Speech Bubbles Research Articles

What text can tell us about male and female characters in shōjo- and shōnen-manga

Abstract The manner in which manga can reflect and influence readers’ gender perceptions has been a frequently researched issue. This article is an attempt to consider those questions through language, a traditionally less-examined element, in order to shed new light on how male and female characters are used in manga. To do so, I use a linguistic corpus of ten popular shōjo-manga and shōnen-manga to look at (1) how much of the text found in speech bubbles was spoken by male and female characters; and (2) how many characters were seen. With regards to approximately 80% of all text, the corpus shows that shōnen-manga are extremely skewed towards male characters, compared to shōjo-manga, which is more balanced between female and male characters. While many more characters appear in shōnen-manga, the majority are male. Furthermore, only two female characters in all of the shōnen-manga series account for more than 10% of text, whereas all the shōjo-manga have male characters accounting for over 12%. In examining why this might be, I suggest that the focus on interpersonal relationships – including both friendship and romance – in shōjo-manga may lead to a smaller cast of characters and better balance between male and female characters. However, with authors usually writing for their own gender, I also maintain that it is related to differences in the roles of women and men in Japanese society. These distributions also have an impact on characterization itself, particularly in regards to the use of gendered speech patterns. With insight from Kinsui’s yakuwari-go, or role-playing language (2003), I specifically argue that the results predict that shnōen-manga will use more stereotypical speech, particularly in depicting female characters. In offering supporting evidence for this hypothesis, I suggest that this may affect how readers engage with the characters, thus creating different types of reading experiences within the genres. Through this discussion, it will become clear that linguistic data can shed light into how characters are manipulated in manga on a variety of levels, thus appealing to its potential as a legitimate and unique approach to manga research.

The Romantic Crowd: Sympathy, Controversy and Print Culture by Mary Fairclough

Mary Fairclough. The Romantic Crowd: Sympathy, Controversy and Print Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. 294. $105. Edmund Burke was not alone in fearing a quick transit from the demotic to the demonic. Across the revolutionary age, when democracy seemed to many a synonym for mobocracy, the cumulative force that results when people gather was hardly a less pressing issue than the fate of the European monarchies. But what exactly happens when people come together? Or perhaps: what exactly happens to people when they come together? It was in part against the pathologization of crowd behavior by Le Bon and Freud that a half-century ago George Rude, E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and others sought to render the crowd as something more (or less) than the primeval sublime. Their work fostered a subgenre in eighteenth- and nineteenth century studies, with significant contributions by Mark Harrison (1988), Nicholas Rogers (1998), John Plotz (2000) and others. Moving this line of inquiry in a productive new direction, Mary Fairclough's new work (shortlisted for the BARS first book prize) asks what the concept of sympathy might have to tell us about Romantic-era understandings (and misunderstandings) of group behavior. The Romantic Crowd opens with a survey of sympathy according to the Scottish Enlightenment. Tracking David Hume's growing unease with the unruly potential of sympathy from A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) to Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), Fairclough observes that the conception of sympathy in the Treatise as a universal, dynamic medium of proves extremely difficult to sustain, so that by the time of the Enquiry it has become a phenomenon that requires control (27). This wariness is further registered in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which reveals a sharpened sense of sympathy's disruptive potential. Well before 1789, in other words, we find a recognition that sympathy as a medium of sociality could enable social unrest no less than charitable concern. It was with the fires across the Channel that this recognition grew into urgent admonitions. We might not be surprised that Burke smelled the smoke. But Fairclough's second chapter also makes the case that Helen Maria Williams, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and John Thelwall were variously attuned to and wary of sympathy's wild power. Sympathy was just fine when it prompted middle class regard for individuated victims of industrial capitalism and colonial slavery, but reformers quailed when the objects of sympathy became participants in collectivities. Wollstonecraft and Godwin occupied a particularly fraught middle ground between hope and fear, eager to welcome democratic energy but not chary of articulating fears about potential to overawe individual reason. Fairclough makes a welcome turn to the understudied Historical and MoraI View of the French Revolution (1794) to demonstrate Wollstonecraft's apprehension about sympathy's coercive threat, but it is Thelwall who anchors this chapter, and who is singled out as something of a hero in The Romantic Crowd (the book's cover, a detail from Gillray's Copenhagen House [1795], shows a caricatured Thelwall virtually ranting Fairclough's title as though it were a speech bubble). Thelwall matters for Fairclough because she is interested in the contemporary use of physiological figures to think about sympathy: it spreads like a contagion through the public body, even as it models the internal working of the human body itself (when organs fall out of sympathy, according to contemporary medical writers, systemic disorder results). With at least one eye on the scientific vanguard, Thelwall offers a rare example of an approach to sympathetic communication that addresses its physiological properties and their potential political effects without reducing them to pathology (107). Thelwall's work provides Fairclough with a helpful instance of sympathy conceived neutrally as both a social and a somatic process, but his readiness to accept in materialist terms was not representative of his moment. …

Graffiti Silence

These tricontinental ekphrastic poems feature graffiti art(ists) that have caught my heart off guard. The first poem titled “Graffiti of Silence” is a response to the anonymous “listen bird”, ubiquitous in Edmonton's urban geography from 2003 to about 2008. Stenciled, spray painted or stickered, it always featured a speech bubble with one word: listen. It quickly became part of Edmonton’s local iconography, but the city’s Graffiti Management Program managed to eliminate the bird from its streets, but not from public memory. The second ekphrasis titled “The Fisherman” features the work of El niño de las pinturas (Raúl Ruiz), an internationally-renowned graffiti artist based in Granada, Spain. Known for his large-scale wall murals which are almost always accompanied by his own poetic text, he dresses the skin of this city in sienna strokes, covers its bruises with layers of light, becoming a source of symbolic pride for Granada. The third poem, “Monsters in Montevideo,” is inspired by Alfalfa (Nicolás Sánchez), an iconic street artist based in Montevideo, Uruguay. His unique style uses organic lines and bright colours to create fantastical creatures that add a sense of play and surprise to many of the city’s streets. These three ekphrastic poems are an attempt to translate the poetic experience of viewing street art. Through poetry, the impermanent art of graffiti is rendered immortal as a self-portrait of each city and each spectator.

A Piece of Cake by LeUyen Pham (review)

Reviewed by: A Piece of Cake by LeUyen Pham Hope Morrison Pham, LeUyen A Piece of Cake; written and illus. by LeUyen Pham. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2014 40p ISBN 978-0-06-199264-3 $16.99 R 5-8 yrs It’s Little Bird’s birthday, and Mouse has baked her a cake. En route to deliver the tasty treat, he runs into an assortment of friends, each of whom offer items in trade for a slice, until Mouse arrives on Little Bird’s doorstep without any cake at all. Wise Little Bird, however, knows the traded items—a cork, a wire, a net, and a flyswatter—will be useful, and in fact the pair trades the items back to the same series of friends for the necessary ingredients to make a brand-new birthday cake. Pham’s tale engages in delightful absurdity, with creativity and subverted expectations in the animal’s barters (when the Bear complains, “These bees won’t leave me alone! If only I had something to swat them away,” Mouse and Little Bird bypass the flyswatter and instead suggest a cork “to close up the hole of the hive”). The narrative alternates between blocks of text and speech bubbles, and the many characters make the story well suited for a readers theater adaptation as well as a readaloud. Pham’s digitally colored pencil illustrations are retro flavored in style and layout; Mouse and Little Bird, in particular, with their pupils nearly as large as their eyeballs, are reminiscent of 1950s illustrative work, while the palette and gently curved spot art will be familiar to Golden Book fans. This will work remarkably well in a storytime setting, and there are plenty of opportunities for curricular tie-ins (particularly prediction and inference) for a school setting. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

There’s a Mouse Hiding in This Book! by Benjamin Bird (review)

Reviewed by: There’s a Mouse Hiding in This Book! by Benjamin Bird Thaddeus Andracki Bird, Benjamin There’s a Mouse Hiding in This Book!; written and illus. by Benjamin Bird. Capstone, 2014 [32p] Paper over board ISBN 978-1-62370-125-3 $9.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad 4-7 yrs Right from the title page, Tom Cat (yes, of Tom and Jerry fame) lets audiences know that a mouse is loose in his book. Viewers are encouraged to help him in his hunt for Jerry, through a mousehole, across a field of mousetraps, and under falling paint, while turning pages, shaking the book, and blowing to clean up the mess—right up to the end, where the book can be snapped shut, trapping the mouse until next time. This book’s frenzied chase captures the tone of the classic cartoon and the familiar faces might offer some appeal. However, its rather prosaic approach to the interactive genre (“I can hear him breathing. Can’t you? Shut your eyes and listen closely”) lacks the whimsy of classics like Schwarz’s There Are Cats in This Book, the inventiveness of Tullet’s Press Here, or even the grabby humor of recent additions like Lehrhaupt’s Warning: Do Not Open This Book! (BCCB 9/13). The evenly saturated digital illustrations have the polished sheen of animated classics, complete with comic-book style speech bubbles and colorful onomatopoeia, but the attempt to pack in the frenetic energy of a TV cartoon often clutters the page and makes the illustrations difficult to follow. Still, storytime leaders who’ve gone through aforementioned titles several times will likely be happy to have one more interactive tale to add to their bag of tricks. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly (review)

Reviewed by: Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly Deborah Stevenson Daly, Cathleen Emily’s Blue Period; illus. by Lisa Brown. Porter/Roaring Brook, 2014 [55p] ISBN 978-1-59643-469-1 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2-3 Emily, a devotee of Picasso, may enjoy mixing things up in her art, but she’s not happy when it’s her family that’s mixed up and her father leaves the house to live “in his own little cube” of an apartment. Emily’s funk affects her painting, sending her into her own version of Picasso’s Blue Period. An assignment in art class (“I want you to make a collage of your house”) leads her into introspection about the nature of her home, and it’s this work that eventually allows her to make peace with the new arrangement. The clipped text has a robust and knowing energy that makes this a bracing complement to more tender stories of post-split adjustment (Stanton’s Monday, Wednesday, and Every Other Weekend, BCCB 2/14); Emily’s artistry is treated appreciatively, and her relationship with her little brother, Jack (who’s also none too pleased about the family developments) adds both humor and authenticity. The book’s format is a cross between a picture book and an early reader, with a trim size between the two, chapter breaks dividing the sparely texted episodes, and much of the dialogue appearing in speech bubbles. The art doesn’t always match the imagination of the text, but the focused, modest scenes set against copious white space add accessibility, and there’s effective pacing in the shifting layouts that move between busy assemblages of spot art and the occasional dramatic double-page spread (as when an angry Jack loses it mid-store). While this could inspire some art projects for kids who want to symbolically represent their own lives, it’s also a nicely underplayed look at family change that will speak to many youngsters’ experience. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

The Graphic Transcript: Poaching Comic Book Grammar for Inscribing the Visual, Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Action

AbstractA brief review is presented of existing forms of transcription of talk that incorporate visual, spatial and temporal elements. The most common forms use text and a line‐by‐line‐based system, and conversation analytic transcripts have been successful in making a number of other features of talk visible. The desire of geographers to draw upon video recordings and time‐lapse photography has lead to time‐series images being used to bring those visual materials into documents. The graphic transcript is proposed as an alternative form of transcription that hybridises the qualities and evidentiary criteria of the transcript with the representational conventions of the comic strip. The comic strip itself has recently been undergoing a period of experimentation and hybridisation with other forms. The graphic transcript brings together familiar comic strip features such as panels, guttering, speech bubbles and captions with the transcript's criteria of providing an evidentiary record of earlier events that is available for re‐inspection and re‐interpretation by other analysts.

Weasels by Elys Dolan (review)

Reviewed by: Weasels by Elys Dolan Deborah Stevenson, Editor Dolan, Elys. Weasels; written and illus. by Elys Dolan. Candlewick, 2014. [32p]. ISBN 978-0-7636-7100-6 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 2-6. See this month’s Big Picture, p. 301, for review. You may think that weasels just hang around doing weaselly things all day, but Dolan reveals the truth in this droll picture book: “What they really do is … plot world domination!” Spreads reveal a teeming nerve center of wall to wall technology and a multitude of coordinating weasels, all ready to take over the world—until the countdown to world domination is interrupted by a power outage. “But technical difficulties won’t stop a weasel,” and the crew scurries around to find the fault, investigating the problem in the lab, checking the Rube Goldbergian connections in the machinery, until finally the little coffee-serving weasel discovers that he pulled the plug out when he tripped over a cord. Countdown is swiftly resumed, and the weasel takeover changes the world. The complex weasel domain resembles some of Arthur Geisert’s elaborate piggy realms and technologies, while the goofy humor and text-spattered art hits some of the same notes as Mélanie Watts’ Scaredy Squirrel. The medium is simple line and translucent paint in gentle, noncompeting colors, with the toasty brown of the weasels predominating against the ivory brackgrounds, the better to focus on the multitude of activities that fill each oversized spread. Small intricate dramas peppered with speech bubbles abound across the scenes, often in neat horizontal layers (the towering machines have railinged levels, each abuzz with busy weasels), as weasels obsess over coffee, slack off to play “World of Woodcraft,” and work feverishly over test tubes and electrical wiring to solve the problem. Yet compositions are cleverly rhythmic: an initial sequence of thumbnails builds up the pace to the packed scenes, and the blackout spread effectively counterpoints the frenetics of the surrounding visuals. As usual with such multi-ring circus spreads, there’s much pleasure to be had in hunting down all the individual stories and piecing together the odd ongoing plotline (the introduction of a new specialty coffee drink fails miserably), and that’s a joy that middle-grade fans of Geisert and Watts will immediately embrace. However, Weasels offers even broader appeal through its humor, which is laced with absurdity that links it to recent surreal comedy such as Monroe’s Monkey with a Toolbelt (BCCB 6/08) and steeped in a campiness and affectionate satire that suggests cartoons and pop-culture memes. The note is set right from the cover’s tagline of “Megalomania has never been so furry!”; as the action progresses, the monocled archvillain weasel Bondishly strokes a white mouse, a helpful sign on the machine states “This is the machine,” the science lab includes delightful 1950s-serial style rayguns and transmogrifiers, and even the font has a dot-matrix machined look that evokes old-school conceptions of computerized text. Kids well [End Page 301] up into middle school will snicker at the random and bizarre comedy in elements such as the installation’s drawing board (which offers proposed solutions ranging from the use of a coathanger to buying a new machine) and the persistent weasel grandstanding through the spreads determined to apply his big drill to anything in his way (“Without this drill, I am nothing”). In a move that echoes cinematic end credits that reveal the characters’ futures, the closing spread shows vignettes from the now thoroughly weaselized planet, with weasels raising a weasel flag à la Iwo Jima, a weasel ensconced on the British throne, a pair of weasels looking in satisfaction on the newly weaselly Sphinx (“Much better,” one says proudly), and a steaming cup of coffee bearing the Starweasels logo. The result is an appealing combination of sophisticated yet goofy humor and undemanding text that will draw many youngsters, and the book’s appeal to a wide age range makes it an excellent choice for older and younger kids to share and snort over together. Weasels is just the mammalian madhouse to move kids from Anno to the anarchic. (See p. 307 for publication...

What’s In There?: All About Before You Were Born by Robie H. Harris (review)

Reviewed by: What’s In There?: All About Before You Were Born by Robie H. Harris Elizabeth Bush Harris, Robie H. What’s In There?: All About Before You Were Born; illus. by Nadine Bernard Westcott. Candlewick, 2013 40p ISBN 978-0-7636-3630-2 $15.99 Ad 3-6 yrs Preschoolers familiar with Harris’s Let’s Talk about You and Me, and Who Has What? series will recognize the biracial siblings who observed and discussed family and gender differences in previous titles. Now Mom is having another baby, and the children are excited and fascinated by its prenatal development. Again, the children chat about the forthcoming event in speech bubbles, while a child-friendly narration rolls across each spread with the salient details. Stages of development are not coordinated with weeks or months, making it difficult for real life siblings-in-waiting to compare the progress of their own newcomer; the pictorial turn of seasons from spring into late fall offer some sense of time passage, however, and cutaway views of what’s going on inside Mom provide a general, albeit sketchy, picture of growth. The description of birth is also oversimplified, but the short, comforting remarks that “soon the baby comes out” and “the cutting and sewing [c-section] does not hurt the mommy or the baby” are appropriate for most young listeners. A couple of details, like the definition of a cell, go unexplained, and the issue of adoption is brought up but glossed over. However, Westcott’s chummy, affectionate [End Page 155] multicultural cast will once again successfully open parent/child discussion on building a family—whatever the family. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Pass It On! by M. Sadler

Sadler, Marilyn. Pass It On! Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2012. Print.Marilyn Sadler enjoys writing funny children’s stories and has authored over 30 books. Through her role as executive producer and writer for the Disney Channel, Sadler has seen some of her works turned into children’s movies and TV series. In Pass It On! Sadler puts a new spin on the traditional game of Telephone, with comical results.‘Cow is stuck in the fence! Pass it on!’ Cow’s friend, Bee starts the ball rolling, sending out a plea to the other animals, recruiting their help to rescue Cow. The original message quickly gets distorted and becomes increasingly absurd, leaving the reader wondering: will anyone come to Cow’s aid?With its simple plot and humorous characters, this story is fun, engaging, and perfect for shared reading with young children. Michael Slack, recognized for his humorous character art, shines in this illustrated work. He is skillful in his use of colour and texture, creating expressive depictions of the animals in the story while conveying a sense of urgency and excitement. The typeset used for the comic-book-like speech bubbles differentiates the characters’ speech from narrative aspects of the story and cues the reader to the tone and dynamic of the animals’ pronouncements.I recently read this to a group of four and five-year-olds, after playing the Telephone game with them. Throughout the story, the children responded with exclamations of, “That’s not right!” and a chorus of, “Pass it on!” as each animal communicated his or her misinterpretation of the message.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Maria TanMaria is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta’s H. T. Coutts Education Library. She enjoys travelling and visiting unique and far-flung libraries. An avid foodie, Maria’s motto is, “There’s really no good reason to stop the flow of snacks”.

The Gumazing Gum Girl: Chews Your Destiny by Rhode Montijo (review)

Reviewed by: The Gumazing Gum Girl: Chews Your Destiny by Rhode Montijo Thaddeus Andracki Montijo, Rhode . The Gumazing Gum Girl: Chews Your Destiny; written and illus. by Rhode Montijo. Disney Hyperion, 2013. [128p]. ISBN 978-1-4231-5740-3 $14.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2-4. When a piece of "MIGHTY-MEGA ULTRA-STRETCHY SUPER-DUPER EXTENDA-BUBBLE BUBBLE GUM" combines with a low-hanging power line to produce a shock that completely coats Gabby Gomez in pink goo, she's worried about getting herself cleaned up before her mami finds her. On the way home, she stops a purse thief, in the process discovering that she's not covered in gum; instead, she's become Gum Girl, complete with sticky, elastic appendages that are perfect for saving the world. Gabby must discover how to hide her powers from her classmates and family (peanut butter turns her back to normal) and how to get them back so that she can stop planes from crashing (popping a bubble allows her to metamorphose). The chapter book-cum-graphic novel is an exploding format, and Montijo's tale fits right in, with lines of text alternating with full-page art that moves the story along with speech bubbles, comics-style omniscient narrations, and mood-setting sound effects (several chapters end with a dramatic "DUN! DUN! DUN!"). Montijo's thickly outlined and stylistically simple drawings are playful, pleasing, and easy to parse, making them a foil for the detailed text and rich vocabulary. The story is also lightly peppered with Spanish words, easily decoded from their context by non-speakers, bringing some diversity to a world populated mostly by characters like Babymouse and Captain Underpants. Gabby's also more gender-neutral than either of those, lacking the frills of the former and the potty humor of the latter, but she maintains the spunk of both. Her good heart and realistic struggles with her mom and classroom bullies make her eminently relatable, [End Page 106] and her exuberant voice (she bursts into song when excited) makes her a welcome addition to the ranks of early-elementary superkids. A final "DUN! DUN! DUN!" sets Gum Girl up for future exploits. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Wenn Mülleimer sprechen können. Eine sprach- undmedienwissenschaftliche Analyse derWerbekampagne der Stadtreinigung Hamburg

Abstract This paper analyses the clean-up campaign organised by Hamburg’s citycleaning service, SRH. Starting in May 2005, the SRH changed the colourof the city’s litter bins from mousey grey to signal red; they also used thelitter bins to advertise their own services using a variety of speech bubbleswhich were not immediately comprehensible, such as for example “Ihr Müllsieht rot.” (“Your rubbish sees red.”) oder “Ich steh’ frei.” (“I am free.”)These speech bubbles can be referred to as cryptic (litter-bin) utterances.The aim of this paper is to analyse the embedding of these cryptic utterancesin a specific space which is characterised by the presence of the redlitter bin. The analysis is intended to show that the two co-present elementsthat are communicatively relevant in this setting – the red litter bin on theone hand and the adhesive label bearing the cryptic utterance on theother – form a single entity in terms of their spatial-visual arrangement,but not in terms of their semiosis. On the contrary, the cryptic nature ofthese utterances – their ‘wittiness’ – is based on their linguistic “doublemeaning” (Freud 1905), which it is up to the recipient to decipher.

123 Versus ABC by Mike Boldt (review)

Reviewed by: 123 Versus ABC by Mike Boldt Thaddeus Andracki Boldt, Mike . 123 Versus ABC; written and illus. by Mike Boldt. Harper/HarperCollins, 2013. 32p. ISBN 978-0-06-210299-7 $17.99 R 4-7 yrs. The numeral 1—anthropomorphized in blue with a big mouth, thick eyebrows, and thin black arms and legs—is very happy that audiences have decided to open this book about numbers. The trouble is that the letter A (similarly concretized, though in ochre) is convinced this is a book about letters. When one alligator shows up on the scene, both glyphs claim him for their own; after the arrival of two bears in three cars (apparently bears are prodigious drivers) that are also carrying four dinosaurs with five eggs, the two go back and forth, until, after coming across twenty-five balls of yarn used to make sweaters for twenty-six zebras, they realize that this is a book about both numbers and letters. Though there's a lot of text in this picture book, it's entertaining and readable enough to be a solid readal-oud choice, and the good-natured ribbing between A and 1 marks an interesting change of pace from standard fare. The boisterous, mottled acrylic illustrations keep the bounciness going and focus tight, setting the countable and alphabetized objects against a striking white background. Boldt also sets the dialogue between the two symbols in distinctively colored speech bubbles (blue for the numbers, orange for the letters), and the book emphasizes the words used for each letter and the numeral used to count them by color coding and bolding them, which draws [End Page 8] younger audiences' attention to the dual purpose of this book. This fresh take on hallmark books of childhood offers new interest for kids who already know the ropes of counting and alphabet books. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Ollie & Moon: Aloha! by Diane Kredensor (review)

Reviewed by: Ollie & Moon: Aloha! by Diane Kredensor Deborah Stevenson Kredensor, Diane . Ollie & Moon: Aloha!; written and illus by Diane Kredensor and with photos. Random House, 2013. [48p]. (Step into Reading) Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-97131-0 $12.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-307-97950-6 $3.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 1-2. In this opening title in a new graphic-novel-styled reader series, Ollie and Moon are cool cats (they're literally cats) and best buds, despite their differences. When they decide to play a game of "Dare," they both rise to the silly challenges (Ollie has to swap clothes with his pet snail, while Moon has to wear a dozen leis around her neck). When Ollie dares Moon to go bodysurfing, however, timid Moon employs every delaying tactic she can, until Ollie realizes his friend's dilemma and decides to take the plunge with her rather than win the game. That's a fairly predictable and programmatic conclusion, and the story rambles somewhat on its way there. The Hawaiian setting adds some fresh character, though, and the playful and sometimes absurd touches make for enjoyable comedy. The illustrations are an interesting blend: the zippily cartooned figures are posed against and amid photographic backgrounds depicting the majestic Hawaiian landscape and seascape. The compositions are somewhat unfocused, however, with the speech bubbles and text boxes weighing overheavy on the eye, while finer details, like the wonderfully absurd Stanley the Snail, get overshadowed. The Tiny Toon books (like French's Barry's Best Buddy, BCCB 5/13) do a more polished job of introducing kids to reading via graphic novels, but it's good to see a classic reading series expand to a more graphic format, with the extra bonus of an island getaway. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci (review)

Reviewed by: Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci Jeannette Hulick Castellucci, Cecil . Odd Duck; illus. by Sara Varon. First Second, 2013. 96p. ISBN 978-1-59643-557-5 $15.99 R Gr. 2-4. Sure, duck Theodora, the star of this short graphic novel, might swim with a teacup on her head, eat her duck pellets with mango salsa, and spend winter at home rather than fly south, but she's not "odd," like Chad, the new duck next door who dyes his feathers, makes avant-garde yard art, and scratches himself with a fork. When Theodora realizes that she and Chad have much in common—they both skipped migration and they both love to stargaze—the two begin to bond and quickly become best buds. However, when they overhear another duck snickering at one of them as an "odd duck," each is convinced the comment was intended for the other one, and their ensuing argument breaks up the duck duo. Theodora eventually realizes how much she misses Chad, and she goes to apologize but finds him headed to her house with the same intent, and the eccentric pair happily renews their friendship. The friendship plot isn't original, but the tone is appealingly droll and accessibly casual, and the visuals are filled with entertaining minutiae. Varon's art captures the quirkiness of the ducks without overplaying it, as the muted hues and tidily outlined figures, carefully posed against simple backdrops, keep the action neat and clean, while speech bubbles, comic diagrammatic arrows, and verbal commentary add further interest. Theodora, in her perpetual periwinkle attire (including hat with attached bee), and olive-spectacled Chad with his striped scarf and wacky feathered topknot are an amiable pair. Middle-graders on the verge of dog-eat-dog adolescence may find the idea of oddball pals sticking together a bolstering and affirmative one; the quirky tale may also serve as a nice prompt for a class discussion of friendship or idiosyncratic behavior. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Drama to promote social and personal well-being in six- and seven-year-olds with communication difficulties: the Speech Bubbles project

This paper focuses on an innovative intersection between education, health and arts. Taking a broad definition of health it examines some social and psychological well-being impacts of extended collaborations between a theatre company and children with communication difficulties. It seeks to test aspects of Fredrickson's(1) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in a primary school curriculum context. The researcher participated in a project called Speech Bubbles. The programme was devised by theatre practitioners and aimed at six- and seven-year-olds with difficulties in speech, language and communication. Sessions were observed, videoed and analysed for levels of child well-being using an established scale. In addition, responses regarding perceived improvements in speech, language and communication were gathered from school records and teachers, teaching assistants, practitioners and parents. Data were captured using still images and videos, children's recorded commentaries, conversations, written feedback and observation. Using grounded research methods, themes and categories arose directly from the collected data. Fluency, vocabulary, inventiveness and concentration were enhanced in the large majority of referred children. The research also found significant positive developments in motivation and confidence. Teachers and their assistants credited the drama intervention with notable improvements in attitude, behaviour and relationships over the year. Aspects of many children's psychological well-being also showed marked signs of progress when measured against original reasons for referral and normal expectations over a year. An unexpected outcome was evidence of heightened well-being of the teaching assistants involved. Findings compared well with expectations based upon Fredrickson's theory and also the theatre company's view that theatre-making promotes emotional awareness and empathy. Improvements in both children's well-being and communication were at least in part related to the sustained and playful emphases on the processes and practice of drama, clear values and an inclusive environment.

Visual grammar in practice: Negotiating the arrangement of speech bubbles in storyboards

It is generally acknowledged that we live in an increasingly visual culture, populated with a variety of visual objects. Researchers have recently started to investigate the underlying regularities, the “visual grammar,” according to which these objects are assembled. While most existing studies base their analysis on products (such as advertisements, movies or pages from newspapers), this paper studies the processes through which such products are assembled, thereby investigating visual grammar in practice.

Kel Gilligan's Daredevil Stunt Show (review)

Reviewed by: Kel Gilligan's Daredevil Stunt Show Elizabeth Bush Buckley, Michael . Kel Gilligan's Daredevil Stunt Show; illus. by Dan Santat. Abrams, 2012. 40p. ISBN 978-1-4197-0379-9 $16.95 R 3-7 yrs. From the challenge of too-tight neck holes to the horrors of broccoli, no obstacle is too daunting for fearless Kel, a Captain America Lite vision in his cape and red, white, and blue safety helmet. Kel stares viewers down with his piercing eyes and clenched jaw, regaling them with such epic feats as "the time I threw caution to the wind and faced . . . the Potty of Doom! Dun-Dun-Duhhhhh!" His adventures have obviously been captured on video (in spreads framed in black with a digital time display rolling along the top), and his parents, siblings, and grandmother gasp at each new attempt: "Is he insane?" "If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it!!" Even the youngest listeners will recognize Kel's accomplishments: eating vegetables, toilet training, dressing independently, bathing, waiting patiently for parental attention, and going to bed "without checking the room for monsters!" It's the older sibs, though, who will most enjoy owning their role in this affair—contributing the appropriate mock terror and loud acclaim as the little guy reaches each new milestone. Hyperbolized Photoshop illustrations will have immediate appeal for the Pixar generation, and big, blocky upper-case letters in speech bubbles will entice [End Page 75] beginning readers. If marvels of bravery fail to elicit shrieks of approval, then flashes of bare butt certainly will. Expect demands for multiple readings. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Developing a Taste for Coffee: Bangladesh, Nescafé, and Australian Student Photographers

Developing a Taste for Coffee: Bangladesh, Nescafé, and Australian Student Photographers

Leo Geo: And His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth (review)

Reviewed by: Leo Geo: And His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth Elizabeth Bush Chad, Jon . Leo Geo: And His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth; written and illus. by Jon Chad. Roaring Brook, 2012. ISBN 978-1-59643-661-9 $15.99 R Gr. 3-6. Waving from the open hatch of a drill capsule boring into the Earth's crust, the roughly humanoid figure of Leo Geo invites readers to flip the cover of this 13x4½" book, hold it (awkwardly) perpendicular to the floor, read the double-page spreads vertically, and join him as he bids his worried sister good-bye and heads straight down. As Leo Geo descends the tunnel via ropes, ladders, tram car, and drill capsule, he spouts observations in speech bubbles: "The mantle! The mantle is comprised of both liquid and solid rock at temperatures ranging between 700ºF and 8,000ºF! Onward!" Just when readers settle in to Leo Geo's adventure as a quirky lesson in geology, Chad jolts them abruptly into the realm of sci-fi ("Dancing Darwins! What in the world is that creature?"). Evidently there's more to fear near the Earth's core than heat, as a monster eats, digests, and expels Leo Geo and sends him plunging ever deeper past mortal perils, until it's time to flip the book and watch him evade more monsters as he clambers back "up" to the other side of the world. Neither evil mantle-dwelling creatures nor fussy Rube Goldbergian [End Page 391] devices keep the intrepid Leo Geo from completing his mission; nor can these obstacles silence his motor-mouthed science lessons ("Coal, oil, and gas are all fossil fuels! In fact, 86% of the fuel consumed in the world is fossil fuel"). This blend of genre-busting text and richly detailed black-line cartoons, smarty-pants scientific rambling and bizarre adventure, will appeal to kids who wear their nerdiness as a badge of honor. Technical Sevices may regard the oddball trim size with horror, but Leo Geo will ultimately prevail. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois