Cardboard is a graphic novel about a father and son struggling to make ends meet, move past the loss of a wife and mother, and deal with two hellions in the neighborhood who constantly give Cam (the son) a hard time. On Cam’s birthday, all his father wants to do is get him the birthday present he deserves. Instead, he gets an empty cardboard box, purchased for seventy-nine-cents from the street vendor who magically appears out of nowhere, just when his father has given up hope. The street vendor-a “wizardy-” carnival-like character- has only two rules the father must follow. Of course, neither rule is followed…and in this case, the rules were not meant to be broken. This is the first graphic novel I’ve read for pleasure. After stumbling onto the genre on Good Reads, I realize I’m missing out on a huge category of amazing books. I originally wanted to read TenNapel’s Ghostopolis, but settled for Cardboard because it was all the library had of his work. After reading this, graphic novels have kind of become my new thing…I can’t get enough pf them! The illustrations in this one are amazing, and I love the fact that many images are not captioned. This creates a whole new sort of experience for readers used to traditional novels. Rather than creating images through the language, I get to create the language through the image. Compared to Lola, the second graphic novel that I read right after this (trying to take advantage of the library as best I can before moving home!), I can say that this novel was the superior of the two…but with only a few under my belt, I don’t know if others would agree-although the Good Reads rating was high. This novel definitely seemed like something middle school students would appreciate. If anyone remembers how awesome Saturday morning cartoons and Dexter-esque Cartoon Network were, they will enjoy it. There is a lot of action-monster, evil villains, nightmares come to life. At some points I was laughing out loud, at others I was just ticked off by the rotten kids, and at time I was even a little touched by the heartfelt moments. In all, I can’t wait to read more of his work!
This is the first graphic novel I’ve read for pleasure. After stumbling onto the genre on Good Reads, I realize I’m missing out on a huge category of amazing books. I originally wanted to read TenNapel’s Ghostopolis, but settled for Cardboard because it was all the library had of his work. After reading this, graphic novels have kind of become my new thing…I can’t get enough pf them! The illustrations in this one are amazing, and I love the fact that many images are not captioned. This creates a whole new sort of experience for readers used to traditional novels. Rather than creating images through the language, I get to create the language through the image. Compared to Lola, the second graphic novel that I read right after this (trying to take advantage of the library as best I can before moving home!), I can say that this novel was the superior of the two…but with only a few under my belt, I don’t know if others would agree-although the Good Reads rating was high.
This novel definitely seemed like something middle school students would appreciate. If anyone remembers how awesome Saturday morning cartoons and Dexter-esque Cartoon Network were, they will enjoy it. There is a lot of action-monster, evil villains, nightmares come to life. At some points I was laughing out loud, at others I was just ticked off by the rotten kids, and at time I was even a little touched by the heartfelt moments. In all, I can’t wait to read more of his work!