Mendel the Mess-Up (Family Comic Friday)

I was immediately attracted to this 2024 graphic novel from the cover alone! The owner of 2 goats and adopted by a third, I just adore caprines. Seeing the cover image of the main character astride a goat in full gallop, I was extremely intrigued and did not hesitate for a minute to check it out from my local library.

Mendel is a young boy living in a turn of the 20th century Russian village. When his mother was pregnant with him, she incurred a curse from the village witch which proclaimed that Mendel would fail at everything he tried until the day the old woman's missing son was returned to her. All Mendel's mom did was buy the last cabbage available at the market that day. But now, it seems like a self fulfilling prophecy with Mendel accidentally breaking, destroying or losing valuable items in an already financially delicate village.

When a bullying menace is warned to be approaching Mendel's village, the entire community and their herd of goats, vital to the local economy, take to the mountains in retreat. Not allowed to participate in the evacuation because of his ability to mess things up, Mendel decides to run away. But in doing so, he accidentally releases the entire herd who are making a b-line right back into town. Now Mendel must face the fierce hoards of Cossack soldiers in order to save his town's livelihood as well as prevent his convert loved ones from being discovered. And to do so, Mendel will have to turn his greatest weakness, his incredible bad luck, into his own personal strength!

I really loved this book from Holiday House. It was funny. It had some educational moments, as I had heard of the Cossacks, but I didn't really know who they were. There are definite vibes of Fiddler on the Roof with this book and as someone married to someone of European Jewish heritage, I really liked the glimpse into her family ancestry. 

There was one element that I was torn about. I don't like it when animals are abused. Yet, as someone who grew up on farms and around hunters and fisherman, I am okay with killing of animals for food. Deer heads and taxidermied fish occupied the walls of many of my relatives. But from how I was raised, as long as the animal was also used for food, such displays are acceptable. To just kill an animal for the sport of it is forbidden. However, if you've ever kissed a goat, and Yes - I kiss my goaties all the time, I cannot and will not eat goat. Dairy from goats is okay. 

Anyways, that all being said, the beautiful white goats in this book all become dinner for the invading Cossacks. I came very close to not finishing this book because of this turn of events. However, other than a couple of goat skulls and some other bones, you don't see the animals being slaughtered. Plus, the Cossacks do eat them, even though they did it by theft. So, unlike other books where animals are mistreated, I did complete this one because technically, the bad guys do follow rules of eating meat that I myself would adhere to. I figured that they just didn't know of the joy and companionship you can experience when you adopt a goat as a member of your family. 

Mendel the Mess-Up was written and illustrated by Terry LaBan. I loved his cartoonish style. I'm a sucker for thick brushes and his doesn't get any wider! As for the writing style, it felt so real. Maybe because even though it was a work of fiction, it was based on the life and times of his grandparents from their days in the Old Country. Although is Russia the Old Country???

Recommended for readers aged 8-12, there are scenes of violence with the Cossacks destroying Mendel's hometown. The 'witch' in the story is quite intimidating. And of course, the goats get eaten. But it's a story with roots in historical truth as the Cossacks weren't very nice people. Sometimes the past isn't very nice and tidy. That doesn't mean that this isn't a book that the entire family could enjoy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Raptors (Santa Saves Christmas, Book II) by Ben Wolf

Book 2 of Ben Wolf's 'Santa Saves Christmas' trilogy starts off almost immediately after the events What The Frost? It's Christmas Day. Dinosaurs are running amok in Moscow and Santa Claus might have something to do with that. As he arrives in Russia with his trusty triple barreled shotgun, a whip made of a strand of holiday lights and his genius tech-savvy elf Snoot, Santa comes face-to-face with a new terror: a talking Utahraptor with the ability to bend time called the Time Raptor. 

Feeling strongly that dinosaurs deserve another chance as the dominant species on Earth, the Time Raptor has opened a series of quantum portals back to prehistoric times, herding dinosaurs of all shapes, sizes and levels of death and destruction to make sure that this is mankind's last Christmas ever!

All of the main characters from the last book are back. Mrs. Claus and several of the elves have bigger roles this time around. And it doesn't read like book 2 is a rehash of the first volume. But it sure started that way. 

While dinosaurs are not the main antagonists of the first book, they do play a big roll in the third act. Having Santa Claus and his allies battle the thunder lizards again felt stale. I would have liked the opening 30-40 pages of this book a whole lot better if we hadn't already had dinosaurs already. The Time Raptor was an interesting twist. However, there's a scene where the new villain goes to Jamaica in order to feed and what the Time Raptor does or more specifically doesn't do, pretty much told how the book was going to end.

What really saves this book is the banter. Snoot is hilarious. Santa's unlikely ally in the battle against the dinosaurs is a great character as well. But I don't want to spoil who that character is. New developments in Santa's time piece which allows him to slow down time in order to make all his deliveries in a single night where pretty cool and we've yet to see everything that specialized stopwatch can do.

I liked what I read enough, despite the slight repetitive nature of the presence of ancient reptiles (or birds, depending your school of thought), to order the third and final book before I finished this one. I had about 120 pages to go and I didn't want to waste a day or two waiting to know what happens next. Though at the time of this review, I've not read as much of that last book as I'd like as holiday happenings and a couple of unexpected events have eaten into my reading time the past couple of days. But at least I've not been left in the cold unable to see what comes afterwards. I'm just going at a much slower pace than I want right now.

Another fun book filled with holiday laughs and Jurassic Park level gore.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I know. I read an honest-to-God novel and it wasn't based on a comic book or superhero or established TV show or film. I was inspired to find this book after seeing the trailer for the upcoming series Paramount+. But I don't have that streaming service. So I took a shot to see if my local library had the book on hand. I guess I hit the bullseye because I found it. Boy, was that one of the smartest moves I've ever made in my 40 plus long years of being an avid reader!

The story is about a Russian aristocrat at the dawn of the Russian revolution. It's 1922 and the Bolsheviks have taken power and are creating the foundations for establishment of the Soviet Union. Count Alexander Rostov has been summoned to a tribunal.  Declared an enemy of the state, normally Rostov would be taken to a firing squad and shot or shipped off to Siberia. However, because of a poem he wrote that inspired the spark of the October Revolution, he is sentenced to permanent house arrest at the Hotel Metropol for the rest of his life. 

Should he exit the doors of the Hotel, Count Rostov will be executed. Over the span of 4 decades, the confined gentleman will make do the best he can, living in exiled luxury as guests and staff of the Metropol come and go while the Soviet Union grows into a world power.

My first experience with writer Amor Towles, I was enthralled by this 2016 work. It was pure magic. After the first 100 pages, I was no longer a reader. I too was a resident of the Hotel Metropol. I could not stop reading this book. The desire to read another page turned into an extra 5, 10, 15 pages before I realized it was way past my bedtime and begrudgingly needed to call it a night.

I realize that Ewan McGregor is playing Count Rostov on the live action series. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't picture anyone else in the role other than Kenneth Branagh. Turns out I wasn't alone in this as the Murder on the Orient Express director was on tap for the lead role for a very long time. As much as in my head, I kept hearing Branagh speaking in that French-Belgian accent as Hercule Poirot, I can't get past hearing McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi instead of a Russian polymath of refinement every time I watch the trailer for the forthcoming series.

I wish I could say that this book was perfect. It was pretty darn close. If not for having recently read the massive graphic novel Petrograd, I would have been a lot more lost understanding the early days of the Soviet Union. While written by an American, this book is very Russian. The more you know of the country's rich cultural history, the better you'll enjoy this book and I just don't know jack about Tolstoy, Chekov and their kin. Thankfully, there's so much heart and wonderment in this book, it makes up for those gaps in my knowledge. 

This book is like a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to get stuck in an airport or be snowed in at an all-inclusive ski resort or have to spend a season at a research base in Antarctica. A Gentleman in Moscow was a chance to live those bizarre fantasies vicariously through the writing of Amor Towles. Unlike most novels I read, this novel is something I see myself making another stay at Hotel Metropol!

Worth Consuming!

Ratiing: 9 out of 10 stars.

Petrograd (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 1916, just as the first World War was heating up, Germany was fighting on two fronts. The fledgling English and French in the West and the disgruntled and cold Russians to the East. Alexander Protopopov meets with German dignitaries in Stockholm before returning to Russia and immediately being promoted to the role of Minister of Interior. Czar Nicolas is away from the royal Palace in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg but a few years away from being renamed Stalingrad), disastrously supervising the Russian army against Imperial German forces. In his stead is wife Alexandra who acts as the de facto ruler of Russia. 

Alexandra has a special advisor, the mysterious monk Rasputin. Having healed son Alexei of life threatening maladies, Alexandra has given the religious leader carte blanche to conduct affairs both professionally and personally; to equal levels of depravity. The nation is in the midst of tremendous upheaval as Russians displaced from the fighting have swarmed into the larger cities, making it impossible to feed, house and cloth these refugees in the light of the coming frigid Winter. 

The Communist party is secretly working towards overthrowing the royal family and are effectively using the crisis in Petrograd to gain public support. Though the Russian secret police have waged war against the uprising, they're losing ground faster than they can make it up.

So what does all this have to do with the promotion of Protopopov? Alexandra has been a vocal opponent to the war. Members of the British intelligence community operating in Petrograd believe that Protopopov's new role after the secret meeting with the Germans means that Russia has struck a deal with Germany and will soon pull out of the war. Should this happen, Germany no longer has to divide its forces and can focus their full might against the British and French alliance. 

Should this occur, Germany, who's already looking like the victor will most surely win the war. For the British, a Russian/German peace is unacceptable. The head of the British intelligence bureau hopes to pursue the Russian secret police designed to combat political terrorism, the Okhrana, of the meeting in Stockholm and overthrow Protopopov. However, the Okhrana believes that the proposed peace is all rumor and refuses to act on the tip further.

Here's where historic fact turns into historical fiction. Writer Philip Gelatt proposes that after the secret police rebuffed British intelligence, a pair of agents enacted a clandestine plan B. Working with jaded members of the Russian royal family, Gelatt continues this graphic novel with the conspiracy theory that the British government was somehow behind the assassination of Rasputin. If Protopopov isn't behind Russia's plan to cease hostilities on the Eastern Front, then it's the depraved Mad Monk who's giving Alexandra motivation to a peace with Germany.

Other than the influence of special agent Cleary being involved in the plotting and execution of the plot against Rasputin, this story is fairly accurate. Or is it completely accurate???

Ironically, after Rasputin is found murdered, Czar Nicolas pulls a number of his troops off the battle lines and sends them to Petrograd to reinforce the Okhrana who are searching desperately for the culprits. There had already been dissension in the ranks of the Russian army, unhappy with how the Czar was making a mess of things, so when they were greeted with open arms by the Communists who saw the death of Rasputin as an opportunity to revolution, the soldiers joined the cause of Revolution! It's by winning over the Russian army that causes the Romanov family to flee the palace and ultimately assassinated. So ultimately, if the British were behind the plot, their 'preventative actions ' actually caused Russia to exit the war!

It's interesting to ponder what might have happened if everyone left well enough alone and let Rasputin live. Would Russia have remained in the war? Would the United States have remained out of the conflict having to not save England and France because of the revolution in Russia? Would the Czar and his family have survived? Without the troops, would the Okhrana have been able to quash the Communists, who at this point were acting in secret and without the important support of the Russian military? 

This 2011 graphic novel is definitely a compelling read crafted in that very popular 'alternative history' genre- only in comic book form! It makes you think in more ways than one. While there's no argument who Rasputin is in this book, artist Tyler Crook renders several characters who frankly look the same. With not very good introductions to those characters, it takes a while to figure out who is who and that sort of recognition is important in a work about secret agents and double agents working all sides in a major conspiracy.

Petrograd was first published in 2011 in hardback. This paperback edition was published in 2023 and features both an all-new and extremely important afterward full of background information by historian David R. Stone.

Completing this review completes Task #31 (Set in a State or Country You've Never Visited) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Santas From Around The World: Russia- Ded Moroz (Advent 2020, Day 4)

This version of Santa is near and dear to my heart. Not because I am from Russia but because of a classic episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000! Old episodes of the B-movie showcase have been what’s helped get me through the pandemic. One recent episode showcased a Soviet era film called Jack Frost.

The 1964 film is a mishmash of Scandanavian, Russian and Ukrainian folk tales.

Despite the fact that it’s been 30 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Jack Frost has become an annual holiday tradition in many former Soviet countries. That’s in large part due to Ded Moroz.

The name Ded Moroz, which means Father Frost or Grandfather Frost, has undergone a transformation over the years. Before the coming of Communism, Ded Moroz was responsible for 2 things- the coming of winter and the kidnapping of bad little boys and girls. Under Stalin, Ded Moroz’s stealing of children was removed, possibly because it reminded little ones of how the KGB would steal entire dissident families to Siberia. But Father Frost’s legacy of the coming winter outdated the writings of James R.R. Martin by centuries.

Ded Moroz wears a giant body-length blue fur coat. Sometimes it’s red, but the coat is always decked out in snowflakes. His powers come from his staff. But beware! Should a mortal touch the weather wizard’s staff, they’ll be turned to ice, forever!

This Santa appears to be busy all December long. He delivers toys to children on December 6th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day depending on the country as Ded Moroz’s legacy spread over the Eastern bloc realm of the Slavic states starting in the 1950s. But don’t worry that Ded Moroz will tire out. He’s helped on his errands by his granddaughter, the snow maiden Snegurochka, who also has ice powers.

Don’t expect to find this Santa at the North Pole. According to tradition, Ded Moroz lives in a tiny toyshop in the tiny Russian town of Veliky Ustyug. There in his stable is a team of 4 sturdy horses who lead Ded Moroz’s troika over Russia’s icy plains.

For today’s cookie, I am sharing with you a version of one of my favorites- Russian tea cakes. This round cookies look like tiny snowballs. Maybe they were made by Ded Moroz and his granddaughter! Regardless, these guys are tasty. 

Enjoy!