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A review by saidtheraina
Around the World by Matt Phelan
3.0
When I think about this book, I keep having to remind myself that not every kid is a 10-year-old boy who loves aliens and farting.
As a youth services librarian, I try to cater to the kid who's on the brink of not enjoying reading anymore, and usually "dumb" jokes and superheroics are key in keeping a kid in the library loop.
This book is not for that kid.
It's a subtle, inferential book, somber and reflective. On one randomly-flipped-to spread, there are only 10 words, on 10 panels.
In a book about people traveling around the world, I was hoping for something more flashy. More adventurous. More... questy.
The first story is the most joyous of the tales - and the guy learned how to ride the bicycle specifically to become famous and had a hard time getting support from the bicycling establishment. Politics and reporting ethics come into play.
The stories get more depressing from there. Nellie Bly seems to have had a terrible time, and was mostly carried in her journey by others. Joshua Slocum seems to have embarked on his trip out of severe depression over losing a wife.
So yeah, these are not happy, triumphant stories. Things are not spelled out for us - we have to interpret the pictures to understand major plot points.
And so, with my ten-year-old boy on the brain, I wonder if this is best served in the kids section. The stories are mature. The approach is mature. Normally the approach to telling this kind of story is screwball comedy. Particularly when telling this kind of story to kids. And I feel like grown-ups, who will have more of a sense of the context and more of an appreciation of the weighty tone, might be a better audience.
As a youth services librarian, I try to cater to the kid who's on the brink of not enjoying reading anymore, and usually "dumb" jokes and superheroics are key in keeping a kid in the library loop.
This book is not for that kid.
It's a subtle, inferential book, somber and reflective. On one randomly-flipped-to spread, there are only 10 words, on 10 panels.
In a book about people traveling around the world, I was hoping for something more flashy. More adventurous. More... questy.
The first story is the most joyous of the tales - and the guy learned how to ride the bicycle specifically to become famous and had a hard time getting support from the bicycling establishment. Politics and reporting ethics come into play.
The stories get more depressing from there. Nellie Bly seems to have had a terrible time, and was mostly carried in her journey by others. Joshua Slocum seems to have embarked on his trip out of severe depression over losing a wife.
So yeah, these are not happy, triumphant stories. Things are not spelled out for us - we have to interpret the pictures to understand major plot points.
And so, with my ten-year-old boy on the brain, I wonder if this is best served in the kids section. The stories are mature. The approach is mature. Normally the approach to telling this kind of story is screwball comedy. Particularly when telling this kind of story to kids. And I feel like grown-ups, who will have more of a sense of the context and more of an appreciation of the weighty tone, might be a better audience.