Author: Barry Deutsch
 |
----------------------------------- Recipient of Peach’s Picks Award Top Ten Favorite Books Summer 2011 |
Illustrator: Barry Deutsch, colors by Jake Richmond
Peach’s Picks Rating:
Year of publication: 2010
City of publication: New York
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8422-6
Author website: http://www.amptoons.com/
Illustrator website: See above “Author website” entry
Media used for illustrations: The author/illustrator created the black-and-white drawings on a computer using Photoshop and a Cintiq tablet (described as a type of interactive pen-on-screen tool). The colorist used Photoshop to digitally add color to the drawings.
Annotation: Eleven-year-old Mirka Hirschberg lives with her large Orthodox Jewish family in a tight-knit community. She dreams of fighting dragons and longs to escape her hum-drum life and chores.
Personal reaction to the book: Personal reaction to the book: What a funny, poignant, and engrossing graphic novel! The characters are authentic, the images and text are well-integrated, and readers learn about Orthodox Jewish life. While the story contains fairytale-like elements (witches and trolls), it also shows the contemporary life of an 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl who is struggling to find herself, longing for adventures, and dealing with her mother’s death. Spunky Mirka longs to leave behind her argumentative, but loving stepmother, her bossy sister, and pesky little brother to go in search of dragons and adventure. The author/illustrator sprinkles Yiddish and Hebrew expressions into the text with translations placed at the bottom of the page. The dialogue is contained in text-bubbles. The narrative used to advance the story is contained in rectangular boxes. The illustrations effectively show expressions and action. A monochromatic color scheme is used; showing daytime scenes in orange, tan, and brown colors. The night scenes are shown in lavender and blue tones. Brown-toned endpapers show cross-hatch panels of Mirka displaying a range of emotions interspersed with panels of other characters. Endnotes explain Deutsch’s creative process following the troll’s design. Readers unfamiliar with Orthodox Jewish customs will be introduced to this life-style. The Yiddish language and Jewish customs presented in the story may lead to informative discussions in a classroom or book club setting. The story is full of symbolism and metaphors that speak to all girls who are struggling through adolescence. Set aside an hour. You will not want to put this book down once you start reading it.
General curricular connections:
- Reading for pleasure
- Graphic novels
- Orthodox Jewish life
- Use in literature reading circles
Recommended grade levels:
School Library Journal recommends this book for grades 4-7
Booklist recommends this book for grades 3-6
Peaches Picks recommends this book for grades 5-9
Awards/Recognitions:
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books starred review
Kirkus Review starred review
Publishers Weekly starred review
School Library Journal starred review
The Sydney Taylor Book Award, 2011
Note: This book applies to the assignment criteria - books published in 2010-2011. This book applies to the assignment criteria – fiction graphic novels.
Symbolism: Found throughout the book, Mirka’s mother is smiling from a picture watching over Mirka
Symbolism: Page 78; Mirka is encased in a loaf of khale symbolizing the happiness and safety she feels when smelling the bread bake
Onomatopoeia: Page 61; “Gasp”, “Hork!”
Book cover picture retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Hereville-How-Mirka-Got-Sword/dp/0810984229
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