Aa most of you know, I don’t usually  blog on the weekends, unless someone has died — BTW, RIP Jose Saragamo. You can read my review of his novel, BLINDNESS here. I’m making an exception to my usual blogging rules, b/c I’m bound and determined to catch up on this promise to read a book a week, before my own book, 32 CANDLES, comes out on Tuesday. So lo and behold, I present my first “Sensational Saturday” blogumn with my thoughts on BAYOU by Jeremy Love, which is perhaps the best graphic novel I’ve ever read. Why I Decided To Read It: I walked into the Altadena Library and this graphic novel was on display in their special “New Books” section, which I think means new-to-them, since it came out back in June 2009. I’d never heard of Jeremy Love before, and I adre giving new graphic novels a chance. So I picked it up, without reading the back cover. Most pleasant surprise of the year. What It’s About: This one is a bit hard to fully describe, but it’s about a little girl named, Lee, living with her sharecropper father in the Jim Crow south. She has a white best friend named Lily, who disappears under magical circumstances. When Lee’s father is jailed under suspicion of having raped and killed Lily, Lee sets out to find Lily before the gathering lynch mob kills her father. Toward the beginning of her quest, she meets Bayou, the title character. What Makes It Different: This is basically Alice in Wonderland with a way more interesting lead character and higher stakes. It somehow manages to be both historical and wildly imaginative at the same time. Also, how many magical tales have you read set in the Jim...