Friday, August 17, 2007

SHREK





AUTHOR:
Mark Evanier
ILLUSTRATORS: Ramon Bachs and Raul Fernandez
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Books
GENRE: Action-Adventure, Humor

FORMAT: Trade paperback
ISSUE: 1-3
PAGES: 72 pages
COLOR: Full Color
ISBN-10: 1-56971-982-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-56971-982-4


STORY SYNOPSIS
This trade paper includes three stand-alone stories about Shrek and the gang. All the stories take place after the first movie. Lord Farquad is dead, but he is still around in ghost form. He is still obsessed with Princess Fiona and wants her dead so he can marry her and take over the spirit world. Besides Lord Farquad there are others who are plotting the demise of Shrek et al., which makes for interesting misadventures.


STORY REVIEW
The stories are straightforward and intended for a young audience. Characters, good and bad, from other fairy tales are still included and make up the whole of the book. From one adventure to another Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona are fighting to save themselves or others.

It is a good read for kids and will keep their attention, especially as they are already familiar with the characters. Donkey still makes his humorous and sometimes awkward comments making for funny reading.

Either the scribe or the typesetter made big booboo right off the bat when the ghost of Lord Farquad asks where Shrek and Flora have gone on their honeymoon. Kids will pick up on that instantly as they know that the princess’ name is Fiona not Flora. That is the only time it happens.

In a story about the construction of a dam, the writers use a play-on-words by contrasting the word “dam” with “damn”. It’s only used once and it is the only curse in the book. It is there and you should be aware.


ART REVIEW
The art is great and is reminiscent of the movies, without the look of cgi. The illustrations are bright and inviting. There is nice movement between panels and the story is clear.






AGE RECOMMENDATION
My Rating: All Ages
Publisher’s Recommended Age: Ages 8 and older
All Ages Reads: No Rating
Comics in the Classroom: No Rating

This comic is appropriate for all ages, but if it is to be read alone then I would suggest the child be around 8 years old.


IN THE CLASSROOM
The SHREK stories are full of references to classic fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters. These stories could be a good jumping off point to read some of those classic stories to very young children.

For older kids, the stories read pretty quickly, so students should be able to read a story in a short amount of time. So this book would be great between assignments. This is a book that is designed to foster the enjoyment of reading, as opposed to the studying of material and I would suggest keeping it that way and allowing students to have fun.


MY RECOMMENDATION:
Recommended
I like this book to help students discover that reading is for fun. It is important that children discover the beauty of reading for fun and not be stifled by always being forced to read for academic purposes.

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