Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

Joann Sfar The Little Prince Adapted From The Book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

This is a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Prince. Joann Sfar is french and has drawn over one hundred books. I especially loved his graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat about a cat that eats a parrot and then can talk. The Little Prince  is translated from French into English by Sarah Ardizzone.

Joann Sfar's drawings are vibrant. They are very good at showing emotion. I like the flow of how he draws the characters in the story. The colorist Brigitte Findaklay uses lots of earth tones mixed with some very deep reds, sky blues, and bright greens. The characters have a lot more color than the backgrounds which makes them stand out.

The panel layout is two columns of three panels. This is very easy to follow. The lettering has a neat, small hand drawn quality to it. The characters have a slightly exaggerated faces with bigger eyes, ears and some fantastic qualities, especially for the flower people.

The Little Prince has a surprising amount of philosophical depth for a childrens story. Joann Sfar successfully translates the writing which is often very surreal into clear, beautiful pictures. 

I especially like the drawings of the Little Prince talking to flowers, the fox, and the snake.  Each character the prince talks to has a seemingly simple philosophical message.

This is worth reading, especially if you like fairytales or fables. The novel, The Little Prince is a childrens classic

Daily Thoughts 7/20/2010

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st BaronLytton, English novelist (1803-1873)

Daily Thoughts 7/20/2010

Joann Sfar is doing a rendition of The Little Prince in graphic novel form. It is being released in France as well in October. Her graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat was excellent. She also did the children's graphic novel, Little Vampire. I am looking forward to this.

The story of the layoffs and the rescinding of the layoff is in Library Journal online. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/885960-264/mount_vernon_pl_ny_loses.html.csp

It is hard to read this kind of material. It is giving me butterflies in my stomach.

I had a chance to work on ordering today. We are doing our ordering meeting tomorrow. It is the first time we are using books from the patron recommendation form from our website which is kind of interesting. Some people have requested us to buy self published books through the recommendation form.

We also have a new donation button on our library website which I hope has some effect.

I also picked out some more graphic novels for the Graphic Novels Club tomorrow. One of our patrons recommended an original english language by Svetlana Chmakova called Nightschool which should be interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightschool . We also are picking out some books for a raffle for a literary tea for the Adult Summer Reading program. This is the second year we have done an adult summer reading program.

I read The Sons of Liberty written by Alexander Lagos and Joseph Lagos on the train home from work. It is a graphic novel set during the American revolution. Two young African boys escape slavery eluding their pursuer. They gain super powers and study the ancient art of Dambe (Nigerian boxing). They are part of the fight to end slavery as well as active in the American revolution. The story is very entertaining. The artwork is in muted earthtones. It is an interesting mix of facts and fantasy. http://www.thesonsoflibertybook.com/

PLA is offering a free online advocacy training course for libraries http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/pla-offers-free-online-library-advocacy-training