The Prince and the Dressmaker

By Jen Wang                                                                      ,

New York: First Second, 2018.

Genre: Graphic Novel

This is a beautiful fairy tale about Prince Sebastian who has come of age to marry and a young dressmaker, Frances who was a low-level seamstress who dreams of making runway dresses.  Prince Sebastian parents are pressuring him to find a wife but he has a secret that he has not shared with anyone  Frances is doomed to a life of dull dressmaking—they both are filled with a sense of dread. Then one day a bored client asks for a dress that will make her look like the “devils wrench”. When Frances breaks the mold and she gets noticed and a mysterious man comes in and hires her away.  Then Frances and Sebastian meet but can the secret that Sebastian hold tight be shared with a friend?  I am keeping this book in my YA section as deals with gender issues, but it is filled with friendship, identity and parental pressures.  This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. 

Grades: 7 and Up

Jane, the Fox and Me

By Fanny Britt

Toronto: Groundwood Press, 2012. 

Graphic Novel  100 pages.

This is rather a sophisticated graphic novel.  The title might bring in the younger audience and its size but it is really meant for an older audience of grades 6/7 and up.  Illustrations are done by Isabelle Arsenault and are fabulous!

This is the story of overweight teen by the name of Helene who is bullied by her classmates; retreats to reading.  Not reading any ordinary book but reading and rereading Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre. Helene can identify with the main character from the book, Jane. Jane’s trials and tribulations are Helene’s. 

This might be a good book to use in connection with Jane Eyre.

 

Mrs. Reiber’s Summer reading Book #5

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians

Lunch Lady and the League of Libraians

By Jarrett J. Krosoczka

New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Unpaged    Grades 3-6 Reluctant Readers

Okay so I was drawn to these books–not only because they were recommended by one of my favorite Intervention Specialis,t but because the lunch ladies, undercover crime fighters, are fighting librarians!!  Now I do feel the Librarians were somewhat justified in destroying a new shipment of video game systems, since the students participation in the read-a-thon was at an all time low.  But wiping the world clean from video games–I think not!  This book was fun, cleaverly illustrated and those darn lunch ladies move in quickly to save the day assisted by the “Breakfast Bunch.” I love the black and white drawings with splashes of yellow throughout the entire book.  Fun to read and to look at!   I think these graphic novels will be addicting.

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