I realized that I seem to say that every graphic novel I read is great. While this is fairly accurate, when I do find an amazing graphic novel people probably say, “He thinks everything is great. I’m going to ignore him now.” Nobody, however, should ignore this graphic novel. Maybe it just clicked with my sensibilities, but De:Tales is a special book. Moon and Ba are twins who grew up in Brazil. All of their stories in this collection take place in Brazil, though the country is mostly just context for the stories. Most of the stories are actually quite similar. The brothers begin with a dream that helps them know what to write and then they go from story to story that are similar in tone, but subtly cover different aspects of life and love. In Too Late for Coffee, a man sees a younger girl he has never met. She greets him by saying, “You're late. It’s too late to fall in love with me.” Other stories include throwing a Birthday party for a long lost friend, a bunch of friends talking about work and Brazil and a guy who hesitates to talk a girl and then starts seeing other versions of himself who never took any chances. The stories are sparsly written but fairly powerful. The art is simple balck and white, though the brothers draw their characters in exquisite detail. This is an amazing collection. There are a couple of adult moments, so this is not really for younger teens.
3 comments:
I just put this on hold at KCLS (my new library system!). I'll let you know what I think. You were so right about that Larcenet graphic novel; I totally trust your judgement.
Have you nominated your favorite GN over at the Cybils site yet? You've only got until Midnight 11/21... ;)
When I last looked through the list I think my favorites have all been nominated.
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