Koko Be Good

Jen Wang
Koko Be Good

First Second Books, 2010

In the center of this graphic novel are the three heroes. Jon Wilgur graduated from university, learns Spanish and plans to leave to Peru to his much older girlfriend to help orphans there. Koko is a reckless girl, with a head full of confusion and vacillation. She lives here and there and could not find a place in her life. The third character, Faron, is a loser who works in the cafe. At a party Koko makes scandal, robs her rivals, and then runs away, taking Jon’s recorder: it has message his girlfriend dictated to him. Jon and Koko unexpectedly meet in a cafe and he asks to give him what belongs to him. They start friendship, and Koko decides to start a new life and be good.

The book is much more interesting in watching images rather than follow for the plot. All three characters are so doubtful people think that you may choose any of them, but you hardly succeed to empathize with him. Koko’s path from roguish and brutal girl to good girl, helping the needy, is too tortuous to believe that Koko really wants to be good. In general the whole story, with all three storylines, is rather undistinguished to make the paper in that condition.

What a truly «good» in this novel, is that's how Jen Wang draws. She knows how to perfectly play the scene, where to show the hero in close-up, and the pages where the characters do not say anything even seem to be fragments of almost perfect comic book. Selected by the author, brown and green colors are successfully combined with the general mood of the novel: the sadness and doubt.

Foiled

Jane Yolen, Mike Cavallaro
Foiled

First Second, 2010

Jane Yolen is known for her numerous collections of stories for children, and this her book, drawn by Mike Cavallaro, too, for middle and senior school age. Not to say that the story in the book is piercing like a foil but to enchant lovers of fairy tales it could well.

Aliera Carstairs is a loner. Her life is filled with only one passion, fencing. She differs from other students: she is not a jockett, nor a goth, nor a nerd, nor a prep, she is on her own. She is sometimes laughed at, but she pays no attention. But Aliera is very well at fencing. Especially things are going smoothly after Aliera`s mom bought her at discount store a cheap, but elegant foil with a jewel on the handle. Life of the girl may seem boring to someone: school, then with two changes to the fencing, then home, and on Saturdays to go visit Aunt Hannah and her cousin - but Aliera herself is happy about her life. But in school there appears a new boy, the most charming and attractive, and the biology teacher in the classroom gives him a place for one table with Aliera. And after a few lessons, where students must dissect a frog, handsome Avery invites Aliera on a date. The girl, of course, agrees, but he remembers what the coach told her: You must protect your heart, and she knows it's not just about fencing.

If you ask, where the fairy tale is, the answer is: all the magic will begin on the first date at the subway station. It will also include a battle with monsters, magic foil, secret of the handsome prince, and the author's clever move. The whole story is told in two colors (ie, it is almost black and white, though more green and white book), and it is not only the choice of the author and artist, but the effect has a logical explanation: the girl sees the world in only two colors.

If the story itself is too simple, then that helps Yolen out, so it is the abundance of close-ups. The author often shows us the child's face or her full height, at a cost of an entire page, and we see all the emotion on the face of Aliera: it certainly is a mystery in it, but not sealed. All stops in the middle of a sentence: we expect a sequel.