Chris Duffy (1)

I was torn between 4 and 5 stars for this, but I'm giving it 5 because of the way it offers a new version of old tales. It's a nice mix of European and nonEuropean stories, and it mixes male and female protagonists. These aren't parodies or "fractured" tales; they are simply adaptations to a visual format. Many of these stories stem from oral traditions, and some of these fluid tales have stagnated in a fixed printed form. Now, this collection breathes new life into centuries-old characters show more by giving readers a chance to experience them anew. An oral storyteller might put his or her own spin on a story, and that's exactly the same power that these artists have reclaimed. Highly recommended. show less

I found a lot of this hilarious. The various artists' interpretations served to highlight the absudities in the fairy tales, such as a prince bent on marrying a tortoise or a father giving up his daughter to a wolf-like dog that saved his life. And if Puss in Boots was so good at getting his young master into royal society, why didn't he help the family before?! (Love the square where the son says "Dibs on the mill" after the poor miller dies.) Plus the Hansel and Gretel witch is hella show more scary. A fun package. show less

The cover of this book may lead you to believe it's a primary grade book of nursery rhymes but inside you'll discover a "Graphic Novel Shorts" collection that will delight and surprise you. Each rhyme is written in its original text and illustrated by a unique cartoonist from Raina Telgemeier to Gene Yang to Jules Feiffer. Although primary grade children will enjoy this book, upper grades might be even more attracted to it---as long as they can get past the cover and fact that the title is show more "nursery rhymes" so don't rule it out but sell it! Leonard Marcus writes in the introduction "the comics we discover in these pages are new made fantasies spun from the whole cloth of fantasies we thought we knew" meaning we've taken for granted the back story of these common nursery rhymes, assuming the traditional setting and characters of the rhymes. For example, Lucy Knisley chose to illustrate "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe" with yes, a gray haired woman...with tattoos, a guitar, and a rock band of children called "The Whips" because after all she "...whipped them all soundly..." before bed! It's what the pictures have to say that make this book a winner. show less

This is an extraordinary collection and impressive concept -- to represent the works of WWI trench poets like Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves and others in graphic form. The different styles depicted by the cartoonists are well matched to their subjects and capture the essence of the poems beautifully. Mostly it testifies to the horrors of war in any age and begs the question -- why do they persist? How have we not learned from the past?