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Williams, Marcia
8 Reviews
(3)
4-6
Williams successfully distills one-hundred-fifty years of English history into a picture book examining the lives of Tudor royalty, explorers, and artists. Vibrant mixed-media comic-strip-style illustrations with amusing speech bubbles illuminate the informative text narrated by a young scribe with asides from his droll ferret. In parallel, the plight of the poor runs across the bottom of spreads in a Bayeux Tapestry homage.
Reviewer: Jessica Bushore
(4)
4-6
Pride and Prejudice's Lizzy Bennet tells her story in an illustrated-diary format. Williams embroiders the original narrative with details of life in Regency England; lines from Austen's novel are woven smoothly into the entries. Foldout letters, archival images, and superimposed photos of pressed flowers add a period feel to the whole. This offers a pleasing if less rich variant on the classic novel.
Reviewer: Liza Cortright
(4)
4-6
Dormeo the dormouse leads readers on a journey through ancient Rome. Beginning with its foundation through transitions from kingdom to republic to empire, many different aspects of Roman life are explored, though on a very basic level. Whimsical cartoons with deadpan speech bubbles inject lighthearted humor into the presenation. Sporadic Latin words appear throughout; there is no glossary.
Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo
(4)
4-6
Flossie Albright is nine when WWII interrupts her quiet life in the English countryside, and she responds by documenting her memories in a scrapbook-style diary. Williams incorporates handwritten fonts, foldout notes and letters, photographs, and Flossie's own comical drawings. Though the crowded layout is sometimes hard to navigate, patient readers will be rewarded with a moving personal account of one girl's (read: Williams's) wartime experience. Glos.
Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby
(3)
K-3
From 1914 to 1918, Archie Albright keeps a scrapbook/journal where he collects his own comics and commentary, letters and postcards, newspaper clippings, and trading cards. Readers will be drawn in by the format. The satisfyingly busy pages provide much to pore over, unfold, and lift up, as well as a glimpse into life on the home front during World War I.
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth
(3)
4-6
In her second spirited introduction to Shakespeare and Elizabethan theater, Williams brings the Bard to life in boisterous comic-book style. Among the seven retellings are Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, and King Lear. Busy and colorful, panels of cartoons show the actors declaiming the Bard's words, while smoothly written summaries run beneath. Spectators appear in the margins, offering an enthusiastic commentary.
Reviewer: Carolyn Shute
(3)
K-3
Five monsters are introduced in a cartoon format that renders them more appealing than threatening. The stories of the Roman looks-can-kill Basilisk, the swamp-dwelling Aboriginal Bunyip, Greece's three-headed Chimera, Denmark's man-eating monster Grendel, and the cannibalistic African she-monster Isikukumanderu are told in straightforward prose below panels of bright, busy art.
Reviewer: Carolyn Shute
(3)
4-6
Seven of Shakespeare's best-known plays, including Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, receive lively comic-strip treatment. Panels running across the pages show the actors speaking select lines; brief plot summaries appear in prose beneath. In the borders a boisterous audience views and comments upon the play, providing a glimpse of the interaction between performers and playgoers. An easy introduction to the world of Shakespearean theater.
Reviewer: Carolyn Shute
8 reviews
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