Hereville Wins The 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award!

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is given once a year by the Association of Jewish Libraries for the best Jewish kid’s book. It’s given in three categories: younger readers, older readers, and teen readers.

The AJL blog has just announced the winners, and Hereville is this year’s winner in the “books for older readers” category!

This is the first time a graphic novel has ever won a Sydney Taylor, incidentally. I’m sitting here grinning from ear to ear.

My deepest thanks to the AJL committee — I am honored and thrilled. And moziltov to my fellow winners, Howard Schwartz and Kristina Swarner for their book Gathering Sparks (younger readers), and Dana Reinhardt for her book The Things a Brother Knows (teen readers).

From the AJL blog:

Deutsch will receive the 2011 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Older Readers Category for Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books. This is the first graphic novel to win the Award. Committee member Aimee Lurie noted, “Mirka is a clever, headstrong and imaginative heroine who will appeal to a wide audience. Teens who feel like they don’t fit in will have no trouble relating to her balancing what is best for her family versus her desire to fight dragons. Grounded in her religious beliefs, she is willing to put her fantasies aside to celebrate Shabbat. The illustrations strike the perfect balance of showing a realistic Orthodox community, while creating the perfect backdrop for a fairytale.” […]

A blog tour, featuring interviews with winning authors and illustrators, will take place in early February, with participation from a wide range of children’s literature, family interest, and Jewish blogs.

What a way to start a Monday morning!

A Bunch Of Fifty Dollar Sketches

I have an ongoing offer to do a $50 dollar sketch for people who buy a copy of Hereville from me. It’s fun for me to do, and I think people enjoy having a one-of-a-kind drawing done just for them.

With only a couple of exceptions, these were drawn entirely on computer, and then printed out with a high-quality art printer. (This is the same way I draw Hereville; I hardly ever draw directly on paper nowadays!). Some of these were requests (“draw Mirka in Tom Baker Doctor Who’s scarf,” for example, or “draw Mirka playing hockey”), others were just me drawing whatever I felt like (which turned out at least twice to be Mirka in a tree).

Click on any of the drawings to see them bigger.

Please Don’t Read This Book! on Hereville: “the more I look at the illustrations, the more they impress me”

The terrifically-named “Please Don’t Read This Book!” blog has a review of Hereville! (I’m a bit late in posting about this, because… well, to tell you the truth, I’m just like that.)

The format is very neat — it’s sort of a dialog between two bloggers. Here’s a bit that I was particularly fond of:

I have a confession to make. Even if I’d never read and enjoyed a single graphic novel, I would’ve suggested that we consider HEREVILLE. Why? Because of its tagline: “Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl.” Who could resist that? Even my seventy-five-year-old businessman of a father–who is *never* tempted by children’s literature–picked HEREVILLE up off my coffee table when he saw that tagline. And started reading. And didn’t stop until he’d finished–at which point he proclaimed it marvelous! I so enjoyed that moment.

Awesome! 🙂 Please click through to read the rest of their review (which did include some criticism, by the way — in particular, they found the ending rather abrupt).

Books 4 Your Kids reviews Hereville!

Thanks to Tanya of Books4yourkids.com for this terrific article about Hereville. I’m very glad to be recommended by Books4yourkids, and had a really fun interview with Tanya when she was prepping to write the article.

Blam’s Blog: “a fun, touching yarn no matter your age, gender, or heritage”

Thanks to Blam’s Blog for this nice review of Hereville. It’s a nice review that reproduces plenty of art, but I have to admit my favorite thing about this is the title of the blog post: Braids Of Glory. That may be my favorite title of any Hereville review so far!

Graphic Novel Reporter’s 2010 Favorites List!

Another “best of” list — Graphic Novel Reporter’s. I’m especially thrilled to see Hereville on this list, because it’s not a specialty list — it’s not for kid’s graphic novels, or Jewish graphic novels, but simply a list of their favorite graphic novels. And the other cartoonists on the list are simply awesome!

Here’s the list’s description of Hereville:

In a word: brilliant. Barry Deutsch’s webcomic about a young girl in an Orthodox Jewish community gets wider exposure in this collection. Hopefully, as broad an audience as possible will find its way to this utterly clever book, which follows Mirka as she faces a witch, a mean pig, and a troll in an effort to win a sword…and begin her life’s mission of slaying dragons. The explanations of Jewish culture and language that run throughout the book are always helpful and never intrusive. This is another book for kids that adults will love too.

Thank you so much, Graphic Novel Reporter!

Barry Intereviewed on Comic Geek Speak!

Comic Geek Speak, a terrific comics-yak podcast, has posted their newest episode, which includes a lengthy interview with me!

The interview with me begins at about 40 minutes into the podcast. This was a fun interview for me — just a bunch of comic book geeks getting together to discuss, well, me. Topics include fairy tale logic, my word balloons, Pogo, Eleanor Davis’ Secret Science Alliance, getting started as a cartoonist, the thousand pages, Dave Sim’s influence on Hereville, and lots of other stuff.

21 Drawings of a Young Zero Mostel

Hereville is on the Good Comics For Kids “best of 2010” list!

And it’s in some great company, too! Thanks, Good Comics For Kids!

The fantasy aspects of Hereville may be familiar, but Barry Deutsch’s deft treatment of the heroine’s religious heritage is not; he makes her upbringing in an Orthodox Jewish community fundamental to the story without sliding into caricature or didacticism. Crisp, evocative artwork and a memorable cast of supporting characters — including Fruma, Mirka’s wise if conventional stepmother — make Hereville a terrific read for teens and adults.

Thanks as well to Katherine Dacey, who wrote the Hereville review.

The Association of Jewish Libraries reviews Hereville: “spirited, witty, and above all else, fun”

A new review, from the Association of Jewish Libraries:

Eleven-year-old Mirka has more on her mind than learning the “womanly arts” that her stepmother, Fruma, insists she acquire; she would like to slay a dragon. To fight a dragon, you need a sword and Mirka’s quest for a sword is the focus of this standout graphic novel. The bizarre adventure begins when Mirka stumbles upon a magical house in the woods in her Orthodox town, Hereville, where she sees a woman float through the air.

Eager to show it to her siblings, she convinces them to return to the house on their way home from school. While there, they discover grapes “as big as baseballs” growing in the yard of the house. Even though her sister, Gittel, or as Mirka calls her, “Little Miss Frum,” urges her not to try a grape because it would be stealing, Mirka can’t resist taking one. This innocent swipe sets off a kooky series of events that include a revenge-seeking pig and a knit-off with a troll.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword is spirited, witty, and above all else, fun. Mirka is a clever, headstrong, and imaginative heroine who will appeal to a wide audience. Teens who feel like they don’t fit in will have no trouble relating to her attempts to balance what is best for her family with her desire to fight dragons.

Grounded in her religious beliefs, she is willing to put her fantasies aside to celebrate Shabbos. Although she desperately would like to ask Fruma how to kill a troll, she waits until the end of Shabbos because “troll-killing was not a Shabbos thing. Once the candles were lit, she would no more have asked about it than she would have deliberately sneezed on the khale.” The illustrations in the proof used for this review were in black and white (the published version will be in color) and they strike the perfect balance of showing a realistic Orthodox community, while creating the backdrop for a fairytale. Highly recommended for all libraries.

–Aimee Lurie

Awesome! Thank you very much, Ms. Lurie.

The AJL was also nice enough to publish an interview with me on their blog last month.