Retrospective Wednesday #4---Mirrormask

Retrospective Wednesday is a new feature at My Head is Full of Books designed to give bloggers a chance to highlight a book that was published in previous years, in the hope that it will cause others to go back and read it. The featured book must have been published one or more years ago.  Please leave a comment and link back to Headfullofbooks from your blog post. Join in the fun highlighting favorite old books.

Retrospective Wednesday #4---Mirrormask  by Neil Gaiman

Mirrormask  by Neil Gaiman with art work by Dave McKean is a darling graphic novel that reminds me of a several favorite tales.  It is a little bit Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a bit of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, and a bit of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and yet all it's own story which makes it completely charming. The book is not only full of delightful graphics but it uses fonts in different sizes to emphasize points and to carry the story along.  Published in 2005 as a companion to the movie by the same name I only recently learned of this book. As a Gaiman fan I'm not sure how I missed it but I'd recommend that you remedy the situation, if you like me haven't heard of it before, and spend a hour in sheer delight reading it. As soon as I finish this review I will check the library holdings to see if the movie is available to checkout.


Here is a favorite few lines from the book. As a librarian, I am captivated by these prose:

"Throw it a book," he said. I threw him a book and it tore into it, like a cat ripping a small animal apart..."We need more books. Big books." It didn't seem like a good time for reading, but I pulled two huge old books off the shelf in the corner and carried them over to him. He took one, but didn't read it. He told it what a bad book it was and threw it on the ground. The book bounced in the air and hung there quivering, and the juggler man jumped onto it and began to float away. "As long as they think you don't like them they migrate back to the library. And we get a free ride."... I rode next to him on my book, and we crossed the chasm safely....

There was a grumpy librarian in the library. I could tell that he was the librarian, because he seemed to be made of books. I told him that we needed information, and he got us some butterfly nets and sent us up to the top floors of the library.