KINDERCOMICS
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Comics@CSUN
  • Comics Studies Society
  • KIRBY!

2025 Eisner Nominees: Early Readers

6/2/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
This post is the second in a series of three.

Yesterday I reviewed this year’s Eisner nominees for Teens. Today I review the nominees for Early Readers (see my post of May 22 for an overview of all young readers’ categories). As usual, I’ve tried to describe each book fairly, though at the bottom I do signal my favorites. FYI, clicking on a book's title will take you to a publisher's page about that book.
Picture
​​​Bog Myrtle, by Sid Sharp (Annick Press)​
Picture-book and graphic-novel aesthetics mingle in this morbidly clever Gorey-esque fable about two sisters who live in “a hideous, drafty old house,” the spiders they live with, the looming forest outside, and a monstrous “old woman” who guards it. Ultimately, this becomes an impish satire of unchecked capitalism (versus sustainability). It’s in the same wheelhouse as William Steig’s original Shrek! or Eleanor Davis’ Stinky, sly, sharp books that cheerfully embrace the unlovely and weird. It feels too long (150 pages), too arch, and too verbose to be for “early readers,” but it’s a lovely, formally ingenious book, regardless of category.
Picture
​Club Microbe, by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly)
This spirited picture-book primer on microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, etc.) has a pleasingly random quality, as if inspired by Gravel’s enthusiasm rather than any pedagogical grand plan. Gravel’s odd examples and transitions, and the way she simultaneously undercuts and indulges in anthropomorphism (giving microbes eyes, for example), make for a book as daffy as it is didactic. The dangers posed by germs are duly noted, yet so is the whole biosphere’s dependence on microbes. The book presupposes an adult chaperone, as it delights in scientific names and glosses concepts such as antibodies and vaccination. Gravel’s wacky cartooning is a strong plus.
Picture
Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye)
A new Hilda book? Sign me up! This one, though, is different: while still in BD album format, the story is briefer (mostly the events of a single afternoon), the pages less dense, the cartooning looser and even freer. Also, this is a prequel unencumbered by continuity, and really belongs to Hilda’s deerfox friend, Twig. Pearson seems to have rediscovered his characters with this short, sweet episode, which is witty, smart, rambunctious, but also warm and soulful. Call it a “new phase” Hilda book, perhaps an entryway for younger readers. I hope there will be more, because this is terrific.
Picture
Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America, by Liniers (TOON Books/Astra Books)
​
Argentine comics genius Liniers, always delightful, does another TOON book, this one similar in format to Jaime Hernandez’s The Dragon Slayer (likewise a folktale sampler). Typical of TOON Graphics, it frames charming comics with didactic front and back matter. This one’s rather textbook-like introduction did not prepare me for the funny, spooky comics inside: three brief tales rooted in Argentinean, Brazilian, and Mexican folklore, framed as bedtime stories that two kids tell each other. Liniers’ ink and watercolor cartooning feels scruffy and alive, and he has a knack for droll, offhand details. I wish the stories and book were longer.
Picture
Poetry Comics, by Grant Snider (Chronicle Books)
I came to this skeptically, jaded by previous brushes with “poetry comics,” but Snider delivers what he promises: poems that are comics, comics that are poems. Over four cycles (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and about seventy poems, he builds satisfying pages and sequences, varied in layout, graphic rhythm, prosody, metaphor, and mood. The poems (one or two pages each) balance the playful and pensive. Along the way, the child reader implicitly becomes a child poet. The overarching themes are familiar (love of nature, growing up, self-doubt, searching for words) but the delivery is artful. Snider’s simple, sketchy drawings work perfectly.

Final notes: a good category. I started with Bog Myrtle, which I dug, but then Poetry Comics impressed me greatly, appealing to my love of form and of books that encourage art-making among young readers. Ironically, I didn't come to Hilda and Twig, sentimental favorites of mine, until last, and although I was on guard against my own fannish bias there, I think I've finally come to the conclusion that, yes, Hilda and Twig is the one I'll vote for. It's just so good!

I'll be back tomorrow with a final post, about the nominees in the Kids category.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    See Hatfield, comics and children's culture scholar

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    June 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All
    392
    About KinderComics
    Abrams
    Adaptations
    ALA
    Animal Stories
    Anthologies
    Anti Sexism
    Anti-sexism
    Awards
    Best American Comics
    Bookshops
    BOOM! Studios
    Business
    CALA
    CalRBS
    CBLDF
    CCEL
    Children's Lit In Academia
    Class/Classism
    Collaborations
    Comic Con International
    Comic-Con International
    Comics As Social Protest
    Comic Shops
    Comics In Academia
    Comics Studies Society
    Comic Strips
    Courses
    COVID-19 Lockdown
    DC Comics
    Decade In Review
    Dial Books
    Disability
    Disney/Hyperion
    Drawn & Quarterly
    Early Readers
    Ecology
    EGL Awards
    Eisner Awards
    Essential Graphic Novels
    Ethics
    Eulogies
    Events
    Exhibitions
    Fairy Tales
    Fantagraphics
    Fantasy
    Faves
    First Second Books
    Flying Eye Books
    Folklore
    Food
    French BD
    Friendship
    FSG
    Gallery 13
    Graphic Medicine
    Grief
    Harper
    Historical Fiction
    History
    Holiday House
    House Of Anani Press
    How-to Books
    Immigrants' Stories
    Instructional Books
    International Comic Arts Forum
    Jen Wang
    JLG Selections
    LA Is A Comics Town
    LGBTQIA+
    Libraries
    Lion Forge
    Markets
    Marvel
    McDuffie Awards
    Memoir
    Middle Grade
    Miyazaki
    MLA
    Music
    Mysteries
    Nature
    News
    Nobrow
    Nonfiction
    Oni Press
    Paper Engineering
    Picture Books
    Poetry
    Politics
    Public Speaking
    Race/Racism
    Raina
    Random House
    Reading (and Watching) Hilda
    Reviews
    RH Graphic
    Sales
    Scholarly Works
    Scholastic/Graphix
    Schulz
    SF
    Simon & Schuster
    SOLRAD
    Sports
    Superheroes
    Teaching
    Teaching Roundtable 2018
    Textbooks
    Tillie Walden
    TOON
    TOON Books
    Top Shelf
    Tributes
    Updates
    Webcomics
    Witches
    Year In Review
    Yen Press
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Comics@CSUN
  • Comics Studies Society
  • KIRBY!