Hereville reviewed by Alyssa Rosenberg

Hereville was reviewed on Alyssa Rosenberg’s blog, a blog I’ve been reading for fun since way before Hereville came out! That’s always extra-neat to read.

Two things I thought were neat about Alyssa’s review:

1) The Sondheim reference (I’m a huge Sondheim fanboy).

2) That she didn’t even mention that it’s in comics! The review is all about the story.

Interviewed by Laurel Snyder!

The children’s book writer and general source of awesomeness Laurel Snyder interviewed me on her blog. Here’s a sample of the interview:

Laurel: Do you think books can change the world?

Barry: Definitely, but only the way a conversation can change the world, or a speech, or a TV show. Everything we do changes the world somehow, but usually the changes are very tiny. So to make a big change you need thousands of people (and thousands of books), all pushing to change the world in some direction. A good example is, are there going to be some engaging and interesting Jewish girl characters in kids books? If just one or two books do that, the answer is “no,” but if a whole bunch of us do it, the answer becomes “yes,” and that will make a small but consequential difference in the lives of a lot of Jewish girl readers who want to see themselves reflected in books.

Please go check it out.

Sketches of Fat Guys for Fat People Art Week

It’s Fat People Art Week! A few contributions….

I’m trying to learn how to paint in Photoshop, and I was playing with some more painterly approaches in the drawing below (although I still didn’t give up the crutch of line art!). Still a long way to go…

And here’s the exact same drawing, except I took the colors and just smudged the heck out of them:

Another fat guy drawing, this one finished in my more typical style:

And a third, this time playing around with cross-hatching:

Unshelved features Hereville

Unshelved — which is a huge webcomic for librarians — is featuring Hereville today. They do a visual review sort of thing, rather than the usual prose review, so it’s really neat. Thanks, Unshelved!

Hereville in the Huffington Post!

There’s an article about Hereville in the Huffington Post!

This is the article Bob Smietana of the Religion News Service wrote. Very cool!

Here’s a bit from the article:

Ten-year-old Shira Acklin from the Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Nashville, agrees. She’s a fan of the Harry Potter books, and is also a big fan of Mirka.

“I like that the girl is the star — her brother is there but he’s not the star. She is,” Acklin said.

Adventure stories like Mirka’s are rare among Jewish kids’ books, said Heidi Estrin, library director at Congregation B’nai Israel, in Boca Raton, Fla.

Many Jewish books for kids focus on serious topics, like anti-Semitism, or teaching religious topics. If the books include humor, said Estrin, it’s often aimed at parents, not kids.

Not so with Hereville.

“It’s lighthearted in a way that kids can relate to,” said Estrin, who runs The Book of Life, a podcast about Jewish books. “The plot had nothing to do with prejudice — it’s about a girl who wants to fight dragons.”

Read the rest at Huffpo. Thanks, Bob!

(Oh, and if you’re interested in buying a copy of Hereville, the info is here.)

P.S. Check out the comments for a mini-debate between about if an atheist should be writing a religious protagonist.

The Portland Opera’s Turandot

The Portland Opera likes to bring in local cartoonists to see their dress rehearsals; in return, the cartoonists draw the opera they’ve seen. I participated back in November, drawing Hansel and Gretel. And this Monday, I saw Turandot. Here are my Turandot drawings (click on the drawings to see them bigger):

Here, we see our hero, whose name is something of a mystery. He spent a lot of the opera hugging himself in his big leather trenchcoat.

Here, the hero struggles to ring a gong, while three colorfully-dressed city bureaucrats try to talk him out of it.

Thanks to Portland Opera for the chance to do this (and for the free food!).

Mike Russell has a complete summary of Turandot’s plot in cartoon form! (My favorite line: “Don’t get up or anything!”). And Matt Grigsby has several drawings from the production. This is just the start of the Turandot drawings — there were a bunch of us there. If you’re interested in seeing more, watch the #pdxoperacomics tag on twitter.

UPDATE: And here’s a third drawing:

“Comics Worth Reading” reviews Hereville

At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Hereville, and also declares it one of the best comics of 2010. Woo!

The characters are simple, dot eyes and line noses, but always in motion, always expressing something with their arms and faces. Deutsch’s work is a little stiff when it comes to the most active sequences — when one person chases another early on, they look like they’re speed-walking instead of running after each other — but the real meat of the story is in moments, often conversational.

The story-telling is simple and straightforward, so as not to get in the way of the reader taking in the details of Mirka’s life and dreams. (Although at various important moments, the panel grid changes to highlight the mood or emphasize particular visuals.) The challenge comes in the language, with Yiddish words used frequently and translated at the bottom of the page. It adds to the fable-like feeling, with words unfamiliar to many readers providing an exotic overlay.

I’m still a bit uncomfortable with aspects of Mirka’s life — the way the kids are separated boys and girls at school, the importance of the family reputation so the girls’ parents can find them a good husband — but in personality, she’s full of imagination and she’s fearless. She stands up to bullies, even if she has to hide her actions from those who think it’s not suitable for a girl to do. I hope those qualities aren’t drummed out of her as she grows older. That we see women with strong minds who value intelligence (of all kinds) gives hope.

Read the whole review here. Thanks, Johanna!

Not Just for Kids reviews “Hereville”: “This book has it all!”

Not Just For Kids reviews Hereville:

Everything I knew previously about Orthodox Judaism I learned from Chaim Potok, so I felt reasonably well-armed to absorb any cultural differences which I might encounter in the reading. But truthfully, no previous knowledge is necessary to enjoy the book, and not just because Mirka is a feisty, headstrong girl, and feisty, headstrong girls are a staple of childrens’ literature whatever the culture. Let us not underestimate the importance of Mirka’s heritage–this story works so well because she is an Orthodox Jewish girl. But while this book provides a window on Orthodox Jewish life, that’s not what it is about. Nor, despite some angsty moments, is it about a tween trying to break free from a life that everyone but an Orthodox Jew would find unusual. You could call it an adventure book because there is lots of adventure–fast-paced, hair-raising, breath-taking adventure–contained in these pages. Then again, it is also a family drama, as readers meet Mirka and her rather large blended family. Witches, trolls, and dragons are discussed with a completely straight face, so in some ways the book is a fantasy. And last, but not least, it is FUNNY!

Thanks, Kara!

Visit Not Just For Kids to read the rest.

The 2011 Battle of the Kids Books

School Library Journal’s 2011 Battle of the Kids Books is on, and Hereville is one of just 16 contenders!

I have no expectation of winning, but I’m pretty thrilled to be in this company…

Read “Modest Medusa”

Jake Richmond, the cartoonist who (among a zillion other things) colors “Hereville,” has started a new webcomic, called “Modest Medusa,” which is genuinely funny, charming and nice to look at. The first strip is here, but I’ll post a sample:

Go check it out!