The Baby-Sitters Club Volume 4: Claudia and Mean Janine

Bought at my school's spring book fair.

Title: The Baby-Sitters Club
Issue: Volume 4: Claudia and Mean Janine
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2016
Writer: Raina Telgemeier, Ann M. Martin
Artist: Raina Telgemeier
Colorist: Braden Lamb
Letterer: John Green
Editor: Cassandra Pelham Fulton, David Levithan, Sheila Keenan

This is Raina Telgemeier's adaptation of one of the original Baby-Sitters Club novels by Ann M. Martin. I haven't red any of the original prose series, but this was a good solid bit of family drama with humor and heart. It doesn't quite hit at the personal level that Telgemeier's autobiographical works do, but it was still quite engaging. Although this is the fourth volume in the series, it stands alone quite well and tells a complete story.

That story focuses on the sibling rivalry between younger sister Claudia, who is into art, fashion, and Nancy Drew novels, and older sister Janine, who excels at school and loves coding and web design. Their lives are thrown into disarray when their grandmother suffers a near-fatal stroke, and the events that follow bring them apart, and then eventually together. Meanwhile, the Baby-Sitters club launches into summer with a new playgroup project that gives the other club members a chance to shine, and provides some comic relief.

Telgemeier's artwork is always wonderfully expressive, and it really shines in a lovely scene with Dawn and Kristy playing in the barn on Kristy's family's property, as well as in some nice quiet moments between Claudia, Janine, and their grandmother, Mimi.

Rating: 7.5/10

Small Town Type #1

 Finally back to the Random Stack of Unread Comics!

Title: Small Town Type
Issue: #1
Date: 2008
Publisher: Fat Cat Funnies
Writer: Ian Nichols
Artist: Ian Nichols

So, apparently I reviewer issue #3 of this series (here), but never got around to reviewing the first two. Fixing that now.

Small Town Type is Ian Nichols' reinvention of the Superman story. I love the visual style of the big moments in this opening chapter, but the dialogue in the small moments are equally captivating. The voice of the (so far, unnamed) main character is deep and real, and the little interactions of small town life give the story heart.


There isn't a ton of plot in this issue, but that actually works well, keeping the focus on the big event that initiates the classic hero's journey while developing the lead character through dialogue, internal monologue, and day-do-day interactions.

This is a great start to a story that feels comfortably familiar but still intriguing.

Rating: 9/10

A Monster Calls

Another not-quite-a-comic-in-the-traditional-sense entry. This is an illustrated novel, where the illustrations are an integral part of the experience of the story. From my school library.

Title: A Monster Calls
Date: 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Writer: Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd
Artist: Jim Kay

Thirteen-year-old Connor O'Malley bears the burdens of his mother's serious illness, the bullies that have targeted him at school, and a recurring nightmare that he will do anything to avoid facing. When he is visited by a monster. the ancient Green Man of Celtic mythology, Connor assures the monster that he's seen worse. But the monster is determined to make Connor face the truth that he hides.

There are some mythical elements to this book, and a sprinkling of snark, but mostly it is the raw emotion of trying to hold together in the face of death at its most unfair. This was intensely powerful, and the writing it beautifully enhanced by Jim Kay's haunting illustrations.

Rating: 9.5/10