Dan Rafter at Firefox News reports on the refreshing phenomenon of a child enjoying a comic made for children, in this case Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet.
I purchased the book, published by Scholastic, for my 9-year-old son. He, as expected, gobbled the story up, laughing out loud at some scenes, falling into engrossed silence at others.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun Times thinks
In Japan, literacy and platforms for literacy are changing radically, as novels written for cell phones dominate the charts:
Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cell phone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cell phone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere.
“Will cell phone novels kill ‘the author?’ ” a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue.
That Sun-Times mentioned three books about mice and none of them were Mice Templar. It’s like we are overrun with mice books.
Mice Templar isn’t in book form yet – most libraries and bookstores won’t carry comics issues. Redwall is an adaptation of a very popular prose fiction series for young readers. Babymouse is published by a trade book publisher for the bookstore and library market.
And in prose books and picture books for children, mice have always been popular.
When I showed a copy of Mouse Guard to school librarians in upstate New York this past November, they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the book for their readers. Basically, kids who love the Redwall series will love Mouse Guard. And there are LOTS of kids who love Redwall.