Reading Challenge Week 45 - A Graphic Novel

This week’s challenge was to read a graphic novel. This is a favourite genre for some of the librarians here at JCU (actually, you’d be hard-pressed to find a library that didn’t contain at least one librarian who is a fan of graphic novels), so we enjoyed the opportunity to trawl through our collection looking for sequential art.

We actually have a surprising amount of books that fall under the “graphic novel” umbrella, but you can never have too many.

Sharon Bryan read The Arrival, by Shaun Tan.

So far I’ve managed to use graphic novels quite a number of times during this Reading Challenge. I snuck them into A Book With a One-World Title, A Memoir or Journal, An EpicPoem and – just last week – A Book About Science. So now that the challenge actually is “A graphic novel”, I feel spoilt for choice. Part of me really wants to revisit Rapunzel’s Revenge, which is one of my favourite books of all time, but if I’m honest, I feel this spot belongs to the most graphic of graphic novels: The Arrival.

By “graphic” I mean illustrated. The Arrival has no words – the entire story is told through pictures. And it is told so very, very well. A man whose homeland is filled with monstrous things reluctantly leaves his family to try to find a better place to live. He finds himself in a strange place where everything feels alien – even the written language is so unfamiliar to him that he can’t recognise when it is upside-down. The customs are often beyond him, as are the “normal” things people do as part of their day-to-day lives, and he despairs of ever fitting in and earning enough money to bring over his family.

Along the way, he meets other immigrants who have fled other unsafe or unfortunate situations who share their stories, and even though they are all from different places, they help each other out as best as they can.

The artwork is monochrome and in sepia shades – every image looks like an old photograph. They beautifully capture the sense of danger in the immigrants’ hometowns, and the sense of bewildering strangeness in this new place. Shaun Tan does a wonderful job of showing us what life is like as a displaced person, a refugee or an immigrant.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. There isn’t a single word in it, but it will take you on a journey and leave you feeling a little bit bigger for the experience – something the best of novels can do.

Samantha Baxter read Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon Hale

“Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond.”

Rapunzel’s Revenge (810 HALE) is a fractured fairy-tale set in the old west, with Rapunzel ditching the jerky ‘rescuer’ to save her mother with the help of a ‘gentleman’ she meets along the way. What follows is a series of adventures, but I won’t spoil the ending. 

The thing I like most about this graphic novel is the ability of the author to write what you would expect to happen but the drawings show a slightly different story allowing for a nice comedic effect.

Brenda Carter read The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel, by Paul Coehlo, illustrated by Daniel Sampere

The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel (741.5 ALC) is based on the best-selling original text which was published in 1988. It tells the story of a young man named Santiago who is encouraged to find his ‘personal legend’ or treasure. In the novel, your personal legend "is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is."

Santiago embarks on a journey through the desert to find his treasure, a journey which is characterised by determination, perseverance and self-discovery. He encounters blessings and misfortunes, and meets a number of interesting characters along the way who teach him valuable lessons.

Sampere is better known for illustrating action hero graphic novels, but writes:

When I started working on the pages, the magic of the book quickly invaded me…I think when you read the novel, you get a very relaxed feeling, it just calms you in a very good way…I tried to create an art style that would transmit this sensation that the original book gave you.

Whether you have read the original text or have yet to try it, the graphic novel version is an aesthetically enjoyable way to consider the challenges of stepping out of your comfort zone and following your heart.