Podcasts about ru xu

"Princesses should be taught how to rule and not just be about the pretty dresses," states Ru Xu and her feelings of female characters. Ru is the Edgar Award nominated author of the graphic novel Newsprints and the sequel Endgames as well as the webcomic series Saint for Rent. Ru speaks to our hosts today about her thoughts on female characters, what she thinks about the Marvel Universe, and how crows are extremely intelligent. Follow Ru at https://www.ruemxu.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @ruemxu Our music is written, performed, and recorded by Jake Thistle. Find Jake at www.jakethistle.com or on Instagram @Jake_Thistle_Music Listen and subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts and be sure to rate us. Follow us on Twitter @amongstthebooks_podcast or on Instagram @amongstthebookspocast

Santa Clara's City Library put on a comic con and Patrick, Svetlana, and Kaiden checked it out and share how you can get one in your town.

Santa Clara's City Library put on a comic con and Patrick, Svetlana, and Kaiden checked it out and share how you can get one in your town.

Santa Clara's City Library put on a comic con and Patrick, Svetlana, and Kaiden checked it out and share how you can get one in your town.

Santa Clara's City Library put on a comic con and Patrick, Svetlana, and Kaiden checked it out and share how you can get one in your town.

Intro Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two girls, a 5th grade teacher, and glad to be back after a brief hiatus to refocus and recharge. But - we’ve got a lot of great new books to talk about so you knew I wasn’t going to be gone for long! This is Episode #38 and today I am chatting about the Wonder movie with a friend of mine, I’ll discuss three new graphic novels you’ll want to check out, and then I’ll answer a question about what to do when all your child wants to read is graphic novels and nothing else. But first I am excited to tell you that today’s episode is brought to you by WriteAbout.com - a writing community and publishing platform that is perfect for classrooms. If you are like me and are looking for an engaging and authentic way for your students to share their ideas with a wider audience, you are absolutely going to want to visit WriteAbout.com to check it out.    Main Topic - Wonder Movie A couple  weekends ago, I had the chance to go see the film adaptation of Wonder by RJ Polacio - one of my all-time favorite books and one I’ve read every year with my fifth graders since it came out in 2012.  And I am sure a lot of you also have a lot of love for this book.  So, when I saw that my #BookVoyage friend, Julie Kirchner, had also seen the movie - I asked her to come on the show so we could chat about it.  As you will hear, Julie is an amazing librarian and an all around amazing person and one of those people really worth connecting with Twitter. Alright - take a listen. Links to books and topics we chatted about: Nerdy Book Club Wonder by R.J. Palacio Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories by R.J. Palacio The Bad Seed by Jory John The Wonder Movie website Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Ghost by Jason Reynolds Patina by Jason Reynolds Sunny by Jason Reynolds The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie Fenway & Hattie: Up to New Tricks by Victoria Coe Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes & Gordon C. James Dazzle Ships by Chris Barton & Victo Ngai Red and Lulu by Matt Tavares Claymates by Devorah Petty & Lauren Eldridge After the Fall by Dan Santat Dan Santat’s Interviews on Picturebooking  and SharpRead Come With Me by Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaaitre Most People by Michael Leannah & Jennifer E. Morris   Book Talk - Three New SciFi/Fantasy Graphic Novels In this section of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I want to share with you three brand new graphic novels with scifi /fantasy elements - Fish Girl by David Wiesner and Donna Jo Napoli, NewsPrints by Ru Xu, and Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke. Fish Girl Let’s start with Fish Girl! This is the first graphic novel for both Caldecott medalist David Wiesner and linguist and children’s book writer Donna Jo Napoli. Fish Girl is about a young mermaid trapped inside a huckster’s multi-story aquarium on the boardwalk of an ocean-side town. But- she doesn’t REALIZE that her captor isn’t really Neptune, God of the Seas and when Fish Girl secretly becomes friends with one of the visitors, things get dicey. Here are three things to love about Fish Girl: The simplicity and softness of the story. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have depth or nuance, but I liked that the plot was quieter, easier to follow, and set mainly in the aquarium. And because the mermaid girl can’t speak, a lot of the emotion and backstory is conveyed in her expressions and gestures and in her internal thinking.   I loved how the mermaid is portrayed and drawn. So - I’m always a little leery of mermaid depictions because they can tend to look sexualized with clamshell bras and such. But - it is always clear that Fish Girl is just that - a young girl. One who likes pizza and creating handmade jewelry for her new friend. I love the decision to keep her young. I just loved the other sea creatures who have become her family - how they protect and rally around her. Especially the orange octopus who has his own hidden talents. Plus - octopuses (octopi?) are just - amazing. And not the first time they’ve been a symbol of female empowerment and freedom. If you’re a fan of Mad Men, you know what I mean. Fish Girl is a beautiful graphic novel about breaking free from the limits others place on us, it’s about identity, and the power of friends to broaden our world and make us see things from a new perspective. NewsPrints Our second new graphic novel featured this week is NewsPrints by debut author Ru Xu. This is the story of Blue - a young girl disguising herself as a newsboy for the newspaper called The Bugle. The only truth-telling paper left in Nautilene - a city struggling through war. When Blue meets a mysterious boy named Crow, they both make some some decisions about revealing who they really are.  Here are three things to love about NewsPrints: I love the semi-steampunk setting with the inventor’s studio filled with, well - steam and parts of various flying machines and blueprints strewn everywhere. But then there’s this 1920’s flavor. I really, really love that blend. The birds! There’s this cute little yellow - canary? - called Goldie that flits around Blue and plays a part throughout the story. And the swirling, circling crows that inexplicably turn up at odd moments. The message this book has about the truth, about the the power of the news, and about our ethical obligations toward artificial intelligence. And if there even are any.   NewsPrints is gorgeous and if you know a child who liked The Nameless City or Compass South, this would be a great title to put in their hands next. Mighty Jack and the Goblin King Our third graphic novel suggestion this week for those who love a fairy tale inspired fantasy is Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke - the sequel to the must-read Mighty Jack.  So, if you haven’t read that one yet - first of all - get on that. And second of all, I’m about to reveal a spoiler for the first book so…. you know, you might want to skip ahead a few seconds if that would bother you. Okay -  Mighty Jack and the Goblin King begins with Jack and his friend Lilly in pursuit of the ogre that abducted Jack’s sister, Maddy, and carried her up the beanstalk into another realm. Now, I’ve read Jack and the Beanstalk so I thought I knew what they would discover in this other world. But, no….  completely and wonderfully different than what I was expecting! Here are three things to love about Mighty Jack and the Goblin King. Lilly’s story with the goblins. At the very beginning, she and Jack get separated and she ends up rescued(?) by a clan of goblins and on the brink an arranged marriage with their king.  And the goblins are this weird mix of cute and gross and sweet and disconcerting. The magic eight ball and the old mustang that Lilly finds in the goblin’s junk heap. And how both of those objects come into play later on in the story. That surprise ending!! I finished this book in the waiting room of doctor’s office and I embarrassed myself by squeaking loudly when I got to that page.     The Mighty Jack books have been a huge hit with my students and my kids. And I love them because they have depth paired with a lot of action and humor. So if you have kids who loved Amulet or Hilo - this would be a great series to introduce to them next. Q & A Our last segment this week is Question & Answer time. This question came up multiple times during my parent-teacher conferences last month and honestly - it’s my MOST asked question about reading. Question: My child only wants to read graphic novels. How can I get them to read something else? Answer: Does that sound familiar to you?  Well, first off - reading a graphic novel IS real reading. It’s less and less common every year, but I still sometimes hear parents and teachers and even librarians disparage graphic novels as not “counting” as “real” reading. Ugh!!  I mean - really??? I wish I could hand them Nathan Hale’s Treaties, Trenches, Mud & Blood and SHOW them that graphic novels are not “cheating” - they add layers, they add complexity, they add context for really challenging concepts and vocabulary.  Students are learning inferencing by interpreting the body language and facial expressions of characters…. Really, there is SO much complex thought happening when you read a graphic novel. (And honestly - I find the adults who are griping about them, haven’t read any.)   And graphic novels lend themselves to being read over and over again because the first time, you are reading for plot and then you notice the interplay between the text and the images on further rereads. So - if your son or daughter is like mine and rereading Dog Man over and over - let them!  And maybe ask them what new things they are seeing.   Now, with that said, I do think it’s important to encourage everyone - including children - to read a variety of genres and formats. And developing the stamina and focus to read and comprehend longer chunks of text is a vital skill to have. So for kids who really love graphic novels, but would benefit from some practice with longer stretches of text, I do have some really great suggestions that still include illustrations and graphic elements but are more on the continuum toward a traditional chapter book or novel. Frazzled series by Booki Vivat - fantastic and funny realistic fiction books about a girl named Abbie Wu dealing with the tribulations of middle school.  Tons of black and white drawings on each page and short chapters keep you turning those pages. I featured Book 1 on episode 8 if you want to know more, but I just finished Book 2 last week and loved it just as much. It’s called Frazzled: Ordinary Mishaps and Inevitable Catastrophes. Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson is another great option that includes alternating chapters of comics and text. This is also a middle school story about fitting in and finding your place. There’s also Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere by Elise Gravel. (And I think the sequel just came out.) I haven’t yet read this one myself but a lot of my heavy graphic novel readers are also picking this one up. Series like Timmy Failure, The Tapper Twins, The Terrible Two, or The House of Robots might be catch their fancy - they are funny and have lots of illustrations and graphic elements to break up the text a bit. Another option might be to hand them the full novel version of a graphic novel they already like. For example, my 5th graders are loving the new Baby-sitters Club graphic novels and were thrilled when I brought in the “old school” originals from Ann M. Martin. They didn’t know that there was a whole series of books out there. I was flabbergasted by that, but they’ve been out of print for awhile, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Those are a few suggestions to tempt graphic novels readers.  But - if they don’t bite. It’s okay. Just get them another graphic novel. Closing Okay - that wraps up our show this week. If you have a question or an idea about a topic we should cover, let me know. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between. Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our show along with all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher. And thanks again to WriteAbout.com for supporting the podcast this month - if you head over to their website you’ll find awesome ideas to get your students writing this year. Thanks again and see you soon!  Bye!

Multiversity’s Matt Lune joins Paul to talk about their year-end lists of favorite ongoing comics, original graphic novels, writers, artists, cover artists, and publishers… as well as the prospect of making and discussing these lists themselves! Welcome to the Comics Syllabus podcast, where we read widely and we dig deep. Your host Paul, a literacy researcher and English teacher, introduces curious readers to a range of current and classic comics, and then engages in closer discussion and analysis of particular comics works. First, in the introduction, ( 0:00 ) an apology that the promised discussion of Catalyst Prime titles will be postponed until next week because… well… this episode was already too long and Paul got plenty busy during the US holiday! But NEXT WEEK: Catalyst Prime, the Valiant universe, superhero universes, DCEU and MCU, and diversity! Then, at ( 4:00 ), Multiversity’s Matt Lune comes to talk to Paul about their favorites for 2017. Matt’s work at Multiversity can be found at http://www.multiversitycomics.com/author/mlune/ and he’s on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MattLune , and you can find him one Super Comic Battle Wars podcast ( http://www.multiversitycomics.com/tag/super-comic-battle-wars/ ) and the That’s the Issue podcast ( http://awesomesourcecomics.com/category/thats-the-issue/ ). Matt mentions his recent “Don’t Miss This” column about “Doom Patrol,” which is at http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news-columns/dont-miss-this-doom-patrol/ And here are our lists! Matt’s Best Ongoing Comics (Not necessarily in this order): Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Marvel) Paper Girls (Image) Detective Comics (DC) Babyteeth (Black Mask) Black Hammer (Dark Horse) Extremity (Image) Redlands (Image) Rock Candy Mountain (Image) Doom Patrol (DC/Young Animal) Scales and Scoundrels (Image) Paul’s Best Original Graphic Novels of 2017: 5- Spinning (First Second) by Tillie Walden 4- Boundless (Drawn and Quarterly) by Jillian Tamaki 3- Eartha (Fantagraphics) by Cathy Malkasian 2- My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Fantagraphics) by Emil Ferris 1- The Best We Could Do (Abrams) by Thi Bui Honorable Mentions: Lighter than My Shadow (Lion Forge) by Katie Green; Savage Town (Image) by Declan Shalvey; House of Women (Fantagraphics) by Sophie Goldstein; Tenements, Towers & Trash ( Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers) by Julia Wertz; Stone Heart (First Second) by Faith Erin Hicks, Newsprints (Graphix) by Ru Xu, Roughneck, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King (First Second) by Ben Hatke Matt’s Best Writers 10- James Tynion IV 9- Daniel Warren Johnson 8- Emil Ferris 7- Declan Shalvey 6- Kelly Thompson 5- Kyle Starks 4- Jeff Lemire 3- Jordie Bellaire 2- Tom King 1- Donny Cates Paul’s Best Cover Artists 3- Becky Cloonan 2- Nick Derington 1- John Paul Leon Matt’s Best Artists 10- Daniel Warren Johnson 9- Dustin Weaver 8- Lee Weeks 7- James Stokoe 6- Dan Mora 5- Alyson Sampson 4- Erica Henderson 3- Emil Ferris 2- Mitch Gerads 1- Geoff Shaw Paul’s Best Publishers 5- Image 4- Dark Horse 3- IDW/Top Shelf 2- Fantagraphics 1- DC Comics Subscribe and follow the Comics Syllabus podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Soundcloud, or copy this RSS feed to your podcatcher: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:235183739/sounds.rss or you can find archives for this podcast (previously named “Study Comics with Paul”) here: http://studycomics.club/ Join the discussion on the Comics Syllabus Facebook page: http://facebook.com/ComicsSyllabus or Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwoPlai or leave your comments here on the showpage. Thanks for listening!

Time Codes: 00:00:27 - Introduction 00:03:08 - Introducing Paul Lai as new YR cohost 00:04:50 - A farewell message from Andy Wolverton 00:07:12 - Bats: Learning to Fly 00:31:39 - NewsPrints 01:00:37 - Wrap up 01:01:11 - Contact us Changes   The Comics Alternative extends a warm welcome to Paul Lai, who has taken over from Andy Wolverton as co-host with Gwen Tarbox on the Young Readers show. Everyone at The Comics Alternative family will miss Andy's wise and engaging reviews and perspectives on children's and young adult comics. In their first show together, Gwen and Paul discuss the newest volume in First Second Books' Science Comics series, Falynn Christine Koch's Bats: Learning to Fly, as well as Ru Xu's fiction (“diesel-punk,” as Paul terms it) graphic novel NewsPrints, published by the GRAPHIX imprint at Scholastic Books. Since its launch in 2016, the Science Comics series has included volumes on coral reefs, volcanoes, and dinosaurs. Geared towards upper elementary and middle school aged readers, Science Comics take advantage of the elements of visual storytelling to put forward scientific information. As the editors point out: “With the increasing ubiquity of visual information,” young readers need to “learn to process and respond to visual content, and comics are an incredibly effective medium for exploring visual literacy.” Regular listeners to the podcast may remember that Gwen and Andy reviewed Dinosaurs by M.K. Reed and Joe Flood in their March 2016 YR show, and many of the elements that they praised, including the accessibility of scientific information, as well as the use of humor, appear in Koch's volume, as well. Bats: Learning to Fly encourages young readers to understand the important role that bats play in the ecosystem, to overcome their fear of bats, and to learn how they can become involved in protecting and caring for bats. In addition to providing a great deal of information on various species of Bats, Koch creates a narrative in which a teenage girl, Sarah, volunteers at a bat rehabilitation center after her parents overreact to a bat and injure it. Lil' Brown, as the bat is known, is both a character in that narrative and a narrative presence in his own right, as he directly addresses the reader at various points regarding his own anatomy and role in the ecosystem. As part of their discussion, Paul and Gwen consider how young readers might respond to the way information is imparted in the comic, and they look forward to Koch's upcoming volume for the Science Comics series, Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield, due out in August, 2017. Koch recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and Gwen and Paul discuss how her precision drawings and humor-filled text combine to create a text that will delight readers, while encouraging them to appreciate how they can play a role in scientific study by volunteering to rehabilitate bats or building bat houses for their backyards. Next, Gwen and Paul discuss another debut comic from a SCAD graduate. NewsPrints is written and drawn by Ru Xu, a comics creator who was born in Beijing, immigrated to Indianapolis as a young child, and has had a lifelong love of comics from a variety of traditions, including manga, European comics, and even superhero comics. NewsPrints takes place in a fictional diesel-punk world where the land of Nautilene is torn by war and a newspaper called The Bugle is the only media outlet left that is still reporting the truth. The protagonist, Blue, is a rare kind of newsboy in a society that counts on its newsboys to shout out the headlines and sell papers…and that's because Blue is not a boy, but a girl, orphaned by the war and adopted by the family who owns the newspaper. Blue sets out to provide that one doesn't have to be a boy to be vital in the news business, and along the way, readers are introduced to a cast of characters such as Jack, the eccentric and secretive inventor; Crow, a strange kid who remains wrapped in a scarf and in mysteries of his own; and Goldie, Blue's loyal canary, who matches Blue's welcoming of people and spirit of flight. As part of their discussion, Paul and Gwen praise Xu's mastery of many genres of comics, including her ability to meld various traditional forms into an entirely unique story world. Thus, while the text shares much in common with recent fantasy releases, including Faith Erin Hicks' The Nameless City and Jorge Corona's Feathers, NewsPrints stands on its own, with a vast, inviting story space and a focus on issues of truth and representation that are ever more a part of our own political and social climate. Paul praised Xu's deft handling of interactions among characters, and Gwen expressed her admiration for Xu's use of color and shading to help set the mood and to ease transitions across the comic. Given the book's indeterminate ending, Paul and Gwen look forward to the series continuing into additional volumes, and they dwell on Xu's treatment of gender and ethnicity in thoughtful ways. Get your copies of the titles discussed on this episode:  

Ru Xu is an illustrator and cartoonist. She is the creator of the popular webcomic Saint for Rent and the creator of the graphic novel Newsprints.