SmartGirl Editor Ruthie reviews:
Little Vampire
A graphic novel by Joann Sfar

Little Vampire by Joann Sfar introduces a graphic novel series featuring Little Vampire, a pretty cool kid...of the undead. He lives in an old mansion with his mother Pandora, his father the Captain, and pet dog Phantomato, along with a bevy of ghosts, ghouls, and anything else you'd expect to find under your bed. They only come out at night, but when they do, Little Vampire wants what any other kid wants: a friend!

We first meet Little Vampire in "Little Vampire Goes to School." Though Little Vampire is happy spending his days sleeping and his nights roaming the grounds of the mansion with Phantomato, he decides that he wants to go to school to learn and meet a friend his own age. So, his creepy, crawly friends pack up his backpack with their own flavor of haunted school supplies and wave him off - but when he and Phantomato arrive at the schoolhouse, they are all alone. Little Vampire sadly realizes that he doesn't go out during the day, and his potential classmates don't go out wandering at night. Fortunately, Captain, a long-dead pirate, decides to lead a classroom for Little Vampire and the ghosts of the mansion.

Captain tells his supernatural students that they are not supposed to touch the daytime students' notebooks for fear of being discovered, but Little Vampire does anyway. He starts doing the Algebra homework of Michael, in whose chair he happens to sit. Eventually, he and Michael being a correspondence, and soon meet in person. Michael lives with his grandparents, because his own parents are dead, and though he is happy where he lives too, he also needs a friend. He and Little Vampire quickly become best friends but Captain thinks that he should talk to Michael to make sure their secret is still safe. When Little Vampire brings Michael home to the mansion, Michael meets a whole bunch of new friends - all of them quite unexpected!

Another story in this graphic novel series is "Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club," which follows Little Vampire and his best friend Michael after they find adopted homes for some four-legged friends. This story demonstrates what Joann Sfar and her characters do best: help their friends whatever quirky way they can! The stories are really easy to understand, so even someone who doesn't normally like to read can enjoy Little Vampire graphic novels. Each person or creature is unashamed about being who they are: monsters, skeletons, and swamp creatures, even Rabbi Solomon, a rather feline Kung Fu master.

The drawings are fun to look at; anyone who is a fan of Sardine in Outer Space will recognize Joann Sfar's drawing style. If you read carefully, you can see how the author has put an autobiographical spin on her tales too. For example, Michael's family is Jewish, and when he and his grandpa have a conversation about bullies, Grandpa tells Michael that in World War II, he was a doctor first and solider second - even healing German soldiers when he could. Sfar tells this lesson she herself learned through Michael: that violence only brings more violence. We should be peacemakers first, and fighters second - or, as Little Vampire shows, friends more and enemies less.

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