Josephine Baker / Lucy & Andy Neanderthal
Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 5
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
A VICTIM OF RACISM THROUGHOUT HER LIFE, JOSEPHINE BAKER WOULD SING OF LOVE AND LIBERTY UNTIL THE DAY SHE DIED
Josephine Baker
by Jose-Luis Bocquet, Catel Muller (Illustrator)
SelfMadeHero
2017, 496 pages, 6.7 x 2.0 x 9.4 inches, Paperback
Josephine Baker, the graphic novel biography, is so thorough and so thoroughly good. I knew almost nothing about the artist’s life and did not grasp the seemingly non-stop trajectory and reach of her career before reading this. Baker’s confidence and poise in the face of rampant personal and institutional racism, her deep and joyful affection for her animals and her friends, and her unrelenting devotion to her family and her adopted country are narrated in nearly 500 pages of vividly matter-of-fact black and white.
After the story, there’s still more. It doesn’t feel right to simply call the appendices in this book “further reading.” The Timeline of Baker’s life and Biographical Notes character sketches are incredibly comprehensive, the former giving clarity and the latter giving context to the fullness of the artist’s life and the scope of her career. This biography is beautifully executed, with art and text that are so on-point, the only person you see is Josephine.
A HILARIOUS GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES ABOUT TWO YOUNG CAVE KIDS LIVING 40,000 YEARS AGO
Lucy & Andy Neanderthal
by Jeffrey Brown
Crown Books for Young Readers
2016, 224 pages, 6.6 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches, Hardcover
Lucy & Andy are two Neanderthal kids. They learn about different Stone Age animals, fashion spears and hand axes, go on a mammoth hunt, and create cave art. After some unexplained occurrences, such as odd noises in the woods and some of their mammoth meal going missing, they meet some strangers. Meanwhile, two modern-day paleontologists narrate, explaining Neanderthal biology, the methods of determining the age of archeological discoveries, and the use of various Stone Age tools.
A humorous, educational, and dialogue-driven graphic novel filled with sibling rivalries, Lucy & Andy Neanderthal explores what life might have been like 40,000 years ago through many cleverly-drawn black-and-white panels. Lucy is creative but self-conscious, Andy is eager to hunt, but is squeamish. Eric and Pam, two modern-day paleontologists, reveal the science behind our understanding of Neanderthal civilization.
Did you know that most Neanderthals, like modern humans, were right handed? Science! They also chewed animal hides to soften them for use as clothing. More science!
Featuring a funny sequence where the family debates and critiques their cave art, a timeline of Neanderthal evolution, and a brief history of cavemen in fiction, Lucy & Andy Neanderthal is a comic and educational graphic novel.
– SD
03/12/24
