Coming into their own
I am delighted that graphic novels are finally included in the range of material provided in those classrooms where children are offered rich reading experience. No longer are such books considered simply as vehicles for the exploits of comic characters or superheroes. Nor is their only benefit that of providing accessible versions of prose titles for less able readers. (Although they can, very valuably, do both of these.) Rather they are now more widely recognised as a rewarding literary medium in their own right. Many are not ‘easy reads with pictures’, but challenging texts with complex narratives and rich characters that demand sophisticated levels of visual as well as verbal literacy. Further, some deal with issues of high contemporary relevance, with powerful impact on their readers’ intellect and emotions. Graphic novels certainly do provide a most important way into books for some otherwise reluctant or less confident readers, but many have enormous amounts to offer more able and experienced readers too.
Artists at work
The incomparable Philip Pullman gave the medium a big boost when he authored his John Blake graphic serial for the The Phoenix comic. His full story was later issued in book format, a stunning volume titled The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship (Art by Fred Fordham). Another important marker was set down in 2019, when popular author Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) joined forces with Andrew Donkin and visual artist Giovanni Rigano to create the devastatingly important and deeply affecting graphic novel Illegal.* It is a book that should be on every Primary School’s shelves. Now the same team that have followed up with Global, another title which deserves a prominent place in upper KS2 classrooms.
Warming
Many of our children are already alive to issues of global warning, but in this new book they have the reinforcement of seeing them from a new perspective. In fact two new perspectives, because Global shows climate change very directly affecting the lives of two children from very diverse backgrounds. The two are widely separated by geography too. They are an Indian boy, whose former life with his fisherman grandfather is devastated by rising sea levels, and a girl from northern Canada, who is trying to save polar bears in the face of a melting ice cap. However, the book is certainly not any sort of lecture in print. It is a totally engrossing, indeed thrilling, adventure, made all the more exciting, and ultimately moving, by the interweaving of its twin strands.
Art into action
The graphic medium is quite beautifully exploited with much of the story told through its images, not only the action, but its characters, relationships and emotions too. These images are wonderfully drawn and can be both dramatic (as in the cells depicting the storm on pages 113-116) and tender (as in the fireside scene in p 124). They can be joyous (p 88) and heart-rending (p58). But with their restricted colour palettes, subtly shifted for the two story threads, they always ravish the eye in a way that seems to awaken all the other senses and the emotions too, providing a truly immersive experience. They are a superb example of how the images of an outstanding graphic text are so much more than mere illustration of a storyline.
The text that accompanies them is clear and accessible yet strongly communicative, with, generally, narrative thoughts in rectangles and direct speech in the conventional bubbles. But there is so much more to read here than the words themselves, just as there is so much more yet to be done in our world. This is ultimately not only a book about action, but a call to action.
Global is another significant contribution to the canon of contemporary children’s literature from this remarkable trio of verbal and visual artists. It is important for children. And it will be important to them.
*Other ‘serious’ graphic novels that pack a huge punch, and well deserve a place on Primary School shelves, include:
New Kid (and its sequels), Jerry Craft
When Stars Are Scattered, Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed
The Breadwinner (film adaptation, OUP)