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Artichoke Tales (2010)

by Megan Kelso(Favorite Author)

3.03 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1606993445 (ISBN13: 9781606993446)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Fantagraphics

review 1: There is a complex and significant story in here, but it is obscured by the fact that all the characters look nearly identical. They are very sweet-looking, and have unique personalities, but it takes an entire page to figure out which person's story we are hearing, and then on the next page, it has shifted to a flashback or story-within-a-story, but you may not understand that until half-way through that page! I decided that I should buy my own copy, and color it in. I could give each character a color-scheme, and just have them wear that color through the whole book. I think it would complement the fact that the entire book is in dark-green ink. Because it has sex, it won't be in the kids' section, but the drawings are very child-like, and the story - of a fantasy world ... morewhere everyone sports an artichoke-shaped hairdo - would otherwise work for younger kids. Essentially, if I understood correctly, Kelso intertwines a family's inter-generational relations and personal quests with a conflict between the northerners who emphasize the usefulness of machines, and the southerners, who emphasize the usefulness of hunting/gathering, which is badly managed by a beautiful kohlrabi-like queen. Some aspects are over-simplified, like the absence of any other machines besides cannons, while others are carefully complex, like the varied opinions in the community about traditional faith versus the scientific method, and how foreign-thinking people are confusing to the general population. Besides the fact that there are adult relationships (& unprotected sex & other sexy hugging & kissing, etc), the ambiguous ending also makes it for more mature readers than me. :)
review 2: This was an epic tale covering the life of Brigitte, her mother and how the Civil War that tore their land apart started. The cute factor of the people may make you think this book is for children but it's definitely an adult book. I also had trouble differentiating characters from time to time.Brigitte learns her countries history and tries to make sense of her decision to follow someone from the North at the same timer. Her mother also tried to make things work with someone from the North. It's interesting to see the parallels between Brigitte and her mother and Brigitte's grandmother's anger puts an interesting spin on things. less

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