Middle Grade Books

My First Graphic Novel: kimmie66

- librariantiff 2 Comments

I just finished reading my first graphic novel (book 2 of 20 in my challenge)! I read kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to commit to reading a graphic novel. I’ve flipped through them many times, but they just haven’t grabbed me before. I knew that a graphic novel would have to be one of my first YA books in my challenge because they’ve become so popular. I browsed through the library’s collection and selected this one because it was a stand-alone novel and it wasn’t too terribly long. It took me a while to get into the groove of reading, with the boxes and bubbles and pictures all over the place. It’s quite the transition from reading straight words across a page. Once I got the hang of it, though, I really did enjoy it.

kimmie66 tells the story of a 23rd century girl named Telly who is searching for the truth about her virtual world friend that sent her a suicide note. It was an interesting story line and definitely grabbed me. I can also say that I now see the appeal of graphic novels: they give our ADD generation of kids an opportunity to read a novel quickly, while keeping them entertained with the pictures and ever-changing format. I’m quite proud of myself for getting over my aversion to graphic novels. While I don’t think I’ll devour them in droves, I’ll definitely be reading more in the future.

Going Bovine

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I just finished reading Going Bovine by Libba Bray. This was my first tween/teen book for my self-issued 20 book reading challenge. It’s been quite a while since I’ve read YA, I’ve been absorbed in children’s books and my adult book club selections for the past few years. I found myself a little shocked by the graphic language and content. I have been reading for the past several years with young elementary students in mind, after all!

I did enjoy this book, as crazy at it was. I read right before bed the other night and I know this book was the source of some wicked crazy dreams that I had. This book tells the story of 16 year old Cameron, a boy who becomes terminally ill with mad cow disease. His illness causes him to have hallucinations and he finds himself on a strange adventure while trying to save the world. This is a pretty long book that gets confusing on several occasions. I think this was a good choice to bring me back into the realm of YA as it has so much going on: profanity, sex, drugs/drinking, science-fictionish characters, and death. I thought this was a very cleverly written book. I really appreciated the humor and the crazy connections between Cameron’s reality and hallucinations.