I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: CHRISTINE LAVIN AND THE MISTLETONES-A Christmas / Kwanzaa / Solstice / Chanukah / Ramadan / Boxing Day Song” (2006).

I’ve always liked Christine Lavin, but she has fallen off my radar in recent years.  I’m delighted that she’s still making cool (and funny) folk music. We quickly added this to our holiday playlist.

It’s an a Capella track done in a round.  It opens with Christine wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and a happy new year (to an original melody). And then a male voice wishes you a happy Kwannza, a hip hop happy Kwanzaa (if you celebrate Kwanzaa).  A third voice sings the same melody wishing happiness to all who celebrate Solstice.  A second male voice now wishes you a happy Chanukah.

Then, in perfect harmony, third female and then male voices throw in Ramadan and, amusingly, Boxing Day.  It’s a light-hearted take on multiculturalism, all wrapped up in a pretty melody.

[READ: January 1, 2013] Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures

I recalled the Alison Dare comics from when I used to be an Oni Press fanboy (I still love Oni Press but I can’t keep track of comics anymore).  Anyhow, Alison Dare is an all ages comic, so I brought a copy home for Clark from the library.  But he didn’t like it.  I wondered if it was because the main character was a girl, but i think it’s because the comic is black and white–he really only likes color comics.  Huh.  I also found that it may have been a little confusing for him–the writing was style was really engaging but not exactly straightforward.  Maybe in a year or so he’d enjoy it.

But I enjoyed it.

This book collects the first three Alison Dare stories:

Alison Dare and the Arabian Knights
In the first story (which starts in the middle of an adventure–we get no introduction to Alison, her family or her life), Alison and her adventurer family is in the desert.  Alison finds a lamp and a genie comes out.  The genie grants her three wishes.  The first is to bring her friends there since she’s bored (they don’t like the idea when they first get there, but are soon won over).  The second wish is for summer to last for 1,000 nights–which the genius interprets as 1,00o Knights, who all appear to do Alison’s bidding.  Which seems great until things get our of hand.  How will she get out of this mess?  It’s a very funny story.

Alison Dare & The Secret of the Blue Scarab
This one provides the backstory for Alison.  We learn that The Blue Scarab is dead.  Alison relates the story of how her parents met (her dad is a librarian!) on an exploring adventure.  When Alsion’s mother (an apprentice archaeologist  is forced (by evil Nazis) to enter the temple of the Blue Scarab–a cursed temple, Alison’s dad volunteers to go in instead–to save her even though they’ve just met.  And he turns into the Blue Scarab.  I loved that the story was told in little mini comics (Daring Adventures and Daring Romance).  But what of reports of her father’s death?  I enjoyed this story quit a lot

Alison Dare and the Mummy Child
The one thing I’m confused about s that it seems like Alison’s parents are separated (as I’ve said there’s not a ton of familial detail in these stories).  But whether or not they are, in this story Alison tries to bring them together as a family. But there are Nazis after her mother’s prized possession -a mummy baby.  We learn that the first time the Nazis stole a mummy baby she was pregnant with Alison, and now, all these years later, as she opens her museum with the original mummy’s twin, the Nazi is back.  Can the Blue Scarab help?  And does Alison’s mother love the baby mummy more than her own baby?

These were three fun books, I think any young girl who lies adventure would find these really enjoyable.  To my knowledge there is one other volume out. And let me give a great shoutout to J. Bone for the excellent drawings–a wonderful old school style (practically anti-anime), that brings a cool cartoonishness but not a childishness to the pictures.