Tales from the farm /

Ten-year-old Lester, orphaned by his mother's cancer, lives with his bachelor uncle Ken on a southwestern Ontario farm. He wears a superhero's mask and cape all day, and he imagines that he has been entrusted with the task of staving off invading space aliens. Ken is making allowances for the boy, but he's clearly uncomfortable with Lester's preference for solitary play and comic books. It's Jimmy, who runs the nearby gas station-convenience store, who reaches out to Lester, participates in his alien-invasion fantasy, and brings him back to the world. Lemire enriches this rather familiar scenario with telling, particularizing detail, ensuring that this time the old heartwarming routine is unforgettably special. Books like this are the reason alternative-comics publishers such as Top Shelf exist. Lemire uses an utterly personal, idiosyncratic drawing style, rough but completely clear, that even just-off-mainstream publishers, such as Dark Horse, would insist on gussying up for publication (in fact, though, Lemire's art resembles the jagged, blocky look of Mike Mignola's--and Dark Horse's-- Hellboy). The simple story's slice-of-life lyricism, sparked by magic realism, is too art-house-movie-ish for the mainstream. But it works. --Ray Olson Copyright 2007 Booklist

Gr 10 Up-After losing his mother to cancer, 10-year-old Lester moves in with his Uncle Ken, a gruff and solitary bachelor who owns a small farm in rural Ontario. Ken tries his best to reach out to his nephew but can't relate to this boy who wears a superhero cape and prefers reading comics to watching hockey on television. Lester spends most of his time by himself until he makes a friend with the least likely of characters: Jimmy, a disgraced pro hockey player who now runs the convenience store at the local gas station. Jimmy enters Lester's imaginary world by helping him build a fort to stave off an alien invasion and encouraging him to write and draw his own comic book. The bond that grows between the two helps both Lester and Jimmy move beyond the tragedies life gave them. Lemire's writing nails that complicated mixture of anger and sadness that comes with losing a loved one. His black-and-white illustrations work equally well, using rough and chunky lines to powerfully re-create the solitary nature of farm life and Lester's vivid imagination. Teens will love the humor in Lester's odd imagination and will be touched by the heart of a book that delivers a compelling look at tragedy and how to move on after it strikes.-Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.