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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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33607003240861 | Adult Nonfiction | 741.5 WYLD | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
From the award-winning author of All the Birds, Singing, here is a deeply moving graphic memoir about family, love, loss, and the irresistible forces that, like sharks, course through life unseen, ready to emerge at any moment.
When she was a little girl, passing her summers in the heat of coastal Australia, Evie Wyld was captivated by sharks--by their innate ruthlessness, stealth, and immeasurable power--and they have never released their hold on her imagination.
Black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Author Notes
Evie Wyld won the 2014 Barnes and Noble Discover Award for her title All the Birds, Singing. This is a Great New Writers Award in the category of fiction. Wyld will receive US$10,000 and a year's worth of marketing and merchandising support for her book from B&N. The awards are part of B&N's Discover.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Wyld's graphic memoir reflects on her youthful fascination with and horror of sharks and reveals glimpses of her adult life. Much of the work takes place at her family's summer home in rural, coastal Australia. Here young Evie senses sharks everywhere-in the river and ocean but also swimming next to the truck or through the crops. She finds a book called Shark Attack and idolizes Rodney Fox, a survivor whose wounds are graphically depicted. Back in Peckham, England, Evie fears sharks in her bath and while on the sofa or in her bed. Her brother starts coming home with signs of being beaten, and he takes comfort in the stories, real and imagined, that Evie tells him of shark attacks. She watches Jaws with her father as he drinks glass after glass of wine. Back in Australia, the young woman has some shark-themed excursions with her family and experiences more shark worries, including imagining her brother and mother being killed by one. Throughout, these animals are a source of dread as well as stand-ins for other anxieties. While the other members of her family display a broad range of emotions, Evie almost always looks concerned, fretful, trepidatious in the illustrations. The beak-nosed people and sparse landscapes are in stark black-and-white, with color appearing only rarely, notably in the various sea creatures depicted. VERDICT Evie's youth as well as the lure of sharks may help this title appeal to teens, though the overarching tension and the final scenes of her father's death may speak to a more mature or adult audience. For any collection where graphic memoirs are popular.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Novelist Wyld (After the Fire) switches to the graphic novel format to explore the sadness of childhood in this brief, lovely memoir. Having spent her summers in coastal Australia, Wyld's infant imagination is consumed by what lurks beneath the waves. She researches shark attacks obsessively, imagines her loved ones falling prey to a Great White's jaws, and relates tales of teeth and gore to her lonely older brother. Though the book is short, the brevity concentrates the emotion of every page and panel: a simple image of a shark following Wyld down a suburban street takes on grave significance. Artist Sumner's use of photorealistic sharks in contrast with his simple line drawings is particularly powerful, though the line drawings themselves could use a little refinement. Regardless, this is a poignant, understated look into the anxiety of childhood, singular and memorable. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
The centerpiece of this autobiographical graphic novel from award winner Wyld (All the Birds, Singing) is the author's obsession as a young child with sharks. Her fascination with these creatures begins during family vacations in Australia, where she starts to imagine them coming to get her in the bath, in the swimming pool, and rising from the carpet, leaving her safe only on the couch. She also projects these horrors onto her family, visualizing sharks devouring her brother and mother while they are swimming in the ocean. The fish embody her anxieties not only of loss but also of the unknown. To Wyld, growing up is likened to a shark, stealthy and fearsome. Using a mostly black-and-white palette, with a few colors that stand out impeccably, illustrator Sumner evokes the innocence of youth with his cartoonish style alongside the stark contrast of a child's dreaded fixation appearing more realistic. Verdict This beautifully written story will interest anyone whose fears as a child-whether sharks or other scary monsters-seemed all consuming.-Lucy Roehrig, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.