Category: Comics

Chi’s Sweet Home, by Kanata Konami

Chi’s Sweet Home (Volume 1), by Kanata Konami 

Reason for Reading: I’m trying to encourage my 9-year-old reluctant-reader nephew to enjoy books more. I thought he might appreciate a graphic novel, and this one is appropriate for young ages. Plus, he’s been bonding with my young cat recently, so I thought he’d be able to empathize with Chi. 🙂 So far, he hasn’t read it – but he says that he will.





Review
Chi is a “newborn” kitten who gets lost in the big, scary world. She is rescued by the Yamada family, who aren’t allowed to have cats in their apartment. They search in vain for someone to adopt her, but eventually they fall in love with with Chi and decide to keep her. Chi’s thoughts, dreams, and fears are all displayed with adorable big-eyed drawings. I’d read this book within an hour of its arrival on my doorstep. I was sucked right in to Chi’s story because she reminds me so much of my own rescued kitten (both in appearance and attitude). Even if my nephew doesn’t ever read this book, I’m SO glad I discovered it. 😀

The Sandman – Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman

Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman

Reason for Reading: Group read on LibraryThing

Review
In this classic graphic novel, Dream (The Sandman) is captured by a sinister magician and remains trapped for decades. While he is gone, his kingdom falls apart and dreams on Earth are disrupted. I’m not very experienced with graphic novels, having only read Satrapi’s Persepolis before this, so reading Preludes and Nocturnes took some getting used to. But I’m glad I decided to climb out of my comfort-zone for a while – I was REALLY enjoying the book by the time it ended. Neil Gaiman’s mind never ceases to amaze me. He’s so darkly creative. There are a few issues I had with this book, though. I thought the tie-in to DC superheroes was a bit cheesy – though I recognize that this cheese was do to the development of the graphic novel as a genre. I hear these elements disappear later in the series to leave only the good stuff. 🙂 Also, I found one incident at the end of the book darkly depressing. It made me very sad to see the dark insides of humanity (as Gaiman and his illustrators see them)…but I guess my emotional reaction is exactly what Gaiman was going for. So, points to him. 😉 Overall, this was a promising beginning, and now that I am more used to the graphic novel style, I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series much more – after all, it’s only supposed to get better from here!