The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, ill. New York: First Second, 2009.
TOP TEN
ISBN: 978-1596431560
Annotation: Three stories exploring the connections between the real world and those created by fantasy and illusion.
Illustrations: pen and ink, digital color
Theme: Each story looks at a different aspect of imagination/fantasy; the overall theme of all three stories is how fantasy intersects with the real world. The first story is about an imaginary world created by a boy’s mind as a response to illness; the second, a Disney-esque fantasy world that exploits the creatures that inhabit it; in the third, a woman deliberately chooses to believe in a spam e-mail hoax in order to bring desperately needed excitement into her life. Each story looks at the theme differently—for example, in the second story, reality is a desirable escape from fantasy, not vice versa—but all show that reality and fantasy can shape each other equally.
Discussion of Illustrations: An important aspect of Derek Kirk Kim’s illustrations for Eternal Smile is his use of different stylistic techniques depending on the mood and tone of each story. For “Duncan’s Kingdom,” set in a swords-and-sorcery type of fantasy world, he uses a less cartoony style than in the other stories; the characters are more attractive, slimmer, more realistically proportioned. In “Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile,” he affects a Disney-like style that highlights the parody of Uncle Scrooge, but that also hints at the darkness lurking under the talking-animals cuteness, through the characters’ disturbingly manic expressions and the use of a jarring color palette heavy on violently clashing red-oranges, washed-out blues, and vivid greens. In “Urgent Request,” he uses a monochromatic color palette that helps to convey the colorlessness of Janet’s life, along with charmingly rounded, squat, stylized characters that match the story’s bittersweet, poignant humor.
5Q/5P
DM 8/1/09
The Eternal Smile. by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. New York: First Second, 2009.
ISBN: 978-1596431560
Annotation: Two award winning graphic novel authors collaborate to tell three stories within this book, a story of a prince who defeats his enemy, but the world resulting might not be what it seems, the story of a frog who finds out being a frog isn’t so bad, and a girl’s adventure to save a prince’s family takes her away from a ho hum daily existence. All three stories cross between fantasy and reality and back again.
Media: colorized pen and ink
Rating: 4Q/4P
RAC 7.28.09
++++
The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. New York: First Second, 2009.
Summary: The book contains three short stories: one about a man trapped in a fantasy world, another about a greedy old frog, and a third about an office drone looking to get swept up in a make believe world.
Rating: 4Q, 4P
ISBN: 1596431563
Medium: Pen/ink
Curricular Connections: Great for English; Creative Writing curriculum
Age Group: 9th - 12th Grades
Potential Obstacles:
-
- Adult themes
- Sophisticated language
E.K. 7/28/09
++++
Citation: The Eternal Smile: Three Stories by Gene Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, ill. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2009.
ISBN: 978-1-59643-156-0
Annotation: Yang interconnects three stories about Duncan, Grand’pa Greenbax, and Janet who all have epiphanies. They see that real life is better than a fantasy world even though life is harsh.
Media: Graphic novel format with pen and ink and color
Personal Rating: 4Q/4P
Curricular Connections: This is a wonderful book to teach students in an English class about “epiphany.” Yang has interwoven three stories and each character in the story has an epiphany that the truth is better than escape into an imaginary world. Duncan dreams he is a prince who can slay evil foes. He has an epiphany that he really isn’t a prince but a lonely boy with an abused mother. However, he chooses to face reality and help his mother rather than escape into a fantasy world. Grand’pa Greenbax is a frog who loves money but he has an epiphany that he is really stuck in a reality t.v. show. He chooses to leave the fantasy of the show and go to a pond where he can be free. Janet is an ordinary office clerk who escapes into a fantasy world in an email to a Nigerian prince. She has the epiphany that the email is a hoax. Her realization causes her to face her boss and ask for the promotion she truly deserves. Students will love figuring out the epiphanies in the stories. They could also read other books with epiphanies such as The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
Grade Level or Age Range: Grade 8-High School
By: Joanne Maher July 25th, 2009
The Eternal Smile. by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. New York: First Second, 2009.
ISBN: 978-1-59643-156-0 Subjects/Genre: Fantasy, Good vs. Evil/graphic novel Grades 9-12
Three different stories: one about a powerless young man and young woman taking control, another about a powerful cartoon frog who takes hold of his own destiny.
Q/P: 4/5 Yang has the luxury of riding on the popularity of American Born Chinese, and while the comic illustrations are of the same caliber but style varies with the nuances of each tales, the story line is not. Despite the note on the front that the stories were standalone, I still kept expecting them to come together.
BVG, 7/22/09
++++
The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. New York: First Second, 2009.
Summary: The book contains three short stories: one about a man trapped in a fantasy world, another about a greedy old frog, and a third about an office drone looking to get swept up in a make believe world.
Rating: 4Q, 4P
ISBN: 1596431563
Medium: Pen/ink
Curricular Opportunities:
- Great for English; Creative Writing curriculum
Age Group: 7th - 12th Grades
Potential Obstacles:
- Allusion to pornography
- Adult themes
- Sophisticated language
E.K. 7/16/09
++++
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim, ill. New York: First Second, 2009.
Three different stories are told, Duncan's Kingdom, Gran'pa Greenbax & the Eternal Smile, and Urgent Request, which are seemingly unrelated but all walk the line between fantasy and reality.
- ISBN 978-1596431560
- Media: Pen and color ink
- Rating: 4Q/4P
DPower 7/6/09
TOP TEN The eternal smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, ill. New York: First Second, 2009.
ISBN: 9781596431560
Annotation: there are three stories in this book. All the stories are about finding what you really want. The first one is about a boy that wants to escape all his problems. The second story about a greedy frog and the third story about a girl that needs to believe in something to be happy.
Media: Pen and color ink
Rating: 5Q/5P
Literary device: personification
Armando Rivera 7-05-09
Eternal smile, The by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. New York: First Second, 2009.
ISBN-13: 9781596431560
ISBN-10: 1596431563
Illustrator: Derek Kirk Kim
Media: Pen and Color Ink
5Q/5P
Annotation: The Eternal Smile includes three stories Duncan’s Kingdom, Elias McFadden’s Gran’Pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile, and Urgent Request. Duncan’s Kingdom jumps from the perspective of a sleeping reality to a waking reality, keeping the reader guessing. Elias McFadden’s Gran’Pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile questions the ethics of money and work. Urgent Request revolves around personal fantasies and the deception of e-mail fraud.
KRF 6/21/09
The Eternal Smile:Three Stories by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim ill. New York: First Second, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-1596431560
In these three stories intersections of reality and fantasy are explored. In each story fantasy is used as a means of escape.
- Media: Pen and Ink
- Rating: 4Q/4P
- Curricular Connections: Grades 9-12 Language Arts
- Special Category: one of five copyright 2009 picture books for older readers.
CHA 8/1/09
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