Home » Posts tagged "storytelling" (Page 4)

Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey, Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santolouco, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, and Francesco Francavilla


Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose; illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey, Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santoloucuo, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, and Francesco Francavilla

Dark Horse Comics, 2018

ISBN-13: 9781506706696

Available: Hardcover, Kindle, comiXology

Hungry Ghosts, by the late Anthony Bourdain with Joel Rose, brings us the stories of a group of international chefs who are challenged to play 100 Candles by a Russian crime lord. The game is based on the Japanese Edo period game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai where samurai were challenged to tell ghost stories, each more terrifying than the last. After each tale, the storyteller then blew out a candle, making the atmosphere darker with each story. They also had to gaze into a mirror to ensure their fellow storytellers did not become possessed by the entities they could summon while telling their stories. The chefs participating in this game each tell a different cautionary tale all with the same theme: food.

I loved all of the stories in this graphic novel, but a few stood out over the others. In “The Starving Skeleton,” a cautionary tale about ignoring those in need, a homeless man enters a small restaurant in search of a meal. The chef turns him away, refusing to serve him, but soon discovers what happens when the spirits of those who starved to death are refused alms. In “The Pirates”, a voluptuous red-haired woman is rescued from drowning at sea by a ship of lusty pirates. What ensues is a feast of a different kind.

An apprentice chef who finds himself alone after his master dies unexpectedly is taken in by a group of chefs who each have a sad story to tell in “The Heads”. The masterless apprentice decides to stay with them, but discovers a disturbing scene in the middle of the night when he sees the bodies of his new friends in the kitchen missing their heads. It’s a far more disturbing sight when he sees what has happened to their heads.

A father and son are trapped in a blizzard in “The Snow Woman”. They find shelter, but in the middle of the night the son wakes up to find a mysterious woman over his father. She spares the son’s life, but tells him he must never tell anyone of what happened that night. Later, he finds the woman of his dreams. They wed, and have children. His fortune changes when he tells his wife the story of what happened that night in the snowstorm. The artwork for this story is particularly beautiful.

Included in the book are an afterword by Joel Rose, recipes, descriptions and artwork of the ghosts, demons, and entities in the stories, a cover gallery, and author biographies.

Rose and Bourdain, as well as the illustrators, did not pull any punches with content in some of these stories. They deal with disturbing content and imagery. If you are not a fan of body horror, gore, and/or disturbing themes, you should probably avoid this book. However, if you appreciate these horror elements like I do, consider picking up this title. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some new recipes to try. Highly recommended.

Contains: body horror, disturbing imagery, nudity, sexual assault

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Book Review: Favorite Scary Stories of American Children by Richard and Judy Dockrey Young

Favorite Scary Stories of American Children by Richard and Judy Dockrey Young

August House, 1999

ISBN: 0874835631

Availability: New and Used

Favorite Scary Stories of American Children is a collection of 23 short and scary stories told in the oral tradition, ranging from the truly creepy and frightening to pun-filled groaners. the authors, who are professional storytellers, chose the stories based on the enthusiastic demands of their young audiences. The age-appropriateness of each story is indicated using a code of pictorial symbols (for ages 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10), with the key to the code on the page opposite the title page. All the stories are intended to be readable by nine and ten year olds, but the authors note that stories aimed at younger children may not hold the interest of independent readers. Because of its attempt to cover a wide range of ages, cultures, and interest levels, the book is a mixed bag, including versions of classic scary stories like “The Red Velvet Ribbon” and folktales like “The Bloodsucker”, as well as some that feel like story flotsam, such as “Stop the Coffin.” This book would be a great resource for storytimes or for teaching storytelling to children, and has a variety of possible interdisciplinary connections for elementary classrooms.

An afterword for parents, librarians, and teachers addresses the value of scary stories for children as well as some of the concerns and issues that may come up in the telling and reading of scary stories. Origins of the stories and a pronunciation guide for regional terms are also included in the back of the book.

Favorite Scary Stories of American Children will appeal to children who have worn out Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories books, as well as to parents, teachers, and librarians looking for a way to give their kids the shivers. Recommended for elementary school libraries, public libraries, and families. Contains: violence

Gen Con Update: Gaming in the Library

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It’s been awhile since I got to say anything new (those reviews keep coming in, and are keeping me busy) but I had the chance to attend Gen Con’s trade day events this year, and what I learned is that there are a lot of librarians and educators out there trying to figure out how to incorporate games into their libraries. While I don’t work in a public library anymore, I knew this was a trend, and one that has gained a lot of ground over the past several years. The question of should libraries have games seems to have settled down (either you think it’s part of your library’s mission to serve gamers or you don’t– at Gen Con I am sure you can guess what side of that issue the professionals are on) and now it comes down to issues of logistics, collection development, and use. While there will always be enthusiastic videogamers, and there is a committed community of roleplayers, what libraries seems to have seen a noticeable uptick in is tabletop gaming (board games and card games, specifically). While there are a lot of specialized and complicated board games and card games, there are also a lot of games with broad appeal for kids and families. Even if a library decides that a game collection should stay on site, and has to choose just a few games, it can be a good way to engage people with each other and get them to spend time at the library, making it a familiar and safe space.

One session I went to suggested pairing games with fiction and nonfiction titles. The presenter was really talking about games for small children, but I think this is a great idea. There are a lot of horror-related games out there, some with great literary connections, and while gamers aren’t necessarily readers, given the number of extremely detailed rulebooks out there, it is clear that they will read for a cause, or if they develop interest in a topic that fuels their knowledge for the game. One example of a clear connection between a and literature was a heavily publicized game from LoneShark Games called Apocrypha. This is a pre-apocalyptic game that seems to have some flexibility built in to how you play it, with a good dose of the supernatural, and cards and scenarios written by some pretty great authors, including Patrick Rothfuss. You could take this so many ways, with its gameplay, content, theme, and writers all offering some pretty interesting pathways to a variety of other authors and media (I did not get to demo or see a demo of this game, so I’m going by what I saw on outward examination). Obviously this isn’t going to be a family fun game like Operation, but there are plenty of opportunities with the variety of games out there to draw connections between games, literature, and other media, that can wake an interest in any of those things for people who might see reading (or gaming) as something “not for them”. The key is that here is a new way to make the library an engaging place for the general public, gamers, and horror lovers who might be feeling disenfranchised, and connect them with a new way to enjoy storytelling and approach literacy.

Being one of those people who falls into the “not a serious gamer” crowd, I’m mostly unfamiliar with some of the new things out now and how they match up to what already exists, what’s fun, and the connection different games might have to literature or other media. I’d love to see suggestions from those of you who are gamers and know your stuff, about games you think are cool that could tie in to books or other media.