Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists

By cartoonists Nick Abadzis; Andrew Arnold; Kate Beaton; Vera Brosgol; Nick Bruel; Scott Campbell; Lilli Carre; Roz Chast; JP Coovert; Jordan Crane; Rebecca Dart; Eleanor Davis; Vanessa Davis; Theo Ellsworth; Matt Forsythe; Jules Feiffer; Bob Flynn; Alexis Frederick-Frost; Ben Hatke; Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez; Lucy Knisley; David Macaulay; Mark Martin; Patrick McDonnell; Mike Mignola; Tony Millionaire; Tao Nyeu; George O’Connor; Mo Oh; Eric Orchard; Laura Park; Cyril Pedrosa; Lark Pien; Aaron Renier; Dave Roman; Marc Rosenthal; Stan Sakai; Richard Sala; Mark Siegel; James Sturm; Raina Telgemeier; Craig Thompson; Richard Thompson; Sara Varon; Jen Wang; Drew Weing; Gahan Wilson; Gene Luen Yang; Stephanie Yue; and an introduction by Leonard Marcus.


This collection brings together 50 known cartoonists to illustrate 50 famous nursery rhymes in their own unique styles. Some give quite literal illustrations, while others take things in a completely original direction. All present something fun and curious to read though, with fantastic and fanciful drawings on every page.  They range from from the incredible cuteness of the donkey lifting his horn "To wake the world this sleepy morn" so expertly portrayed by Patrick McDonnell, to Lucy Knisley's decidedly different visual take on There Was and Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe. The old woman in this version is Ruth of Ruth's Rock n Roll Babysitting Service. Ruth is an old woman wearing a skull t-shirt and sporting tattoos on both arms. Her rock band is the whips, and the kids sleep off an afternoon of rock and roll till their parents come and pick them up. Quite a few of the comics are faithful interpretations of each rhyme, such as The Itsy Bitsy Spider. There's a spider, there's a spout and he gets all washed out, the only addition is that he's carrying luggage. Cute stuff! Jack Be Nimble is mad because he jumped over a candlestick - the last frame shows a decidedly red bottom! Solomon Grundy is a bit creepy, and Croak said the Toad is just beautifully illustrated.

This collection is great fun, I purchased to send to my niece and nephews and hope they laugh out loud as much as I did.

Marcelo in the real world by Francisco X. Stork

Seventeen-year-old Marcelo Sandoval is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. He is comfortable at Patterson, his school for students with different abilities, and is looking forward to working with the school's horses in the upcoming year.  His entire life changes the summer his father insists that he work in his law firm's mailroom-the "real" world-if he wants to return to his school in the fall. Marcelo learns, with the help of his compassionate co-worker, Jasmine, and a case that he is drawn to after finding a picture of a girl with a half a face, that not everything in the real world is as it appears.

Marcelo harbors an obsession with religion (he regularly meets with a plainspoken female rabbi, though he's not Jewish); hears "internal" music; and sleeps in a tree house.  But Marcelo sees things are they really are and knows when he finds a photograph that an injustice has been done by the law firm his father owns. 

I've read several books now (or I should say listened to as all have been on CD) Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Speed of Dark and think I found this the most compelling as Marcelo seems like a real person who you could imagine working in your office or seeing in your neighborhood.   I've enjoyed all these novels and really found this story engaging.

Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier


Bespectacled Walker Bean has listened to his grandfather's tales of adventure on the open seas. Now Walker finds himself smack-dab in the middle of his own thrilling escapade when his ailing grandfather asks him to return a human skull to a trench deep in the ocean floor. Once part of a skeleton of a witch's enemy, this skull has now been transformed into pearl. Armed with his grandfather's journal, an amazing message bottle, assistance from a few trusted friends, and his own clever and inventive mind, Walker braves pirates, evil witches, and his own fears in this tale of derring-do and skullduggery.

Along the way Walker meets up with pirates, a mysterious doctor, and two ancient merwitches that want the skull back and will do all they can to get it.


I've tried to read this a few times and this time I got through the first 2 pages. In the past it always seemed too confusing to read but this time it just started to flow. I did find myself really enjoying it and wanting to know how it would end. Now I’m looking forward to reading the next installment.

Catching fire by Suzanne Collins

2nd book in the Hunger Games trilogy.

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have just settled into their lives back in district 12 as co-winners of the 74th games.  But President Snow pays Katniss a surprise visit to inform her he knows they are faking their love that things are going to change.  And change they do as the Capital starts imposing harsher and more violent laws on the districts.  As Katniss & Peeta go on their 12 district journey they see more and more civil unrest.

But when the 75th Hunger Games are announced Katniss knows her days are numbered as all living winners will be in these games to the death and there can be only one winner!  But this time the winners all know each other so what will be the outcome and can Katniss keep Peeta alive?  The book leaves us with a burning desire to read the final book in the triology.

I finally made myself read the 2nd book as while I did really enjoy the 1st one I wasn't sure I wanted to be sucked in and now I can't wait until I read the final book.  Thank goodness it is already out.

Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Latest adventure featuring our favorite serial killer - Dexter Morgan.  While on the surface he appears to be a normal family man who works for the Miami PD blood-spatter expert at night he kills evil people in his spare time.  Yes, you might find yourself cheering on the killer but he only kills really bad people.

While serving up brutal justice to his latest victim (a serial child abuser and killer), Dexter was seen. He barely caught a glimpse of the car as it sped away, but he knows that somewhere out there is a witness. At first he panics, but then his cold, clinical side takes over, and he thinks: I work for the police department, and in my hidden life, I'm an expert at tracking down people who don't want to be found. So he decides: he'll find the witness and dispense with him.

But Dexter underestimated the witness has he discovers that he might just be as devious and maybe even more so than Dexter.  As at every turn Dexter is one step behind and then finds himself implicated in a coworker's murder.

Dexter is one of my favorite series and I always am ready for the new book to come out.  This did take me awhile to get into as much of the book is him self-evaluating the situations.  Plus his wife Rita just drives me nuts by how badly she communicates and she's seemed to have become a closet alcoholic.  But thankfully this book ends with the right amount of craziness and violence that makes us read on.  Plus as my former carpooler would say "there is a great shark scene".

Suite française by Irène Némirovsky

Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940. Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died at the age of 39.

For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.  What is really most fascinating is that she wrote this during the time of the war and Nazi occupation, not just as historical fiction after the fact.  So I was very suprised by the emotions it brought and the saddness I felt knowing we would never know how the other 3 suites would be.

Both stories are intertwined with characters and the situation but very different tones. I have to say I really hated the first suite as the majority of the characters were so terrible but when they started getting killed off with almost comical ways I had to keep reading.

Taste of the nightlife by Sarah Zettel

First in a the series - Vampire Chef

Charlotte Caine is a human chef who runs a restaurant with her vampire brother Chet called Nightlife which caters to the "paranormals" as vampires, witches and warlocks, and werewolves who live among humans are called. When a celebrity restaurant critic, who happens to be a vampire, shows up Charlotte knows a postive review from him could mean instant success. But a drunk warlock shows up the same night and casts a spell that almost burns the building down, dashing any hope of a good review. Then the same drunk turns up murdered on the restaurant doorstep. Evidence points to Chet as the killer and as Charlotte struggles to clear his name, she discovers she must put her trust in a handsome warlock and a charming vampire who are also rivals for her heart.

I picked this up at the library as i was intrigued by the concept and I really enjoyed it.  I don't know if it will be the kind of series I want to read more of but it definitely fit my mood at the time and if I see additional titles come out I'll give it a try.