Graphic Novel: The Motherless Oven By Rob Davis

Have you ever lived in a town where it rained knives? Welcome to the Motherless Oven by Rob Davis!

Let me tell you about the mood and tone of this young adult novel. Scarper Lee, a tall, dark haired teen is the main character. Scarpers parents are a little different nagging parents you and I were used to in our teen year. His parents are actually made of appliances. For example, his mother is a blow dryer. Yes! A blow dryer.  In fact, that is how the whole town is. In the Motherless Oven children make their parents, instead of parents making the children. The setting is a dark town, and the graphics are all in black and white. It is mysterious, strange, and enticing. Can you imagine being a teen and trying to follow the rules a can opener tells you to? This is Scarpers world!

More about the story: Each child that is born in this strange world of Rob Davis’ imagination is not given a birthday, they are given a set death day. Scarper is expecting his death day in three weeks and begins to think outside this crazy town’s little box and wonders if she could beat his death day. In the story the police, or in other words, old people with guns who are extremely slow, are after Scarper now in slow pursuit. In the beginning of the novel Scarpers dad, who is strong machine, is locked in the shed everyday but disappears. Scarper wants to find him before his death day. He then goes on a journey of self discovery and ambition to the motherless oven.

That Art though! The art and graphics in this Rob Davis novel are epic and outstanding. They are dark and they are strange. Let’s start with the parents. Sometimes the parents can look as simple as a can opener that can fit in the children’s pockets and other times they look like abstract pieces of artwork. Now in the book Scarper school guidance counselor gives him a home gazet or personal recorder.. This is an interesting looking object, almost round and pot like. The TV is also a work of art. It is called a television wheel. The wheel is like a story that changes each and this is the law that it must. If you look at the details of the wheel, the art tells a story. With all the amazing art that surrounds the children in this book, it is quite strange that the children are in the same school uniforms.

So, why is this a great young adult literature book? I think that answer has a lot to do with the symbolism in the story. I did some research and found out that this book has a deeper meaning in connection to the young adults. Scraper and the other teen are very focused on their death day and if we think about it a lot teens are the same way. They are fixated on this gloomy, doomy world they live in at the moment and the hardships they face as adolescents. Everything is more dramatic at this stage. Sine the death date for Scarper is the end of high school maybe this is a symbolism for going into adulthood and the end of his childhood. We can also look at the parents. The parents are robot, plastic, and other appliances. That is how some teens may see their own parents when going through adolescents..Just something hard wired to tell you what to do and not care about who you are. (Again this is in the eyes of adolescents.)

Pros - The illustrations are also done by Rob Davis and they are amazing and interesting.

Cons - The book's language and literature is hard to follow. It is all over the place.

The best part of this novel was the artwork, enjoy!

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/rob-davis-motherless-oven-selfmadehero/

Here is an interview with Rob Davis for more insight about the author:

https://www.ap2hyc.com/2015/02/interview-rob-davies-author-of-the-motherless-oven/

Here are some quotes from the novel so you get an idea of the weird and different language dialect:

http://www.page45.com/store/The-Motherless-Oven.html

Here is another graphic design by Rob Davis in a video format so you can get the creepy vibe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiW-Ekt5ntk