Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday: Science Comics

Science Comics: Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean
by Maris Wicks
First Second (March 29, 2016)
Nonfiction * Coral Colonies * Comics
Audience: Ages 9 to 13
Indiebound | Worldcat

About the book:
Every volume of Science Comics offers a complete introduction to a particular topic--dinosaurs, coral reefs, the solar system, volcanoes, bats, flying machines, and more. These gorgeously illustrated graphic novels offer wildly entertaining views of their subjects. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty-year-old with a secret passion for airplanes, these books are for you!

This volume: in Coral Reefs, we learn all about these tiny, adorable sea animals! This absorbing look at ocean science covers the biology of coral reefs as well as their ecological importance. Nonfiction comics genius Maris Wicks brings to bear her signature combination of hardcore cuteness and in-depth science.

About these books:

First Second has created a new series that I am certain will be popular with children. Last year, I read Maris Wicks' Human Body Theater and loved the book. Every child, I handed it to also loved the book. Just a couple of days ago, I had a discussion with an eight year old about Human Body Theater. We had a great chat about the book and the parts that we enjoyed. As we talked, I knew that she would really like the new Science Comics series produced by First Second.

One of the two graphic novels released in the series is all about Coral Reefs. Within five colorful chapters, readers learn about coral reefs and how they are formed and the ecosystem that they live in. 

Readers are going to love the straight-forward, clear facts and even the humor that winds throughout the book. 

End matter includes a glossary, bibliography, and additional resources. 

Science Comics: Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers
by MK Reed; Illustrated by Joe Flood
First Second (March 29, 2016)
Nonfiction * Dinosaurs * Comics
Audience: Ages 9 to 13
Indiebound | Worldcat

About the book:
This volume: in Dinosaurs, learn all about the history of paleontology! This fascinating look at dinosaur science covers the last 150 years of dinosaur hunting, and illuminates how our ideas about dinosaurs have changed--and continue to change.

Dinosaurs: 

Along with the Coral Reefs book, the other title released looks at the early discoveries of fossils and what paleontologists learned from what they uncovered. Most of the book explores early research from the 1800's. 

End matter includes a glossary, notes, and further reading suggestions.

Pick up a copy of Coral Reefs or Dinosaurs at your local indie bookstore and keep an eye out for additional releases in this series. These will be popular in classrooms and checked out often from school libraries.

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

#GNCelebration: Human Body Theater by Maris Wicks

Every Thursday, during the month of October, join Aly at Kid Lit Frenzy, Franki & Mary Lee of A Year of Reading, and Tammy & Clare from Assessment in Perspective as we celebrate graphic novels and comic books.  To read our Top 10 reasons to join in, check out the Nerdy Book Club post, here. To link up your reviews and connect with everyone participating in the #GNCelebration, visit our #GNCelebration Google Community. 

For my first #GNCelebration, I start with a nonfiction graphic novel from First Second:

Human Body Theater: The All-Singing, All-Dancing Anatony Extravaganza!
by Maris Wicks
First Second (October 6, 2015)
Audience: Ages 10-14
Nonfiction * Graphic Novel * Human Body
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: 
Welcome to the Human Body Theater, where your master of ceremonies is going to lead you through a theatrical revue of each and every biological system of the human body! Starting out as a skeleton, the MC puts on a new layer of her costume (her body) with each "act." By turns goofy and intensely informative, the Human Body Theater is always accessible and always entertaining.

Maris Wicks is a biology nerd, and by the time you've read this book, you will be too! Harnessing her passion for science (and her background as a science educator for elementary and middle-school students), she has created a comics-format introduction to the human body that will make an expert of any reader -- young or old!

Thoughts on this book by KK, age 9 with a little help from her aunt (that would be me): 
Finding books that engage, inform and yes, entertain kids can be a challenge at times. So when I was watching the 9 year old the other night I decided to give it a shot and see if she would read THE HUMAN BODY THEATER. Knowing how much she loves graphic novels I had high hopes for this one. Yet, she was in a bit of a funk. Her initial response, "Set the timer for 20 minutes please."  I did as I was asked but hoping she would read for longer. 

As I heard her giggling through the book, I figured we had a winner. When the timer went off, she decided to just keep reading until she finished. When she was finished, I asked her what she thought of the book.  

Here is her initial response that I posted on Facebook: 

Several nights later, I asked her again what she thought of the book. 

KK: I loved that book. (Always good that nearly a week later the memory of reading the book is positive.) 

Me: So, what did you like?

KK: I liked the bones, how they can bend and move.  I also liked the skeleton and how the skeleton had different costumes. I also liked the flesh, and oh, those...colorful balls.

Me: Colorful balls? Do you mean atoms and molecules.

KK: Yeah, that stuff. 

KK's mom (from the other part of the room): Now, I know why she was asking about flesh and bones. 

Some of the great interior shots from this book.

Me: Would you read this book again? 

KK: Yes, I would read it again. (And again, and again, and again knowing her.)

Me: Would you recommend this book to anyone?

KK: Yes, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn about the human body and its system. 

Pick up a copy of The Human Body Theater at your local indie bookstore or public library.

Don't forget to join us: 
On November 1, 2015 at 8:00 EST, we will culminate this celebration with a Twitter Chat featuring Terry Thompson the author of Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6.

Five Questions With Kids Comics Authors: Nathan Hale

In my mind, Children's Book Week (May 4-10, 2015) should be every week. This year we get to celebrate kids comics with Q&As with fantastic children’s cartoonists for Children’s Book Week Plus beginning the week of April 27, 2015 and continuing to May 30, 2015.   Join with Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado, creators of GIANTS BEWARE! and DRAGONS BEWARE! as they talk with  some great comic book authors & creators about their own creative work and the graphic novel industry.

RAFAEL/JORGE: Hi Nathan, great to cyber-meet you.  And thanks for answering our questions.

Hey hey! Thanks for having me on your blog tour!

QUESTION: We're impressed that you have all the Research Babies working for you. (JORGE NOTE: the Hazardous Tales books end with a funny bit about babies doing all the research.) But babies aside, how long does the research take before you can start writing and drawing? 

It takes two to three months of research for the manuscript. I read a mountain of books on the subject. This is for names, dates, motives, facts, etc. I keep several books open while I'm writing to make sure I'm getting all the the important info correct. It's just like writing a big college paper--but with jokes. Add another month or two of waiting on the publisher's fact-checker. Then it's time to start drawing.

But the research isn't finished! Now I start the visual research. This requires a different mountain of books--picture books. Authors of history are lucky, they can write, "The army took their guns and went to war." Done. If you are drawing history, you have to know what those guns look like, and the uniforms, and the boots, insignias, facial hair, belts, backpacks, etc. etc. Then you need to know what the country they marched through looked like. All of those things require visual research. The Hazardous Tales books take from four to six months to draw. I'm constantly hunting for visual reference during the entire process. Some visuals are easier than others. For example, during DONNER DINNER PARTY I had to research oxen and wagons, a few types of 1800's traveling clothes, and the scenery of the country they traveled through. Pretty easy. War books, on the other hand, are a real nightmare. I just finished a seventeen page short on WWII for a comics anthology. Every single panel needed multiple visual references: torpedo launchers, torpedoes, Fletcher-class destroyers, sailor uniforms, Japanese submarines, on and on and on. There is a WWII book on the horizon for the Hazardous Tales series, and I've informed my editor it'll probably take twice as long due to the sheer amount of required visual research.

QUESTION:  When you're writing something as detailed as the Hazardous Tales do you long for the simplicity of working on your younger kid books like your book, "Devil You Know?"  And when you're working on the younger kid books do you long for the complexity of working on a Hazardous Tale book?

Absolutely. In between Hazardous Tales 3 and 4, I illustrated a super simple book called FRANKENSTEIN: a Monstrous parody by Ludworst Bemonster. It's a spoof of MADELEINE so the pictures are very simple linework. The entire book took a few weeks to draw. It was so much fun to work in such a clean simple style. At some point, I'd really like to do a comic in that style.

QUESTION:  Much of your work seems to be non-fiction. In your spare time (if you have any) what do you read? Fiction? Non-fiction? Novels, graphic novels? All the above? None of the above?

I don't read non-fiction for fun anymore. That's all work now.

I do however, love to read. Audiobooks are a godsend for graphic novelists. While I illustrated RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE, I listened to sixty-eight audiobooks (I kept track). I like all genres of fiction (you have to, if you want to keep a constant stream of audiobooks flowing. You can't be too picky.) I have a library card to two local libraries, an Audible account, and Overdrive access to keep me in audiobooks. I like horror, westerns, thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, you name it. (just not non-fiction, that's WORK!)

I spend far more time with audiobooks than with graphic novels. I love to read graphic novels (of course!) But they often feel like work because I'm dismantling and critiquing everything as I read, trying to figure out how the artist did the color, or why they draw their balloon tails the way they do. Don't get me wrong, though, I love a good graphic novel. 

QUESTION:  What are you working on next?

I just started the artwork stage of Hazardous Tales #6. I can't tell you what it's about, only that it takes place in TEXAS, and you might REMEMBER this piece of history. I hope readers will COME AND TAKE IT when it comes out.

This summer I'm taking a one-book-break from Hazardous Tales to do a standalone, full-color, science fiction story. It'll be over 170 pages long--my longest book! That manuscript has already been written and turned in, it just needs to be drawn (didn't even need fact-checking!) I'm looking forward to working in a different, more colorful style than the artwork in Hazardous Tales. It should be fun! Then it's back to American history, I'm already contracted for books 7 and 8.

QUESTION:  What's on your nightstand?

So, in my headphones right now, I just finished THE DEEP by Nick Cutter, a horror novel that takes place at the bottom of the ocean in a spooky lab. That was good. I'm midway through THE WHISPERING SKULL by Jonathan Stroud, that's a kids fantasy book I'm listening to with my nine-year-old daughter. It's book two in a GREAT series called Lockwood & Co. it's basically Harry Potter Ghostbusters--super fun, but the narrator, as good as she is, has a very soothing voice that makes me sleepy. On my bedstead is another horror novel APARTMENT 16 by Adam Nevill.

Comics-wise. I'm reading ASCENSION OF THE STARLESS from the Spera series. I'm really into the traditionally drawn/watercolored story by Atelier Sento. Scaring myself with the idea of doing my next book that way. I'm also in the middle of the Fantagraphic's EC hardcovers, I'm in the Harvey Kurtzman war stories book, THE CORPSE ON THE IMJIN. Really amazing work there. My daughter keeps leaving an Ernie Bushmiller NANCY collection in my studio and I pick it up and laugh every day. I keep going back to the Tamaki's THIS ONE SUMMER just to look at the drawings and get angry. How can they be so loose and so perfect!?!?

It's a pretty cluttered nightstand.

For more about the HAZARDOUS TALE BOOKS and the new release, THE UNDERGROUND ABDUCTOR, check out Hale's video:

About Author: Nathan Hale is the New York Times best-selling author/illustrator of the Hazardous Tales series, as well as many picture books including Yellowbelly and Plum go to School, the Twelve Bots of Christmas and The Devil You Know.

He is the illustrator of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel, Calamity Jack. He also illustrated Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody, The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas, Animal House and many others.
Follow him on twitter @mrnathanhale | website | Hazardous Tale site 

Kids Comics Q&A Tour is sponsored by the Children’s Book Council with Every Child a Reader and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in celebration of Children’s Book Week. For the full schedule of tour stops, check out the schedule here. You won't want to miss a single stop.