Recently, I have been in communication with author Jenny Jaeckel. She is the award-winning author and illustrator of several books including her novel Boy, Falling–a companion book to House of Rougeaux, a collection of illustrated short fiction entitled For the Love of Meat, and the graphic novel memoir Spot 12: Five Months in the Neonatal ICU.
When not writing, Jaeckel works as an editor and translator and lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her family.
House of Rougeaux, was the winner of an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Historical Fiction and named one of Bitch Media’s 25 Must-Read books of 2018. It's a vivid portrait of a family of African descent through seven generations and three countries.
I'm often drawn to historical novels.
I'm currently reading House of Rougeaux and will take this time to tell you that I love that this book starts off with pages denoting the family tree. The multi-layered story begins with sibling slaves on a Caribbean sugar plantation and the family tree allows you to revert back to it if you get lost in the translation while traveling along on their journey.
The word pictures are strong throughout the storyline. Page seven drew me to the grave mound where They lay so still that vultures circled over.
If you wish to read a story about a journey at the height of the Jazz Age you turn to Boy, Falling.
If you've read this blog a while, you know I adore graphic novels. Well, her graphic novel Spot 12 was the Winner of a 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Spot 12 was also a 2016 Finalist in the Foreword Indies Book Awards and a Finalist in the 2016 Best Book Awards.
My favorite thing about Jenny Jaeckel's books is her writing contains a bit of wistful sadness and shows an appreciation for the nature of connections. Points about hardship, periods of doubt, and overcoming intolerance are made articulately throughout each well-composed storyline.
Update: In 2022, Eighteen was released. It is about the life of a young woman