The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Complete Maus consists of both Maus I and II, bound together in a hardcover volume. I wanted to read them both together, to get the full story, and I am very glad I did. Maus is the story of Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek, and how he survived the holocaust. In the graphic novel, Jews are drawn as mice, Germans are cats, Poles are pigs, French are frogs, and Americans are dogs. The drawings make the material more unrealistic and yet they also draw us in more to the fact that though it seems unreal, this really happened.
Vladek survived the holocaust mainly through luck, but also by taking advantage of the situations he finds himself in. His wife, Art's mother, also survives, but ends up committing suicide more than 20 years later. The novel is not just about the holocaust, but it also documents Art's efforts to get his father's story. He does not have a very good relationship with his cantakerous father, and the novel shows how he has a difficult time being fair to his story. It gives the work more depth, and makes it that much more real to the reader. So much has already been said about this book, but I had never gotten around to reading it. I am so glad I did, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has ever considered picking it up.
This book is my first read for the second quarter of the 2009 Martel-Harper Challenge. As I have described in previous posts, this challenge follows the list of books that Canadian author Yann Martel sends to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In his letter to Harper about this choice, Martel says that we sometimes need to be ripped apart in order to find our own stillness. The story of the holocaust certainly does that, and Maus is an incredible way of telling that story. I am also trying to read some of the books that another book blogger, Dewey, read throughout her book blogging years. This is for the Dewey's Books Challenge. She reviewed Maus back in January of 2006. And of course as a graphic novel it counts for the Graphic Novels Challenge - also the New Author Challenge, as I have never read Art Spiegelman before.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

Robot Dreams was so different from what I expected. It is a story told entirely in pictures, and as it has no words to read, it can be "read" in less than half an hour. At my library this book is shelved with the older children's materials - with the chapter books actually. This makes no sense, as not only is it not a chapter book, but it tells a different sort of story than most kid's books. The pictures are sort of childish, but I think if you're expecting a childish story, as I was, you will be surprised.
Robot Dreams is a story of friendship lost and found. Dog (obviously none of the characters have names, as their are no words) builds Robot from a kit, and they become best friends, doing everything together. Until they go to the beach, where Robot makes the mistake of getting wet. His entire body freezes up so that he cannot get back on the bus to go home with Dog. So Dog leaves, saddened and wondering how to help his friend. Unfortunately, he is unable to save Robot, and Robot gets left on the beach for months all by himself. Meanwhile, Dog tries to find a friend with which he can spend all of his time, like he did with Robot. Although the story has an uplifting and rather hopeful ending, I found Robot's fate to be rather tragic. This was a strange and enchanting little book, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a rather different sort of graphic novel.
I used this book for my first post over at the Graphic Novels Challenge blog. So far I don't really have any kind of list for this challenge - I definitely plan on reading Maus (which is sitting in my pile of books right now), and probably a Sandman book, but besides that, I have not decided. Don't worry though, I'll keep you posted!