Review - Benny and Penny by Geoffrey Hays
April 23rd, 2008 John Posted in Books, Comic Books, Reviews |
Here’s an idea that never occurred to me before: Easy reader comics. Toon Books has arrived to plant that idea in everybody’s head, however, and wash away any opportunity to use that sort of stunned opening sentence in a review ever again. As evidenced through their inaugural title, “Benny and Penny in Just Pretend” by Geoffrey Hayes, they’re well on their way to doing just that, with the mantra from editorial director Francoise Mouly: “Comics, they are not just for adults anymore,” as she said in a recent interview with the Horn Book.
If you have never heard of Mouly, now is the time to learn. As art editor of the New Yorker, she has defined the feel of the magazine for 15 years, taking the traditional look of the covers and adding an updated, distinct style to them. Part of the unique quality of her stewardship has been her connection to the comic book world, through her years publishing and editing the RAW imprint with her husband, Art Spiegelman. In 2000, she and Spiegelman started the RAW Jr. line, with the Little Lit series, a triumphant anthology of comic book tales for kids featuring work by top line writers and artists like Paul Auster, Dan Clowes, William Joyce and others.
Mouly’s formula has been simple, yet revolutionary. Whereas comics are often an afterthought to many publishers — and creators in the comic book world not necessarily well-regarded — Mouly saw a hot bed of originality in the comic pool and, with a discriminating editorial eye, sought to use these basic materials to give attention to the comic book form, to nurture the output for quality.
The result of this forward movement is the Toon Books line, which Mouly and Speigelman have also fashioned in collaboration with educators and educational advisors, stemming from the idea that comics are ideal for young readers, drawing them into the story, helping them “crack the code that allows literacy to flourish” — a comic book page acts as a road map to the mechanics of story telling that have proven difficult to some children and are valuable to any child.
With all that context for a book like “Benny and Penny,” it’s with relief that I report the book to be charming and simple, as it should be. Benny is a little mouse pretending to be a pirate — a wooden crate is his make-believe pirate ship. His little sister, Penny, wants to play with him, but a rejection and a scuffle sends the two into a conflict throughout the day where they will, inevitably, learn the value of each other.
This is no simple, sentimental aside, however — while familial affection is an obvious central component to the story, it doesn’t get in the way of creating a good bit of depth to the mice. Benny is a bit obstinate and reactionary are sudden, Penny is sly and patient — both characters are terribly honest, probably due to Hayes’ memories of his own dynamic with his younger brother and the idea that a kid might have to learn a lesson several times before it sticks. So it is with brother-sister relationships as it is with reading.
Hayes’ work hits the right between children’s books and comics. His mice and their world have that nice, warm texture of a personable picture book, but the panels flow with sequential ease, with energetic animation to his characters — there’s great body language going on here and Hayes gets a lot of facial emotion out of little mice.
Aimed at readers K-2, “Benny and Penny” will give any kid that age something delightful that will also challenge them — and any parent reading alongside will find plenty to be amused by. Toon Books is off to a great start and I look forward to them changing the way we look at comics.
Leave a Reply