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October 02, 2008
The Latest Round of TOON Books, Part 1: Jack and the Box by Art Spiegelman
Just for fun, I’m going to review three of the newest entries in the TOON Books series in reading level order, from the easiest to the most challenging. This is going to go on for four days, so I’m sorry if you aren’t into kids’ comics. You can totally scroll down to find entries about food and purses.
Let’s say you were a renowned graphic novelist who has written a fair amount of work that is truly graphic, and let’s say you were asked to write a book for new readers. What would you do? Considering Dr. Seuss is a start, and Art Spiegelman is channeling some serious Cat in the Hat in his newest book for kids, Jack and the Box. This book relates various episodes between Jack (a rabbit) and his brand-new jack-in-the-box. The episodes start out simply—four panels across two facing pages, breaks between episodes distinguished by changes in background color. Here Jack is variously surprised by his jack-in-the-box popping or not popping out of his box. You see Seuss in Spigelman’s occasional use of rhyme and in his repetition of vocabulary (play, away, hide, box, silly, no, toy) right from the start, but things get a lot more Cat in the Hat when the toy decides to leave its box and then reveals a friend who lives in his hat. The friend, in turn, unleashes a team of Thing-1-and-Thing-2-esque pet ducks which causes pandemonium until—“CRASH!”—there goes the lamp. Spiegelman mirrors the mounting chaos of the story in his art, which breaks down from the four-panel pattern and intrudes into the spaces that had previously been white. Thankfully, Spiegelman decided to go for an unambiguous ending, and the last panels bring us back to four orderly boxes in a calming blue row, leaving everyone content and ready for their next adventure. Simple, artful, amusing. I’m going to buy five copies.
Books mentioned:
Seuss, Dr. The Cat in the Hat. NY: Random House, 1957. (I’m not going to give you an ISBN, but I will tell you that one of the subject headings on The Cat in the Hat in my library catalog is “Fantasy.” Really?)
Spiegelman, Art. Jack and the Box. NY: RAW Junior, LLC, 2008. (HC: 9780979923838)
Posted by adrienne at October 2, 2008 12:02 AM