A heartfelt, funny, and unforgettable book of parenting humor.
Langrock’s graphic novel in verse for adults satirically urges children to direct all questions, requests, and trivia to their fathers.
Being a mother is a demanding 24-hour job, and sometimes moms just need a break. In this short, illustrated work, Langrock uses rhymes to catalog the various things that mothers put up with, from baby kicks to incessant invasions of privacy. Frustrations mount, which this book manifests in a series of F-bombs. It’s most assuredly not for children, though readers can also check out the “kid-friendly version,” For Gosh Sakes, Ask Your Dad, via QR code; in the adult-friendly work, Langrock includes sentences such as “No, I can’t get you another juicebox right now or meet your every whim from dawn till dark. Sometimes I need to sleep or poop or shower or save your sister from a motherfucking shark!” The text, in varied typefaces, couples perfectly with Clisson’s sensational full-color cartoon artwork, in which small pictures resembling children’s sketches replace words in dialogue balloons and tell their own stories. This book is plainly satire, and none of the children, either in verse or illustrations, are anything other than cutely rambunctious; they overflow with energy and naïveté, as when one child wonders if cheetahs can be plaid. Moreover, the book isn’t very critical of fathers, even if they don’t always seem helpful; instead, the work depicts loving families throughout, with devoted dads who enjoy family time. Clisson furthers this tone with perpetual smiles on the kids’ faces and comically exasperated (but never angry) expressions on the mothers’. Moms, dads, and kids are depicted with various skin tones, ages, and body shapes.
A heartfelt, funny, and unforgettable book of parenting humor.Pub Date: May 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798988446613
Page Count: -
Publisher: Funbrella Books
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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