Starboy: Inspired by the Life and Lyrics of David Bowie

Written and illustrated by Jami Gigot
Henry Holt and Company
978-1-250-23943-3
40 pp.
Ages 4-8
May 2021 

Fans of musician David Bowie will certainly welcome this new picture book from Jami Gigot, now of Vancouver, but anyone who has ever felt different and unable to fit in without compromising self will appreciate Starboy.

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

This is the story of David who felt different, like maybe he'd fallen to Earth from outer space. His mismatched eyes, skinny legs (perfect for dancing) and keen hearing with sticky-out ears alluded to his difference. And then there was the "cosmic murmur" or "chattering of stars" he could hear and got his body moving and his toes tapping. Then he felt "connected to the universe and the rhythm of the stars."

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

But at school, his need to move and live with colour was not appreciated. When the kids asked him what planet he was from, he wondered too, though he made efforts to fit in. 

Though the stars could bring out the spark in him, it would go away if he closed his window. That is, until that same spark came through his radio and he realized it was music that was giving him the spark. He started making his own music, with homemade instruments, taking the spark with him wherever he went.

His eyes FLASHED,
his toes TIP-TAPPED,
and his hips SHIMMY-SHAKED!

The music fed his imagination and, with a revolution in world music–Elvis Presley is seen in the news–it was feeding those around him too. 

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

No one can deny the contributions of David Bowie to the music world. Through more than several generations, his music evolved in time and space, created in permutations that were both personal and worldly. From a child who felt different but found a spark in the greater universe and then in music, David Bowie evolved, accepting his inspiration and his métier as he needed it to be, not as prescribed by others, and never languishing in one genre of music or style. Playing off of Bowie's many personalities as well as relevant lyrics, particularly from his "Ziggy Stardust" album, Jami Gigot lets us see this boy who found the music in his soul by looking to the stars but who lived a grey life by silencing it. The colour was always there, especially in the brilliant pinks and purples that swirl in and around him, but it's when he finally feels heard, that the colour lives in him.

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

Jami Gigot may honour David Bowie with her Starboy story but she tells all children that they can be themselves and it will be glorious when they do and are heard.

King of the Mole People (Book 1)

Written and illustrated by Paul Gilligan

Henry Holt & Co.

978-1-25017-134-4

272 pp.

Ages 8-12

August 2019

...I was never aiming for popular. All I wanted was to somehow claw my way up the ladder to a comfortable middle rung. (pg. 116)

Doug accepts that he's weird but he hates it, especially when bullies like Ed and Ted and popular girl Becky and her Binkettes call him so. But what makes him weird?  He lives in Dreadsville Manor adjacent to a graveyard. His father's prime cooking ingredient is eels. And he's been crowned King of the Mole People after King Zog (there are actually 16 O's in his name) disappears. It's no wonder he craves normalcy. So he makes a plan to participate in school activities, crush on a girl, get a friend, learn to tell jokes and even just eat regular sandwiches for lunch. Unfortunately his good efforts continue to be thwarted.

From King of the Mole People by Paul Gilligan

His friend Simon is becoming less friendly. His efforts at school participation at the rocket club, the school play and at soccer club are epic fails. And he keeps getting summoned to the underworld of the Mole People–crowns etched in the dirt or with mud–where the Royal Advisor, Croogoolooth, both manipulates and disrespects Doug. Fortunately his Royal Guard, a trio of Mole People, support his efforts and continue with the last king's positive attitude about the Up-worlders.

From King of the Mole People by Paul Gilligan

But things above ground and below are getting more weird. Kids are disappearing into holes, at least temporarily, and Doug is welcomed into groups that had rejected him earlier. Below ground, the Mole People have been helping themselves to Up-stuff and clogging their world below with everything from bicycles to fencing, stage lights and water jugs. Keeping his two worlds separate becomes harder and harder, especially with classmate Magda spying on him and with the Underworld in danger of attack by Mega-worms. Worse still, Doug is compelled to help those who trusted him, even if he has to negotiate with the Slug People, the Mushroom Folk, and the Stone Goons to achieve cooperation.

From King of the Mole People by Paul Gilligan

With the right blend of humour, irreverence and weird fantasy, Paul Gilligan will get middle-graders rolling on the floor with belly laughs for his story and his illustrations. His characters are goofy, their circumstances bizarre and his plot lines both ludicrous and entertaining. It's impossible not to laugh at a dad who makes eel pudding or a society where O's in your name denote status or where a king's throne is a painfully pointy rock. Yet in all this absurdity there is an ordinary that most children will understand. Most children just want to fit in. So with a message of self-acceptance, whether it be for a human or a Mole Person, King of the Mole People speaks to many children who will understand when Doug is eventually pleased to return to his "regular level of unpopularity" and accept his differences as normal.

What We Buried

Written by Kate A. Boorman

Henry Holt and Company

978-1-250-19167-0

320 pp.

Ages 14-18

February 2019

You created your reality; live with it. (pg. 260)

But the realities that have been created for eighteen-year-old Jory Brewer and his sixteen-year-old sister Lavinia (Liv) are only minimally their own doing. Jory, born with Moebius syndrome, has several paralyzed craniofacial nerves which affect his appearance, his speech and his eating. He may choose to say very little and be more socially withdrawn but how others respond to him is not on him. He'd had one corrective surgery as a child and doctors had recommended further intervention but his parents didn't think it was a good investment. On the other hand, what they thought was a good investment was putting Liv on the child beauty pageant circuit, including a stint on Darling Divas, the reality TV show about pageants and their contestants. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of that career, Liv is now suing her parents for "irreparable and lasting harm." (pg. 11)

On the day of the trial, their parents disappear from the courthouse. Liv returns to the house, for the first time in months, ostensibly to help Jory but more to learn what has happened to their parents whom she believes Jory is helping. When she thinks she knows where they've gone, the two siblings head out to an old cabin their mother had inherited and which their father had always wanted to sell. But in a chilling road trip during which the two are haunted by fleeting visions, possible déjà vu, recurrent memories and danger, Liv and Jory transform from squabbling sibs to something unexpected.

And there it was–an uncanny sense of temporality. Like my reaction to what was happening–the focus of my attention–was a better measure of time than the minutes clicking over on the digital clock.  Everything was beginning to feel malleable and unfixed, like if I looked hard enough at the road illuminated by our headlights, I'd see beyond it, or behind it, or something. (pg. 103)

Kate A. Boorman has written a thriller that is equal parts plot and character in which both are significant and extraordinary. As the reader struggles to sort out the plot including what happened to the teens' parents, how the repeating news story on the radio is important, and what is real and either supernatural or illusion, Jory and Liv are exploring who they were, who they are and who they want to be.

Book jacket of What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman

The front cover of What We Buried may look like the story is about Liv and her perceptions but the back cover reveals that Jory's perspective is just as important. It's the way the two siblings see things about themselves, each other, their parents and the outside world and how it sees them that makes What We Buried intense and emotional.

You know the saying "Seeing is believing"? It's a problem, when you think about it. I mean, it's reasonable for people to want proof before they accept something they've been told. I do. I'm a fan of logic and demonstrable facts. But the idea inherent: that you can believe what you see? That's majorly flawed, because people usually have no idea what they're looking at. It's why people think my sister is a lovely, tragic victim. It's why they so often assume I can't tie my own shoes. (pg. 6)

The contrast of reality and illusion is a complex one in What We Buried and that's because Kate A. Boorman draws us in but doesn't join us for the journey. It's up to the reader to determine what might be real and what might be memory or what might be something else entirely. See if you can see beyond the masks of Liv's beauty and Jory's disorder and look deeper into their stories to find what may be buried, both literally and figuratively.

Wet

Written and illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Henry Holt and Company

978-1-62779-775-7

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

June 2017

Wet is about being wet, about getting wet, about the manner of getting wet and about the gratification or annoyance of being wet.  Wet may be all about wetness but it certainly isn't all wet as topics go.

From Wet by Carey Sookocheff

Through a series of single- and double-spread illustrations, author and illustrator Carey Sookocheff has a boy recollecting how he becomes wet at a pool and elsewhere: quickly or slowly, with friends or by himself, deliberately and accidentally. He also talks of cats, fish, and dogs, floors, painted park benches and more.  He makes note of washing hands and splashed shirts, puddles and spills, and tears, baths and laundry.  But he ends his day in the dryness of a safe, warm bed with only kisses to moisten his face.

From Wet by Carey Sookocheff

Carey Sookocheff, who has illustrated her own Solutions for Cold Feet and Other Little Problems (Tundra, 2016) as well as Maureen Fergus' Buddy and Earl series of picture books, creates a child-like ambiance to her illustrations that serves the text wonderfully. There's a simplicity in spirit, recounting how wetness happens and what it looks like.

Wet is a fun little book that doesn't have to be taken as lesson-building material but it could be used so effectively for preschool and kindergarteners learning about emotions and even states of matter or the water cycle.  Because Wet is so familiar in its circumstances relating to swimming, baths, rain, pets and bedtime, children will have no problem relating to this boy's activities as they change and affect his state of dryness.  Whether soaking wet or lightly dampened, it's not so bad being wet.  And Wet, the book, is neither a wet blanket nor a damp squib, and summer is definitely a time to relish being wet.

From Wet by Carey Sookocheff