Blancaflor: The Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America (Family Comic Friday)

Family Comic Friday has a book for those young ones who are fans of Encanto! Most stories starring a prince have a damsel in distress. This time it's the young lady to the rescue! From Latin American folklore, I am pleased to present to you Blancaflor!

Blancaflor is the daughter of an ogre. This ogre has plans for having a prince for dinner. But not as a guest. As the meal! 

The ogre's plan is to have the prince attempt 3 challenges. Challenges that are quite impossible to complete. For the past few months, the ogre blessed the prince with a good luck spell. Now that spell has worn off. The prince doesn't know this and still thinks he'll be lucky enough to beat the ogre in order to win a major prize! Looks like filet of prince will be on the menu!

Well it turns out that Blancflor is smitten with this prince. In order to not hurt his pride, she will secretly help the prince complete his three challenges. But the prince isn't gonna make this easy. He's a real dimwit!

This amazing graphic novel was written by Nadja Spiegelman. Nadja is the daughter of Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, both characters in and creators of Maus II! It was just happenstance that I am reading works from the entire Spiegelman family this week!

I was also digging the artwork. It's by acclaimed Spanish experimental cartoonist Sergio Garcia Sanchez. It's a lovely mix native Mexican and European influences throughout. His double-page spreads are lively and fluid. There's so much movement despite not being part of an animated feature. Blancaflor is a family affair for Sergio Garcia Sanchez. His wife Lola Moral colored this book. And in a extra feature in the back of the book, Sergio and Lola's children, who are both professional artists, contributed stylized versions of the Blancaflor cast of characters. 

This isn't my first experience with Nadja Spiegelman or Sergio Garcia Sanchez. They were the creative duo behind another Family Comic Friday classic, the labyrinthine Lost in NYC. This is also not my first experience with publisher Toon Graphics. They continue to kill it with their multicultural stories by some amazing and somewhat legendary talent. And from the list of other titles available from Toon Graphics, it looks like Family Comic Friday won't be out of an assortment of amazing titles for weeks to come.

Now if only my local library has these books.

I mentioned Encanto earlier. I know that this book has zero connection to that film. This is a Mexican fairy tale. Encanto is based on Colombian lore and history. But if the young reader in your life is a big fan of that film and you're looking for similar works that could piggyback on that interest, this is a great family fun read! It can help spread interest in Latino culture and it promotes reading from a female heroine perspective which is rare in American/European folk lore; but a mainstay in Latin American storytelling.

I can't recommend Blancaflor enough! It's a quick but satisfying whimsical read that doesn't follow the stand rules of prince and princess fairy tales! We might not be allowed to talk about Bruno. But Blancaflor is going to be forever on my lips as a suggestion for great family read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure (Family Comic Friday)

      

      It's Pablo's first day at his new school. He's picked a great day to start because his class are going on a field trip to the Empire State Building! To get there, Pablo's class will have to take the subway. But when Pablo accidentally takes the wrong train, can he rely on what little knowledge of the subway routes he has in order to reunite with his classmates at 350 5th Avenue?

      Toon Graphics has done it again with this exciting look at the Big Apple. I learned a lot about the subway from this book by Nadja Spiegelman, like why there's both routes with letters and numbers. Add some very detailed artwork by Spanish illustrator Sergio Garcia Sanchez, this book is like an educational Where's Waldo?

     If the name Nadja Spiegelman sounds familiar, it's cause it does. The author of Lost in NYC is the daughter of legendary writer/artist Art Spiegelman (Maus.) She clearly has inherited some of Papa's writing talents.

    Usually a Toon Graphics book has 2-4 pages of fun facts, activities, and other fun stuff. Lost in NYC has no less than 10 pages! Are you and your little ones planning on a trip to the Big Apple? If so, this is the perfect book to get them properly acclimated to the city's most used method of transportation. It will make that trip so much more fun and memorable.

   Worth Consuming!

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Windmill Dragons: A Leah and Alan Adventure (Family Comic Friday)

On a nice sunny day, a young girl begins to tell her brother a fanciful story. Thus, siblings Alan and Leah are transported into the story as a knight errant and her page boy. The duo is on a mission to save their town from fierce dragons made from the various windmills along the countryside

  It appears that source of the chaos is the result of the mythical bird, the Viz. Whenever the creature is ever deposed from her perch atop the highest peak on Monster Island, it causes the winds of the world to go berserk. Along the way, the duo will be confronted by terrible ogres, man-eating boats, and a giant chicken seeking to keep our heroes from achieving their mythical task of getting the giant bird back in her nest!

This was a sweet little story that borrows heavily from influences such as Don Quixote, the Bible, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and Arthurian legend. Windmill Dragons is published by Toon Graphics, who have in the past been crafting their collection of graphic novels for all-ages readers (filled with interesting backstory, fun things to do, and writing activities) reprinting works by famous internationally known stars in the comics medium. But in this case of the Leah and Alan series, Toon Books has taken to publishing a first run series.

  This is the second book in the Leah & Alan series written and drawn by Canadian cartoonist David Nytra. His first work, 2012’s The Secret of the Stone Frog won many awards and accolades including the Nutmeg Book Award. His style is very old fashioned and appealing to the eye. It reminded me of one of my all-time favorite kids books ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.’

  Windmill Dragons was a fun read and it was very imaginative. I believe that this could be the type of book to inspire the budding writer and artist in your household. It sure fired up my imagination and inspired me to research further just what the Viz is.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Wild Piano: A Philemon Adventure (Family Comic Friday)

   Philemon is a young lad who discovers a secret world one day when he accidently falls into his family's well. In this fantastic world, Philemon learns that the letters on a map that spell out Atlantic are actually a series of hidden islands in the shape of each letter. In his first adventure, the young lad met the first outsider to discover the islands, but they got lost along the way back home. With the help of his uncle and his talking donkey, Philemon ventures back to the                A-T-L-A-N-T-I-C in order to save his friend but ends up having to fight for his life by battling a living breathing wild piano.

    Philemon is a popular French cartoon series that recently has been translated into English by the fantastic young adult publishing series Toon Graphics. Not only does the company introduce American readers to some of Europe's most popular comics and artists, but they include extensive learning guides and activities for aspiring cartoonists. It's both fun and educational without being too overt about it!

   Though many of the books reissued by Toon Graphics are aimed at kids, I've learned quite a bit over the past year about many European artists that I otherwise might have overlooked. This series was created by the late Frederic Othon Aristides (AKA Fred) in the early 70s. A French artist born into a Greek immigrant family, the book's ocean motif filled with surreal characters is a fusion of both Fred's heritage and birthplace.

   The back of this book likens the Philemon series to Alice in Wonderland meets Gulliver's Travels and Les Miserables. I can see that but when a co-worker asked me what this book was like, I responded that it was like Monty Python meets the Smurfs. I think both descriptions are accurate. With whimsical beasts, absurd officials, Victorian photography, and the wildest imagination this side of a school full of kindergartners, this book will challenge and delight.

    The Wild Piano is the second book in the series. 'Cast Away on the Letter A' is the first book but my library didn't have it, nor does this book say 'Volume 2' on it. However, you really don't need the book to be caught up with the action in the series thus far. But that doesn't mean you should skip it. I'm on the lookout for Cast Away and I hope to be able to travel with Philemon to all 8 islands of the  A-T-L-A-N-T-I-C.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.