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Tao, the Little Samurai #1: Pranks and Attacks!

by Laurent Richard & Nicolas Ryser, illustrator

translated by Edward Gauvin

Graphic Universe      1/14/2014

978-1-4677-2095-3

Age 7 to 11       64 pages

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“Tao is studying martial arts at the famous Master Snow’s school. But no matter how hard he concentrates on his lessons, mischief gets in the way! Tai plays pranks and jokes around with his friends Ray, Lee, and Kat. He also struggles to get to school on time, learn new moves, and—most importantly—avoid doing his chores.”

Opening

“Ohboyohboy . . . this is gonna be tight. If I’m late, I’m gonna get chewed out! Hurry, hurry, hurry . . . home stretch . . .”

Review

Tao attends Master Snow’s martial arts school along with three friends, Ray, Lee, and his “not-girlfriend” Kat. Try as he might, Tao is late for school, and when there, has a hard time following Master Snow’s teachings. Each graphic novel page begins with a title, which is more like an oriental proverb. The second page is title “Showing off Can Spoil Dessert.” Tao is home and decides to practice annihilating blocks with a karate chop. He stacks three sets of two blocks to his right, left, and directly in front. Quickly, Tao chops with great force. “Bash! Bash! Bash!” Tao disintegrates every block, but his papa is unhappy with his son’s accomplishment—Tao used graham crackers as his cement blocks.

Kids, especially boys, will love Tao and his goofy ways. Tao tries but what he touches never goes right for him. I think reluctant readers will also like Tao. Rather than a 64-page story, there are 64 stories, one per page. Needing to stop is easy letting the reader–reluctant reader–go at their own pace, without becoming overwhelmed, or stressed. Remembering what happened is not necessary. If you don’t like the page where Tao is late for school, turn the page and a new situation will present itself. The stories have recurring characters that hang out with Tao, teach him, or guide him. So there is consistency in the Tai series.

The graphic novel is easy to following. The illustrations are bright and white lines mark each scene by placing them in boxes to divide the action. I found it was like reading a paragraph per block then moving on to the right for the next paragraph—only the blocks contained pictures not words. Some blocks do have a voice bubble with words, but those mostly set up or complete the joke on each page. Tao is completely for laughs and he succeeds. Needing help to put on his fencing outfit, not-my-girlfriend Kat helps and ties Tao up in bows—pretty pink bows—but Tao has no idea this is why his opponent is laughing.

A few pages I thought were especially good. Those included:

He Who Spies Gets a Black Eye

 He Who Cannot Fly Must Avoid Falling

 He Who Climbs Too Fast Falls Flat on His Face

The last involves Master Smith. Any page involving the Master is hilarious as he usually shows that age means nothing while performing some unusual human feat. After playing out all of the sage advice, the author takes readers “behind the scenes.” Here the author gives a short lesson on how Tao comes to life. The lesson includes writing voice bubbles, sketching characters and scenes, and colorizing the final images followed by black inking highlights so they stand out from the scene. The very last page lists the currently available editions of Tao. The color is light, almost like a transfer, which is what I thought it was. But, alas, it is not a transfer, so put those t-shirts away. Maybe next time.

Tao is a new graphic novel from Graphic Universe and rivals those published by Papercutz, the reigning king of graphic novels for kids. Tao is understandable and involves many situations most kids will face at some point in their life, karate not needed.

TAO THE LITTLE SAMURAI #1: PRANKS AND ATTACKS! Text copyright © 2011 by Laurent Richard. Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Nicolas Ryser. Translation copyright © 2014 by Edward Gauvin. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Graphic Universe, Minneapolis, MN.

Buy Tao the Little Samurai #1: Pranks and Attacks at Amazon—B&N—Lerner Publishing—your local bookstore.

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Learn more about the Tao the Little Samurai series HERE

Meet the author, Laurent Richard, at his website:   http://www.laurent-richard.com/

Meet the illustrator, Nicolas Ryser, at his website:

Meet the translator, Edward Gauvin, at his website:   http://www.edwardgauvin.com/

Find more graphic novels at Graphic Universe. blog:  http://graphicuniverse.wordpress.com/

Graphic Universe is an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group

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Also by Laurent Richard & Nicolas Ryser

Tao, the Little Samurai #2: Ninjas and Knock Outs!

Tao, the Little Samurai #3:  Clowns and Dragons! 

Tao, the Little Samurai #4: The Championship!

Tao, the Little Samurai #5: Wild Animals!

Also by Edward Gauvin

Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox 3: What a Team!

Reviewed (#30) HERE.

Dinosaurs #1: In the Beginning…

by Plumeri & Bloz

translated by Nanette McGuinness

   1/07/2014

978-1-59707-490-2

Age 7 to 9    56 pages

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 Papercutz Website

“Think you know everything there is to know about dinosaurs? Think again! In this brand new series, kid dinos show us what their lives were like in short, funny, teeth-gnashing bursts of prehistoric mayhem. DINOSAURS is your guided tour through the rough-and-tumble world of the mightiest beasts to ever walk the earth!”

Opening

“You want to learn about dinosaur records? Ask Indino Jones! That’s me, hee hee!”

The Story

The Dinosaurs series begins where it must:  In the Beginning. We first meet the local paleontologist, Indino Jones.  Indino likes to introduce in categories. The first is Records such as the fastest dinosaur—Gallimimus, at 40 mph—the most massive dinosaur—Giganotosaurus, at 17, 636 pounds cast over 46 feet—and smartest dinosaur—Troodon, it is as smart as a cat.

From records, the logical place to head is the first dinosaur, beginning in the Triassic, a mere 230 million years ago, is the Eoraptor, a rather little fellow that walked on two legs, making it a fast hunter. Does anyone not know about the Tyrannosaurus rex? T-rex starts out life as one of the smaller creatures, possible bullied by the large reptiles, but in time, T-rex grows from its tiny feathered body to a humongous, 11,000 pound, North American carnivore with an anger management problem.

What exactly is a dinosaur, other than an extinct creature that once roamed the Earth millions of years ago? “Dinosaur” means Fearfully Great Lizard. Sir Richard Owen invented the term using Greek though many are based on Latin terms, based on postulated descriptions and features of the creature. The first Creature Feature! 

Dinos ruled Earth from 230 to 65 million years ago, but not all dinosaurs lived during the same period of time. They ate most anything that moved and had muscle –carnivores—or gathered plants—herbivores. One other existed, that being the Piscivore, which feasted on fish. There were dinosaurs that walked on two feet and those that crawled on all four. Some carnivores had egg cravings,  pilfering from an unattended nests. Caution was needed to ensure the carnivore didn’t snatch from a pile of eggs ready to hatch, from say a Velociraptor momma. Those babes will be carnivores and hungry.   Indino Jones has much more in store for the reader. In addition to several more dinosaurs, he will explain the value of dinosaur tracks, all about coprolites, marine reptiles, and those creatures that preceded birds. To finish his tour of Dinosaurs #1: In the Beginning, Indino Jones talks about why dinosaurs disappeared from the world.

Review

Dinosaurs #1: In the Beginning will enthrall kids interested in dinosaurs and reptiles. These early creatures are presented in a light-hearted manner by the paleontologist Indino Jones, a man who loves handling coprolites, yet refuses to pick up after his dog. While Indino acts as the narrator, the dinosaurs speak to one another and have a great time. One dinosaur, the Albertosaurus, discovered in Alberta, Canada looks at the reader and says, “Have a nice day from Alberta,” while menacingly standing over a map of the area.

Kids will witness typical dinosaur behavior, such as a momma guarding her young ones before and after birth. Fighting is common. Many dinosaurs, such as the pointy dragon-headed Dracorex, liked head-butting each other, while the spike-backed Kentrosaurus tries to avoid than I had been aware of existing. Kids will love the varieties and Indino Jones’s commentary.

The illustrations are grand. Most have a slightly cartoonish bent to them, making the dinosaurs a tad less ferocious than they most likely were millions of years ago. Carnivores like the Allosaurus. It has no trouble killing and then eating another dinosaur, calling his meal, an “American Steak-Osaurus,” while the dead Orintholestes ay on the ground ribs showing, insides flowing out. To counter this the dino-dinner has its tongue out, head on the ground with stars above its now deceased head.

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Learn more about the Dinosaur Series HERE!

Purchase Dinosaurs: In the Beginning at Amazon—B&N—Papercutz—your local bookstore.

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Get to know the author, Arnaud Plumeri     twitter     goodreads

Get to know the illustrator, Bloz

Get to know the translator, Nanette McGuinness       blog     twitter     goodreads     scbwi     jacketflap

Check out more great graphic novels and comics at Papercutz:     website     blog     facebook     twitter      tumblr

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DINOSAURS:  IN THE BEGINNING. Text 6yrrr`copyright © 2010 by Arnaud Plumeri. Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Bloz. Translation copyright © 2014 by Nanette McGuinness. Reproduce by permission of the publisher, Papercutz, New York, NY.

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.ALSO IN THE DINOSAUR SERIES (THUS FAR)

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Dinosaurs #2: Bite of the Albertosaurus    5/06/2014

Dinosaurs #3: Jurassic Smarts    8/05/2014

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