by Mira Reisberg who is in love with this graphic novel The Lunch Witch by Deb Lucke is a grossly amusing tale about the shenanigans that follow Grunhilda the Black Heart, descended from a long line of misery-loving witches, when she loses her potions store, then her job at the Salem Haunted Museum, and is forced to become a lunch lady at the nearby Salem Elementary School. Trouble begins brewing almost immediately in the form of Madison, a newly arrived student and not the brightest bulb in the box, who is struggling not to flunk out of all her classes. When a basic encyclopedia entry causes Madison to assume that the new lunch lady is a witch, she decides she has nothing to lose by blackmailing Grunhilda into making her a potion that will boost her intelligence so she doesn’t fail school. This puts Grunhilda in the mother of all binds—should she violate her family’s long upheld number one witch rule (Never be nice!), or do her ancestors proud by raining chaos upon a small child who dares to demand her help? This book is delightful in a number of ways. Heavily inked to look like brown paper, there is an element of darkness to the entire story in the sense that like Grunhilda’s problem, nothing is ever black and white. Nearly every page contains some sort of stain, smear, or bug—just as if the paper this story was printed on came used straight from Grunhilda’s questionable cafeteria. While some stains are random, others are creative, deliberate special effects that tie into the action occurring in each panel.
Grunhilda (and Madison's!) plight will leave you entertained until the very end, when you can't help but wonder what they'll get themselves into next.
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We are so excited to be mixing things up at CBA, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our awesome new bloggers!!
Here's our lineup: 1st Mondays begin with editor/art director, & CBA Director Mira Reisberg PhD who is handing her Mondays over to awesome former now tradtionally pubbed students to widen their audience. 2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with several new books. 3rd Mondays will feature Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer, man of mystery, and professional magician among other things. 4th Mondays feature funny Aussie author Sharon Giltrow sharing awesome Aussie books. And 5th Mondays will feature Libyan American author Koloud Tarapolsi sharing wonderful diverse books. Archives
June 2022
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