Matt Phelan

Okay, I loved so much about this book. I didn’t even realize it was set in the 1920s until I started reading, but I loved the setting. It was a nice twist. I loved everything about the illustrations: how color was incorporated, how sketchy the drawings were until the end, and how creepy the evil queen “stepmother” was even when she was seen to be the most beautiful. I loved how she had an entire room with just mirrors. Her character was very well done. I loved how Snow White had an show more actual name and was given a bit more of a character. I also liked that her coffin ended up being a display window at Macy’s Department Store. Overall, the graphic novel was very creative and well done, in my opinion. show less

First sentence: Plum the peacock sat still and quiet. He was usually pretty peppy. His friends at the Athensville Zoo would say he was cheerful and chatty. But this morning, Plum did not feel like his usual peppy, cheerful, chatty self. Plum felt a little bit—just a little bit—scared.

Premise/plot: A handful of zoo animals--including Plum--are on their way to a local school for a presentation. The good news: they arrive at the school safely. The bad news: an unexpected snow storm leads to show more school--and the presentation--being canceled. The good news: there are friendly school mice to let the animals out of their cages. The bad news: Things get VERY hectic throughout the day. Plenty of misadventures and adventures occur when the animals are essentially running amok throughout the school without human supervision....

My thoughts: I really LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the first book in the series, Leave It To Plum. I thought it was such a fun animal fantasy. This sequel is all kinds of fun. I liked revisiting Plum. Plum is out of his element in this one. The school is not at all like Athensville Zoo where he (and the other peacocks) are ambassadors. The book was so entertaining. It was just a hoot. I didn't know how much I needed a sequel to Leave It To Plum. show less

A young woman seeks refuge with seven boys while evading her evil stepmother, a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer who looks to stock ticker tape to read who is the fairest of them all. Fairy tale retellings are a crowded genre, but Phelan’s graphic novel adaptation provides a fresh take on a well known story with an original setting of Jazz Age and Depression Era New York City. Phelan ingeniously uses the setting to incorporate plot elements otherwise too fantastical for the twentieth show more century, such as the magical stock ticker tape or using the front window of a department store like a glass coffin. With few words, readers can spend as much time as they choose to enjoy each page spread, and the story goes quickly and could appeal to reluctant readers. Phelan’s illustrations are pencil, ink, and watercolor, with very little color except for the jarring red in a few important places and a full color happy ending. Panels focusing on character’s faces relay their emotions well, and one chapter is effectively a tear jerker. A must have for all graphic novel and fairy tale collections, Snow White is highly recommended for children ages eight through twelve. show less

Here's another book which caught my eye for its illustrations, initially the cover and then its internal monochrome sketches (blue or sepia palette, full spectrum used rarely and then to emphasize emotion). What appears at first to be an historical picturebook on Dust Bowl-era small town living contains a lot more.

It may be the Storm King is Phelan's invention. This aspect of the book proved both unexpected and one of its most pleasing parts, which otherwise is quite historical and show more realistic. Both Weird and mythical in presentation, I couldn't trace the Storm King to any indigenous American myth (Raven King, Thunderbird, Lightning Bird, Rain Bird) or tall tale. Phelan in an Author's Note:

I began to imagine what the experience of living in the Dust Bowl must have been like through the eyes of a kid. Without the complicated explanation of the history of over-planting, soil erosion, and other factors, a young boy or girl would only know a world that could suddenly vanish in a moving mountain of dark dust. The rain had gone away. But where?

Phelan's spare drawings and layout (lots of white space) disguise just how complex a story is told. Part of the trick is Phelan focuses on the experience of one family, allowing their individual and collective experience of events to showcase myriad aspects of the Dust Bowl milieu, as well as interpersonal dynamics. In the end, The Storm In The Barn weaves together many tropes and facets of U.S. culture, from national and regional history, to tall tales, to family and peer dynamics recognisable to most modern citizens. It's remarkably dense for such a lean manuscript. show less