title: Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor
author:  Lynda Barry 
description: Gr 10 UpStructured as a handwritten composition book, this title uses prose within a graphic context to serve as a forum to teach aspiring young authors. It's written as though a creatively minded person were keeping a messy journal filled with ideas, notes, and scribbles. This book presents an inside look into Writing the Unthinkable, the cartoonist's highly popular writing workshop. Neither a graphic or prose novel, it requires readers to jump around to different boxed areas of words, which resemble those in a textbook, but attempts to do so in a hip, visual, new way. The end result is discordant and sloppy and may confuse, rather than inspire, young authors. VERDICT Those unfamiliar with comics guru Barry's previous work may find the format and style of this title extremely jarring. Stick with her What It Is (Drawn &amp; Quarterly, 2008).Ryan P. Donovan, Southborough Public Library, MA
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  ## Sister Adelaide Peters stood in front of Professor Coenraad van Essen,
  trying to be composed and cool, and to forget his kiss amidst the ruins of the
  bus; his fee, he had called it.
  
  
  
  
  
  “I must thank you for getting me out last night. I was very frightened, you
  know. It was so dark. I believe you saved our lives, and I am indeed grateful.
  Just thanking you doesn’t seem enough,” she added worriedly.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Thanking me is quite enough, Sister Peters. It just so happened that I was
  there. It could have been anyone else, you know.” She felt surprised at this.
  
  
  
  
  
  “But I knew it would be you.” The professor was studying the papers before
  him, his pen busy once more, and she didn’t expect an answer. She gave a
  small, unconscious sigh.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Did you and Dr. Beekman sleep last night? You both look very tired.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “It was hardly worth it, Sister. We’ll go off early if we can.” He glanced up
  from his work, 