I looked forward to reconnecting with these characters each time their turn came up to narrate the story in its march toward war.

The battle scenes in this short book do depict a bloody encounter that fortells a longer, more brutal war than most of the characters seem to expect in the pages leading up to the first canon fire. Although it is a little on the rough side, the book is accessible to readers from 5th grade and up, and deals appropriately with tough issues like death, child abuse, slavery, and racial discrimination. I would recommend this as an excellent fiction text for students studying this part of American history.

I spent a lazy Saturday with a teen vampire slayer

First Kill: The Slayer Chronicles, by Heather Brewer

 Joss McMillain witnesses the death of his own sister at the hands, or teeth, of a vampire and his life takes a dark and strange turn. He discovers that he is descendant from a long line of vampire slayers and travels to the Catskill Mountains to train for the hunt with a long lost uncle.
 I could not put this book down, finishing it in about four hours of delightful reading. Halfway through, I was captivated by Joss’ training and curious about how he would find his niche in the slayer community. His relationship with Abraham, the uncle who works him mercilessly to prepare Joss to fight a “hive” of vampires.
 The secret of the book is that the reader, like Joss, never knows who to trust. Brewer, the author, puts Joss alone in the woods with the prospect of a vampire attack looming more than a few times and each time I became nervous with anticipation. When Joss’ loyalty to the suspicious group of slayers is questioned, I read more quickly, anxious to find out how he would avoid persecution or even death.  
 I recommend this book for fans of either the Cirque du Freak series or Twilight. Readers wrote on Amazon that this book is not nearly as good as Brewer’s companion series, the Vladimir Tod chronicles, so I think I would recommend that series on the strength of my experience with this one. Although the book has some violent scenes with a fair amount of blood and dismemberment, the book is probably PG and an acceptable selection for middle schoolers and Amazon recommends it for 12 and up.

I'm still not buying a dog...for now.

If you have ever loved a dog, Gary Paulsen’s My Life inDog Years will make you cry. If, like me, you’ve refused to buy your two young daughters a dog until they are older, with the secret hope that they’ll forget about the whole thing eventually, this book will keep you awake nights, whispering in your ear that you are a terrible father.

Dogs helped shepherd Gary Paulsen through a rough and isolating childhood, and accompanied him in his adventures as an extreme outdoorsman. In this memoir, each chapter tells the story of a different part of Paulsen’s life and the close relationship he held with a dog that helped him through.

When Paulsen was a teenager, he labored on a farm to feed and clothe himself, and took an interest in a border collie who worked the farm with an intelligence and diligence that rivaled that of the best farmhand. In what was one of my favorite chapters in the book, Paulsen recounts a day when, his field work was rained out, he observed the dog herding cattle, inspecting fences, and guarding small children from the dangers of a farmyard.

The book is a page turner and fascinating, which is to say that it is probably a great choice for struggling readers, since the text is accessible to a student as young as a 4^th grader but would captivate an older secondary student.

A teen girl's view of the cultural revolution

At the end of the Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang, I wondered why there was not more mention of the red scarf, but that was the least of my concerns.

The story is Jiang’s memoir detailing her family’s persecution for their relative prosperity during China’s cultural revolution. Throughout, the author gives very little background about the political climate of the time, choosing instead a narrative perspective trained on her reaction to the turbulent political upheaval during her early teens. The effect is an interesting story, but I definitely felt that more historical background would have added to the story.

One of the big changes for Jiang during the time was her treatment as a top student. Prior to the cultural revolution, she was a top student headed for an elite middle school. Under the oppressive thumb of Chairman Mao, schools closed to reorganize to promote political indoctrination rather than academic achievement, and Jiang stayed at her neighborhood school and endured questioning about her family’s affluence.

Although the story kept my interest throughout, Jiang’s narration seems too even throughout,  the story of the physical persecution of her grandmother gets the same treatment as the story of her peers gossiping about how she received preferential treatment from the teacher.

In the end, I wonder if a student reading this without knowing the historical context would be puzzled throughout. Ideally, a teacher might explain communism and the basics of the cultural revolution so a kid doesn’t think this is sci-fi or something, since Jiang leaves a lot to the reader.  

Here's my first post for my young adult lit grad class: In Angela Johnson’s young adult novel, The First Part Last, she tells the story of a teen pregnancy and the weight it places on young Bobby’s life, and she organizes the novel in a way that creates suspense about the climactic childbirth. Johnson labels the book’s chapters “Now” and “Then,” choosing to “leap frog” on the timeline of the story, alternately narrating events that happen before and after the birth of Feather.

As a reader, the trip back and forth across the timeline of the story highlighted the somber tone of the novel that stayed consistent throughout, and raised questions for me about the presence of Nia “then,” and her conspicuous absence “now.” I read the dialogue between Nia and Bobby “then” for clues. Did the teens break up? Did Nia die in childbirth? Did Nia’s parents disappear? When I reached the childbirth, Johnson’s organizational strategy had it’s full impact. I flipped pages furiously. I had to know how Feather entered the story and why Nia exited, and why tone of this cautionary novel seemed so grey. Since this book deals with teen pregnancy and includes some sexual situations (although nothing explicit) teachers might want to make sure parents are OK with students reading about mature topics. It is just under 200 pages and a quick read. As for text's complexity, it is probably a good selection for a struggling high school reader, since it is pretty accessible.

More help from Twitterverse...

@TchEngRox I'll check out Westerfeld. I'm already a big Myers fan, so he's making the list. Thx.

— Joe Dillon (@onewheeljoe) January 29, 2012