Well I recently discovered the joys of iMovie and decided to give it a whirl and create my own video. So I decided to do a fan made video on my favorite book…..
Tiger’s Voyage by Colleen Houck
I hope that you enjoy my video and I hope in the future to do more of these types of videos for other of my favorite books.
Tell me what you think and I hope to hear from you.
As we are now full swing in the season of gift giving do you find yourself running around crazily searching for the perfect gift?
Well search no more.
In line with the thinking that hand-made gifts are the best as they are creative, made with love, and so on……
Here is the perfect thing for just about everyone in your life.
How cool to be able to knit some of the wonderful characters of Christmas? Reindeer, Santa and more! They would make the perfect gift to give to that special person.
Of course, you do have to be able to knit…….
Library. Barnes and Noble. Borders(though not any more). Drug Stores. Schools. And More. You can get books from all of these various places and many others. So, my mother the other day went to a different library. While she was there she was looking for some books and found this one book on South Africa which she thought I would enjoy (it’s a book of short stories) and so she borrowed it. She told me to read the book (which by the way is titled Somehow Tenderness Survives Stories of Southern Africa selected by Hazel Rochman) and so I pick up the book and when I picked it up my finger slipped to the last page and I felt something there. I did not know what it was but it felt like paper or one of the bar codes on the back of books but it felt like it was peeling off. I ignored it and started reading but then my finger slipped to the last page again and I realized that is was just a page – not the last last page where they usually put the bar code. So I just had to investigate. When I turned to the last page there was a sticky notes with the words “Hello” and a smiley face. But what was above it blew me away. It is a paper crane the size of two finger nails. One wing is taped and if you gently pull the other wing out it opens up to the beautiful crane. My mother had noticed it too and it is just magnificent because to think that someone actually made this and put it in the book, deliberately, and I just though to share it with you. This is because you can find all sorts of things in books. I have gotten books with drawings in them and I even sometimes get spy novel which have paper in it with clues so it seems that someone was trying to stay one step ahead of the novel. I thought that this was so cool so I had to share it with you.
Cover of American Born Chinese
Summary
Amazon.com
“Indie graphic novelist Gene Yang’s intelligent and emotionally challenging American Born Chinese is made up of three individual plotlines: the determined efforts of the Chinese folk hero Monkey King to shed his humble roots and be revered as a god; the struggles faced by Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates; and the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-American teen so shamed by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee (a purposefully painful ethnic stereotype) that he is forced to change schools. Each story works well on its own, but Yang engineers a clever convergence of these parallel tales into a powerful climax that destroys the hateful stereotype of Chin-Kee, while leaving both Jin Wang and the Monkey King satisfied and happy to be who they are….”
Review
I have not read a graphic novel for quite a long time. Well, I do not believe I have ever read an authentic graphic novel, I have read a Warrior Series graphic novel but I am not sure if that qualifies.
This book was quite interesting. I am usually not a person who reads graphic novels because I feel that it does not give me the satisfaction of a regular book. I like to have to use my imagination to see the characters and I like to see them in my own eyes. When you read a graphic novel, the characters are drawn for you. There is no imagination involved as you read the captions to go along with the story. Graphic novel’s, I believe, are for reluctant readers. They get you to read as they are good stories but they do not require a lot of concentration. I read this book in under a day as it was so simple. Do not get me wrong, it was a good book and the pictures were well done, but I personally do not like 
.
The pictures in this book were well done. I do like graphic novel drawings. They are a unique style of drawing and I respect people who can do it as it is quite an amazing art form. It was also a humorous book. Not like splitting your sides funny but it had its moments.
I personally believe that this is really a boy book though. There was no violence as such (even though at one point someone got speared and put over a spit but is saved) but the story line just came across to me as being a boy type of story line. I cannot explain how but that is the vibe that I got.
This book was a National Book Award Finalist. It also won a Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature.
I would recommend you to read the book as it is a graphic novel and it is a good change from reading a regular book. I hope that you enjoy.
If you have read it tell me what you think about it.
Have you thought you might like to write a book?
Or make a book?
Or make a comic?
Well, Jason Shiga, an award-winning author, has made a really great video showing how you can easily create an interactive comic using just a few things you can find around your home. Take a look at the video and try it out. Cool!
And visit Jason here.
