I was given a copy of The Return of King Doug and burned through it so fast I almost wondered how.

I think the idea behind this book is incredibly funny and something that has never been done before. The idea of “The Chosen One” has been done so many times (Frodo, Buffy, Neo, etc.) that someone was bound to put a good twist on it, and they did.

Doug Peterson is a young boy who discovers the fantasy kingdom of Valdonia. It’s at the bottom of a well that sits in the backyard of his parent’s summer cabin. Being human, the creatures revere him as The Chosen one, their commander, who will lead them into battle against the wicked Queen who has taken over their lands. Together with the magic amulet, the Heart of Agnon, they will defeat her and crown Doug their King.

Sounds great, and even Doug is in, until he realizes that he is a little boy and this isn’t a game. It’s a real battle. There’s a chance he could get ripped apart.

So he goes back home.

25 years later Doug is a lazy good for nothing that can’t keep a job. He has since fathered a boy and we pick back up when it’s his weekend with his son. They end up at the cabin, his son goes off to play and well…I think you see what’s coming.

The Centaurs and the Tum Tums are in an even worse place. If it was bad before, now it’s REALLY bad and Doug must confront his fears and his bad habits to save his son and take back Valdonia from the evil Queen.

This may sound all epic but it’s very funny as well. I have been waiting for a fantasy/comedy that’s actually good and this one satisfied me. Aside from the story, the linework by Wook-Jin Clark is fluid and beautiful and he does a terrific job of really bringing Valdonia and it’s people to life.

It seems that I might be getting what I asked for. The other day I purchased a copy of Empire magazine which told me that Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride would be starring in a fantasy/comedy called Your Highness, and just today, when I googled “The Return of King Doug” all these images of Ben Stiller popped up. Apparently, he has signed on to produce and possibly star in….you guessed it…The Return of King Doug.

The Return of King Doug is written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland

It is illustrated by Wook-Jin Clark

It’s published by Oni Press

I have been a fan of Kazu Kibuishi for a while now, having purchased the first volume of his book Daisy Kutter at the Stumptown Comics Convention several years ago. His style pulled me in at first but while reading Daisy Kutter, the story and storytelling intrigued me. Before I knew it I had a new artist I had to follow. From there I went on to read my new favorite series, Amulet, which I am dying to read more of.

Since there isn’t a new Amulet yet, I looked around for more work by Kazu and a friend turned me on to Copper. It looked familiar. I thought maybe I had seen Copper in a previous volume of Flight but I couldn’t be sure.

This friend turned to the back of Copper and showed me that it included a tutorial on just how Kazu creates the Copper strips. He takes it from his thumbnails all the way to his finished pieces and the digital coloring section was of great interest to me.

For me, I suppose that’s how Kazu Kibuishi gets me. He dangles a lovely carrot in front of my face and before I know it I have gone on an incredible journey with his characters that seems to end all too quickly.

Copper, he tells us in the introduction, began as a sticker and t-shirt design and has since turned into something greater. The adventures that Copper and his dog/friend Fred go on are interesting and filled with meaning if you pay attention. Some of my favorites include the mushroom jumping and the spectacled, blue-haired girl who they just can’t seem to catch.

I’m gonna go ahead and say that Copper often gives me the same kind of feeling I would get when reading my Calvin and Hobbes collections. It’s filled with possibilities, imagination and things you can even learn about yourself.

I came across Kate Kae Myers web site a few days ago and read up a little on her. Having been raised in Boise I noticed that she was from there and decided to check out some of her writing.

In the book section of her blog, I came across a chapter from one of her novels entitled, The Third Freak. I liked the title, so I read the summary.

The idea sounds great. The basic plot seems to revolve around a young woman who while dealing with the death of her twin brother, receives what she believes to be an envelope from him with an coded return address and a newspaper clipping inside. Believing him to be alive she decides to track him down. This leads her back to Canada and the foster home the two of them shared when they were children. Apparently, this was a place she swore never to return to because of strange events that occurred there. Along the way, she seeks out Noah, the third in the friends group of self-dubbed “freaks,” a young man she cared for when she was little. She needs his help, but he is not the same person she remembers.

I decided to read the chapter that the author posted below her synopsis and I’m very glad I did.

The chapter seems to not be the first chapter in the book, although if it is, it would make for a great narrative hook, putting you right in the middle of the story and then demanding that some things be explained. I hesitate to explain or tell you what happens in this chapter because really, I would much rather you go to her site, click on the link and read it yourself.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you.

I got the same feeling reading this short chapter, that I had when reading Dean Koontz’s Intensity. There is an urgency that comes through with the main character, a desperation and determination that is wonderful to have when reading a novel. It kept me going and had me more than interested in what would happen to Jocelyn.

I can’t wait to read the whole book. Also, there is a fun book trailer on the site as well.

Check it out.

At the signing she read from the chapter that talked about being a ghost and what they are capable of doing. After that she transitioned to the Q and A, the heart of any good book reading. The questions asked were good and Niffenegger answered them in ways gave us, the readers, a little insight in to what she was trying to accomplish with HFS. It’s a shame that books can’t include a bonus DVD that features a Making Of documentary that chronicles the writer as he/she writes the book. I think that would be awesome.

I should really get around to posting my thoughts on Her Fearful Symmetry shouldn’t I?

I became interested in this because I read a blurb that talked about how in the first portion of the book, when the cricket appears to Pinocchio and tells him to be good, he smashes it with a hammer.

Now, it’s not that I have a morbid thing going, I am merely interested in fairy tales and their original versions so when I heard this was coming out I was more than excited.

The original tale is quite interesting and VERY different than the version most are familiar with, the Disney film. While I enjoy the Disney movie I was really taken by the things in the original version that I never knew. Like, the Blue Fairy being a little girl with sky blue hair, or Pinocchio speaking while he was being carved.

Also, some central characters are different. Like I said, The cricket, who has no name, is a ghost after the hammer incident, The infamous whale is a shark and there is even a gorilla judge.

As for plot, well, a lot of the familiar things are there but it is apparent that this was a tale written as many fairy tales are, as a cautionary tale to children. Pinocchio finds himself in many a situation. He never learns, until the end of course.

The book clocks in at 160 pages. It’s like a full fledged novel. This version also comes with a great informative introduction by Umberto Eco and an incredible afterward by Rebecca West regarding Pinocchio and the way the story has affected our culture. The new English translation is by Geoffrey Brock. Eco in his forward, sings his praises regarding his translation.

I recommend this to everyone. It’s a super fun read and you’ll feel like you know more about the story than anyone else.

Also, afterward, I drew this.

I discovered Gone one day when I was surfing the web and looking for books that were similar to The Girl Who Owned a City. I stumbled across a web site that pointed me to this book and I instantly went out and bought it.

You know aside from the fact that this book is about a world populated by kids and that sides are drawn and chosen, that’s really all that you can compare to The Girl Who Owned a City.

Imagine being 14 and sitting in class, you’re bored, nothing new and suddenly your teacher vanishes, right before your eyes. And not just your teacher, but several students as well. No one really knows what is happening so eventually you wander into the hallway. Other students are peeking out of the rooms, confused by the fact that their teachers and apparently, anyone over 15 is gone too.

That’s how Gone begins. It’s another difference. Other books where the world is populated by kids begin by putting you in the situation already. I appreciated how Gone began with you seeing what happens and how characters react to experiencing the adults disappear.

This event causes mass chaos. You can imagine, if an adult was lighting up a cigarette or something and they disappeared, something could catch on fire, and something does. Sam Temple, a young man who saved a bus full of children a few years back when the driver had a heart attack, begins to investigate and in the process attempts to save a little girl from a burning building. During the fight, the little girl suddenly shoots flames from her arms and in turn Sam reacts with a power of his own somewhat involuntarily. Green light shoots out of his hands and in the confusion, the little girl dies in the process.

Sam is probably the main character of the book, or one of the main characters. He, together with his friends Quinn and Edilio start trying to figure out what is going on in their little town of Perdido Beach, California. (Perdido means Lost for all you non-Spanish speakers out there.) Soon, a “nerd” girl named Astrid begins to help them despite the fact that she is more concerned with caring for her autistic little brother who everyone calls Little Pete. The three boys decide to help her find him considering he was most likely with her father at the towns nuclear power plant when the incident occured.

When they return to town they discover that some kids have begun calling Perdido Beach: The FAYZ. Fallout Alley Youth Zone. Some have discovered just how far out their problem goes and others are forming gangs and stealing. A select few have decided to set up a daycare for the babies and toddlers.

Enter Caine Sorren and a select group of students from the expensive private academy on the hill and things begin to get rough. Caine is manipulative and charming and has a plan of his own.

The book overall is exciting and fun and a terrific read. At 558 pages, it really only feels like 200. I read it so fast. Not to mention, when I was done, I went out and bought the sequel right away. Each chapter begins with a clock counting down, and it’s effective. It kept pushing me, wondering what exactly it was counting down to, although I must admit, halfway through the book I guessed but I don’t think that’s the point. When you guess you want to know even more.

The book includes s o many great things. It’s been described as Stephen King re-writing Lord of the Flies with a little X-Men dashed in. It’s pretty accurate. In the FAYZ, animals begin mutating. Kids begin to get powers and as X-Men shows us, when some people have visible powers and others don’t, well…things never go very well.

I recommend this to everyone who like YA fiction, superhero stories and stories about societies rules  breaking down due to catastrophic events.

Gone is written by Michael Grant.

9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo

Speaking of things that are hard to find, Karen over at the blog Munrovian won the Murder By The Book contest. However, she has completely neglected her duties of responding to the e-mail I sent her asking where I can send the present. Shame on you Karen! No, but seriously. E-mail me? :-)

Hi. The Book Parrot here with my second review.

I recently re-read this and I’m not gonna lie. The Girl Who Owned a City is one of my favorite books of all time. I love young adult literature and I especially love stories about carving society down to just a select group of people and seeing what happens. It’s what makes Lord of the Flies one of the books I used to read every year.

And The Girl Who Owned a City has been described as Lord of the Flies for girls, but it’s so much more than that. And not just for girls either.

The basic plot: A deadly virus has swept the world, killing everyone over the age of 12. -Hey, it was written in the seventies. That was so in.- The only person who really seems to have it together is Lisa, a twelve year old girl who is surviving by using her brain. She can’t afford not to considering she has a younger brother, Todd to look out for. She begins to do things that twelve year olds either don’t do today, or used to know how to do a long time ago.

With no electricity, she learns how to grill, and make a fire. She goes out to a farm and finds a surviving chicken, learns to care for it and harvests the eggs. She begins searching for where grocery stores get their food and teaches herself how to drive.

All of this would be fine if it weren’t for street gangs of kids who have gathered together to steal food and beat other kids up. When Todd, Lisa’s little brother gets beaten for the food that they have found, Lisa takes matters into her own hands. She decides to rally the kids together on her street, Grand Avenue and convinces them that they need to band together to protect themselves. What follows is a master plan of training attack dogs, learning to fire guns, and creating booby traps for trespassers.

The Chidester gang isn’t having any of it though, and through a series of events force the citizens of Grand to leave their homes. I won’t ruin that plot piece for you. It’s good. But this forces Lisa to come up with an even better plan, a plan to create a fortress city, one that would be nearly impenetrable and one that she and the other citizens would defend with their lives.

There are so many memorable characters in this book. Craig, a young boy who becomes interested in farming and gardening as a way to live. Lisa may or may not have a crush on him. Jill Jansen is another memorable little girl, one who is taking stray kids into her home as a sort of foster mother.

The events that occur in the book are well paced and really make you consider what part you would have played had you been a child forced into this world. Any good story where civilization is dwindling does that in my opinion.

What’s more interesting to me about the book is the way the author makes you consider that most of society’s rules have been thrown out. What does it matter that Lisa is a girl? She can do anything anyone else can, in fact she is the leader of this new world and as the title tells us, the owner of a new city.

Upon google mapping the area the children lived in, it was drawn to my attention that the gang that fights them only lived one street over. This added so much to the story for me, realizing that it was basically the tale of this little section of this little suburb. Towards the end of the book there is mention of a king from a nearby city which made me wish desperately for a sequel. It just goes to show the audience the scope that is possible in the world created by O.T. Nelson.

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson

I post that cover because it is the cover of the copy that I own. Also, it inspired me so much that I did a painting of the main character.