More Books We Like
- Books We Like by Madison Howell published 5/18/2023
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Books We Like
Published 2/4/2019 by Carolyn Woods
In celebration of Black History Month, the books I have chosen to highlight comes from our collection of adult graphic novels. These novels focus on facts that represent a dark period in our history, using fictional characters to illustrate, highlight and inform. “Bayou, Volume 1” By Jeremy Love “Bayou” is a story about the friendship between two young girls, Lee, the daughter of a sharecropper, and Lily, a landowner's daughter in Mississippi in 1933. Lee and Lily enjoy playing near the edge of the bayou where many a black body lay after they were lynched. Thus begins the story of Lily, who while playing, was swallowed whole by a monster who took the form of a hulking white male and Lee, who was fighting for the life of her father, who was blamed for Lily’s abduction. In an alternate universe, Lee and Bayou, a swamp-like monster and a lover of the blues, helps Lee navigate the bayou as she comes up with a plan to save her father and Lily. This volume begins the journey of Lee and her quest to build the courage and strength needed to save her dad and the courage of Bayou to get past the horrible lynchings to help Lee save her father. “Bluesman, Book One” - A twelve bar graphic narrative in the key of life and death. By Rob Vollmar & Pablo G Callejo It’s the 1920s when we begin the story of two black men who ride the cattle cars, walk along back roads and thumb rides as they make their way from Oklahoma to Arkansas. Their journey is a search for a safe place to sleep and food to eat as they work their profession and passion. They are disciples of the gospel of the blues, purveyors of the low down and dirty rhythm of the guitar and the gritty pounding of the ivories. Lem Taylor and his partner in the blues “Ironwood” Malcott would travel to and fro in search for suitable venues that would allow them to remind the audience of the heartbreak and perils they all faced dealing with the violence of lynching and the desperation of unrequited love in the midst of the all the hurt and pain. At times Lem Taylor would have to pepper his conversation with the word of the Good Book in order to petition for a meal in exchange for some of the blues they all knew. This time around the journey takes them to a place and space where there will not be a happy ending, only death. “Incognegro - A Graphic Mystery” Mel Johnson & Warren Pleece Welcome to the world of Zane Pinchback, a journalist for the New Holland Herald, a newspaper based in Harlem. As a journalist, Zane wanted to push past the assignments he had been doing and go on to bigger and better things. That was not to be until he completed his last assignment - to save the life of his twin brother, Alonzo, who was accused of killing a white woman and who was heading towards death by an all-white lynch mob. Zane had to draw the strength to once again don the disguise that will help him save his twin brother. This time playing the role of a black man passing for a white man was a life-or-death matter. Just one warning - what you put out into the universe can come back to you. Be careful, when you are “Incognegro” and death is the weapon of choice against your people - it will come back to bite you!