Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan & Nathan Fox YP FIC KEENAN

Boots, Loki, Sheba.  Three dogs in three wars that wagged their take in the face of death.  Boots braves the dangers and rats of trench warfare of WW I, Loki pulls a sled in a forgotten front of WW II, and Sheba sniffs out snipers and booby traps in the jungles of Vietnam. A harrowing but hopeful look at the ravages of war and the humanity and canine-ity  that comes from unlikely heroes.

This is a gorgeously illustrated and very well measured look at war.  It has all the rousing adventure and excitement that is common of classic war movies and stories, but looks at the all-too-high human cost of war. It never turns The Enemy into an evil monolithic force, and invites the reader to both feel the fear of being fired upon and the sadness of having to fire back to survive. Best of all is it has dogs!  Great, beautiful, heroic dogs that absolutely leap off the page and into your heart!  I felt as much (if not more) tension worrying what would happen to the dogs as I did for the human characters. the book does occasionally stray very close to cliche, but the unique and detailed artwork keeps it from every feeling cheesy or stagnant. Fox uses a slew of clever artistic devices to bring the reader into the action: tight, cramped panels to press the claustrophobia of trench warfare, the use of bright color against expanses of white and light blues to play off the feeling of being all too visible against an invisible enemy, dreams and reality fading into each other for a vet that is still in the jungle even when he make sit home, and more. The only gripe I have is that it perpetuates the long discredited myth of Vietnam veterans being spat upon when returning home. This is a commonly told myth, so it doesn't distract too much from the overall story. If you are a fan of comics, then you have a great beautiful book to read, and if you like war stories at all this could be a great way to break into graphic novels.

You can find Dogs of War in our catalog here.

Parade (With Fireworks) by Mike Cavallaro YP FIC CAVALLAR

Paolo went to war and came home changed by it, but worse still is how his home is changing. Repelled by the violence of Chicago, Paolo returns to his Italian village to find that it has been invaded. Not by a foreign force, but an insidious and dangerous idea: Fascism. Soon after a tragic and violent end to a local parade, Paolo finds that all his ideas of justice and honor are obsolete in the new Italy.

I’ll start with the bad news. I wish that this book was twice as long. The story is developing so well and then everything ends quite abruptly. I really feel like Cavallaro could have begun the story sooner in Paolo’s life or ended it later than he did. However, the story we do get is pretty darn good. The art is beautifully painted and reminds me of Jeff Smith’s Bone series (YP FIC SMITH). Cavallaro, like Smith is able to use simple cartoonlike designs that convey a surprising depth of emotion. There is only one action sequence, but is so well done and iconic that is stands out as one of the better drawn shootouts I’ve seen all year. Cavallaro wrote Parade for act-I-vate.com, a collection of artists making free webcomics. It is an excellent site and worth checking out if you like comics even a little bit. And even though I feel like the ending should be stronger for Parade the excellence of the art make it a must read for fans of intelligent comics.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld YP FIC WESTERFE

The war between the technology obsessed Clankers and the bio-engineering enthusiasts the Darwinists continue in this action packed sequel to Leviathan Our heroes Prince Alex and Deryn are trapped between enemy lines in Clanker run Germany and have to use all their abilities to survive.

The Leviathan trilogy is a Steampunk look at the beginnings of WW I. Steampunk takes historical settings but adds cutting edge technologies that are powerd by the fuels and sciences of the time. So they have a giant whale warship for the bio-engineering Darwinists and the clankers used steam powered robots. It makes for very fun reading and lots of great action, but Westerfled goes above and beyond the call of duty by filling his books with interesting and well developed characters that readers can get behind. Definitely read Leviathan before picking this one up, but if you like sci fi or you like historical fiction but are looking for something kind of different then this series is for you.