Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Why can’t we just get along?
That question is asked around the world in many ways and many languages. Yet it has taken on a particular vibrancy within the Middle East and especially regarding the Gaza conflict. This is the focal point of Echoes in October, which builds to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The story is told through the eyes of four children. All of them are 11 years old, but all of them were born of drastically different circumstances. Jannah is a Muslim girl from Gaza City. Amir is a Druze boy from Daliyat-al-Karmel. Lily is a Canadian Evangelical Christian, born in Toronto but recently relocated to Kibbut Kfar Aza. Eli is a Jewish boy from Tel Aviv. The children do not meet as a group over the course of the novel, though Eli and Amir are cousins. Lily and Jannah also meet briefly, as Lily’s father works as a volunteer driver who escorts Jannah into Israel for medical treatment.
However, despite its setting, Echoes of October plays out as a slice-of-life comic rather than a political thriller. The story remains firmly focused upon the children and their individual issues. This drives home their common ground and makes them more relatable to the young readers for who Echoes of October was written.
Eli, for instance, is worried about his parents talk of moving away from Israel. Their only concern is the safety of their family and what the threat of war may do to Eli. Yet Eli’s biggest fear is moving away from his friends, his school, and everything he knows. This is counterbalanced by the story of Lily, who has already undergone this trauma. She misses her friends in Canada and worries that her dream of being the next Taylor Swift may be short-circuited by moving halfway around the world.
Amir, an aspiring comic creator, has similarly big dreams of creating the first Druze superhero – a Captain America figure modeled on his soldier father. Unfortunately, most of his family have no use for his art and intend to put him to work in their restaurant instead of letting him continue school. Jannah also has issues with her family, for she has dreams of becoming a politician and bringing peace to the region so the people around her can be happy. Unfortunately, the people calling for violence on both sides are so much louder and so many refuse to listen to women, let alone girls.
Echoes of October does not pretend there are any easy answers. It does, however, offer one of the most heartfelt and well-structured introductions to the conflict in Gaza and how there is more than one side involved in the conflict. While the artwork and language used by Ami Adan are simple, they deliver a powerful idea that ultimately boils down to that one big question.
Why can’t we just get along?
Echoes of October is recommended by the author for readers 10 and up. This is a fair rating, as there is no objectionable content to be found here. Doubtless some will object to the idea of a children’s graphic novel that discusses the conflict in Gaza sight unseen. Yet this book is not entirely about that conflict. It is about four young people struggling to cling to some sense of normalcy in an increasingly angry world. That is something that all too many of us can related to in modern times and why I would recommend this graphic novel to readers of all ages rather than just children.
Echoes of October By Ami Adan Self-Published, 2025
Company Age Rating: 10+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Character Representation: Canadian, Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant ,
Maggie, an NPR journalist, and Adam, a high school counselor, are like-minded, white, progressive newlyweds on the cusp of starting a family in Austin, Texas. On their way home from purchasing a pregnancy test, they’re accosted by two men with a gun, demanding valuables. Maggie, a Texas native, watches in horror as Adam quickly hands over their money. When the muggers demand Maggie’s new wedding ring, she’s prepared to stand her ground, but is utterly shocked when Adam tearfully pulls the ring off her finger. The men laugh at him for crying and then leave on scooters with the goods.
Adam and Maggie each process the experience in completely different ways. After reporting the incident to the local police and getting home, Maggie busies herself checking all the door and window locks and weighs her options for which kitchen utensil might be prime weapon material. Oblivious to her actions, Adam kicks back at the kitchen table, apparently relieved, patting himself on the back for how he deescalated the situation. He pushes Maggie into taking the pregnancy test, in hopes of finding a positive outcome to the day, but a negative result compounds Maggie’s distress. She surprises Adam by inviting friends over late at night, satisfying her need for safety and comfort, but confusing Adam. Their conversation turns to guns, igniting in Maggie the desire to purchase one for herself. Adam recoils at this idea, claiming that people like them do not own guns. But the very next day, Maggie purchases a gaudy American flag-painted gun behind Adam’s back.
What follows is a story of each character frustratingly steamrolling over each other’s needs and emotions as they fall deeper down the rabbit hole of the gun debate. Every character they encounter has a viewpoint to contribute to their journey, shifting their individual views, and creating conflict in their marriage. Meanwhile, a subplot builds with David, a troubled high school senior under Adam’s counsel. His mental health along with issues at home, school, with peers, and with his fledgling film career disenfranchise him enough to start him reading a mass shooter’s manifesto and researching guns. As he inappropriately encroaches on Maggie and Adam’s personal lives, the reader is led to believe he could become dangerous.
Billed by left leaning writer Dave Cowen as an attempt to “heal our polarized divide”, he and right leaning illustrator, Gabriel Wexler, use the characters to start a conversation exploring the deep divide over gun ownership. They touch on many aspects of the issue, like mass shootings, self defense, racism, and mental illness, although the length of the book prevents them from delving deep into any of those topics. It’s hard to cover this divide well and with enough nuance, and although I think the creators make a good effort, it’s a tall order. Their conclusion boils down to respect each other and try to get along, which is not surprising, but also not very deep given the harms and trauma done by guns in America. They don’t promise answers though, their goal is to start the conversation.
Where it gets clunky is in the dialog. Cowen uses brief narration at the beginning and end of the book, indicating where the story takes place and when time has passed, but doesn’t extend it to exposition, which then falls onto the characters to explain. This causes them to speak to each other in unnatural ways to the point where I initially thought Maggie and Adam were meant to be caricatures of what conservatives thought a progressive couple is like in private. As they encounter friends and colleagues throughout the narrative, some of them will launch into monologues to share gun history or philosophy as if they prepared a speech, contrasting sharply with the seemingly impromptu conversations they’re drawn in. This isn’t a story about two deeply connected people reconciling their conflicting and shifting views about guns so much as it’s an essay on polarization with a graphic novel built around it.
In addition to awkward dialog, there were some issues with the panel layout. The art itself is very simple, which doesn’t take away from the overall story because even with simple lines and color, character emotion comes through clearly. However speech bubbles often cover character faces and actions in a way that’s distracting. A handful of panels and even the occasional page seem to add little to the story and probably could have been cut or expressed in a different way. With so many creative and flexible ways to construct a graphic novel, I wondered why a panel-by-panel format was chosen to tell this story.
For content warnings, obviously guns are prominent, and while no one is injured by one on screen, people are threatened with them, guns are fired, and news breaks of a mass shooting. There is also marital conflict, brief mentions of divorce, abortion, and suicide. Maggie and Adam often ignore and cross each other’s boundaries throughout the narrative, up to and including sexual consent. Even with all the conflict, the book does have a peaceful ending, and Maggie and Adam reconcile their differences. Even David’s story has a positive outcome.
Even though I felt the format was ill-suited for this story and it’s a tough read, it’s still unique and could be a good fit in an adult graphic novel section. I think it’s a subject we need more serious coverage of in graphic novels and manga and I see Should We Buy A Gun? as a first step in a difficult ongoing conversation.
Should We Buy A Gun? By Dave Cowen Art by Gabriel Wexler Seriocomics, 2025 ISBN: 9798992055092
The word “disinformation” might sound like a buzzword that slowly insinuates itself into the lexicon, but the word has been around for a long time. With the advent of the Internet and social media, the word has become quite significant to current political discourse. Exploring the damage disinformation can do to democracy, author Teri Kanefiled and illustrator Pat Dorian discuss the history of disinformation and how to combat it in their book A Firehose of Falsehood: the Story of Disinformation.
Early on, Kanefield offers the distinction between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation has the initial intent to inform but get the facts wrong. Disinformation, on the other hand, is knowingly spreading false information, typically for nefarious purposes. Disinformation, according to Kanefield, has been used by leaders for thousands of years and has been used in military operations to help destabilize armies and topple kingdoms. Kanefield traces the history of disinformation from its use by Darius I in ancient Persia to today’s use by political leaders like Vladamir Putin and Donald Trump.
Like any good work of nonfiction, Kanefield is thorough in exploring all aspects of her subject. By starting back to disinformation’s humble beginnings in Persia and establishing a timeline going through well-known leaders like Josef Stalin, she establishes that the concept has been around for millenia. Eventually, when she starts discussing the election of 2016 and Donald Trump’s presidency, Kanefield shows that, while the concept of disinformation is nothing new, it has gained a new sense of urgency when a leader or a movement decides to weaponize disinformation to muddy any and all debates. She ultimately ends this book with tips on how individuals can combat disinformation.
Despite disinformation being such a vital topic and Kanefield establishing it as a threat to our democracy, it’s also a topic that can come off as dry and dense as any academic tome about, say, tectonic plates or Brussel’s economy. Presenting the work as a graphic novel helps alleviate that problem by presenting Kanefield’s information into smaller chunks interspersed with Dorian’s images. Dorian’s drawing style also emphasizes a more cartoonish look to the book’s characters, which provides an entertaining bit of sugar to help readers consume what might be a bitter pill otherwise.
This book would make a great companion piece to the book Dictatorship: It’s Easier Than You Think! since both books cover the Machiavellian methods leaders use to get and stay in power. This book would also be a great addition for academic or public libraries that like nonfiction graphic novels and want books about information literacy.
A Firehose of Falsehoods The Story of Disinformation Vol. By Teri Kanefield Art by Pat Dorian Macmillan First Second, 2023 ISBN: 9781250790439
If you and your significant other agree on most things, what happens when one big thing comes up that you disagree on? Is being almost perfect for each other enough to happily continue the relationship despite that one Big Thing?
In Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag, Michael Anthony (author) and Chai Simone (artist) depict a relationship between an omnivore and a vegetarian. Michael, our narrator, is an Iraqi war veteran with body image issues. Michael’s girlfriend, nicknamed Coconut, is a vegetarian who gets more involved in animal rights activism and goes vegan. Michael had to turn off his emotions in order to survive war. “But to do it all-deal with the dead, the dying…the sleepless nights, weeks, months, and to save as many lives as possible, we had to stop caring. We had to let it all go and become autonomic machines. Emotionless. Detached…and yet, after everything I’d seen and been through, Coconut thought some videos would…overwhelm me? Change my entire life? Disgust me into action? Get me to stop eating meat?” (p. 16-19). Coconut’s mother’s past damaging criticisms of Coconut’s body and her own caring, selfless nature inform her backstory. Can their otherwise harmonious relationship survive Michael’s veiled—and Coconut’s overt—conversion attempts? I hoped for a certain outcome, but I’ll let you read the book and find out for yourself what happens.
Simone’s art style is colorful and cartoony. Her characters’ facial expressions and body language convey their many moods, ranging from Coconut’s horror and smugness to Michael’s exasperation and befuddlement. She draws supporting characters with care as well. In one scene where Michael is asking event guests what made them decide to be vegetarian, it’s interesting to see how their faces change when he follows that with “What would get you to eat meat again?” (p. 69). Simone’s lettering makes the book easy to read. Michael’s narration is shown in tan blocks of text, with different lettering styles used for dialogue and for each of the protagonists’ handwritten notes.
This is an interesting, multilayered story, not merely a lecture on the harms of industrial animal agriculture. Although the book explores those harms, each character’s backstory and how their past experiences shape their current predicament is more compelling.
This book is for adult readers due to some graphic illustrations of warfare, slaughterhouse activities, and meat-packing plant scenes. There is also mention of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse among veterans. Any library with an attentive readership of nonfiction graphic novels, either memoirs or food-related books, should consider this title for their collection. Check the recommended reading list on pages 168-169 for further resources on veganism.
Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag: A Memoir By Michael Anthony Art by Chai Simone Street Noise Books, 2022 ISBN: 9781951491192
Many are familiar with the adage about a spoonful of sugar helping medicine go down, especially those familiar with Disney’s Mary Poppins, but there is some truth to that statement when it comes to subjects that are either too dense to completely process or too terrifying to rationally contemplate. Such subjects can be made more palatable and/or digestible when put into a graphic novel format. Writers Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa use the graphic novel format effectively in their satirical guide to dictatorship, Dictatorship: It’s Easier Than You Think!
The book’s sales pitch begins with questions like, “Do you crave the power to shape the world in your image?” and “Can you tell lies without blinking an eye?” Once the readers are drawn in with those questions, the actual book, along with its game-show-host-looking narrator, explains just how to be a dictator based on examples from the past and the present. The easy to follow instructions the book lays out how to take complete control of a country or nation and thoroughly crush any resistance, at least that’s what the book professes to do.
Much like Machiavelli’s The Prince, Kendzior and Chalupa’s guidebook is satire, not as a guidebook but as a critical dissection of how dictators operate. Its chapters are organized as a step-by-step guide to dictatorship that illustrates its points with many detailed examples from Adolf Hitler to Kim Jong Un and everyone in between. The book also details some of the horrific, murderous practices these men used to stay in power. Depicting the details of these atrocities might be off-putting in a more academic text, but framing it in a satirical how-to guide makes it more palatable without making it less powerful. Indeed, the narrator’s flippant discussion of these events helps hammer home its point about how the outlandish behavior of many of these dictators distracts from the horrors they commit.
The narrator, drawn by artist Kasia Babis, is a spaghetti-limbed, rubber-faced cartoon host in a gaudy suit. He acts as both ringmaster and tour guide through this cavalcade of history’s most reviled dictators. From history’s most notorious dictators to more modern examples seen in today’s headlines, no dictator is safe from his acerbic wit and he constantly lets readers in on the joke with knowing, conspiratorial leers in their direction. There are also many of the same caricature versions of these dictators who interact with this host with the kinetic energy of a sketch comedy show, even as the humor skews to some dark places.
That energy, and the book’s overall presentation, makes it perfect for adult graphic novel collections in need of relevant nonfiction, especially since the influence of many of these dictators, past and present, can still be seen today. This book also teaches its subject matter in a way that’s not didactic and dry. Yes, the book shows some dictators have already seen their regimes and their cults of personality collapse, but this satirical guidebook to dictatorship is ultimately a warning to anyone and everyone that can allow bad people to gain power. There’s even a part in the book where the host, discussing who and what he is, shows the reader a mirror, which is a strong message to convey in a graphical format.
Dictatorship: It’s Easier Than You Think! By Sarah Kendzior, Andrea Chalupa, Art by Kasia Babis Macmillan First Second, 2023 ISBN: 9781250781000
This review refers to the hardbound trade which comprises the first five issues of Animal Castle. It’s marked volume 1 and it is a handsome volume, indeed! I read the first five issues as the individual comics, through my subscription at my favorite comics pusher, so I was curious to see what the compiled edition looked like. This glossy library bound edition shows the richly painted art from the first comic cover and includes a preamble by the author, all the variant covers, and lots of bonus material displaying the original pencils and thumbnails. The cover art wraps around to the back side. It should hold up to many circulations.
This storyline is essentially Orwell’s Animal Farm, yes, but updated and retold in a new chilling way, putting a wider variety of animals in the different roles, and exploring more intimately what each character has to give up to change their brutal conditions. The dictator and general for life, Silvio, is a corpulent shaggy bull with googly stern eyes, Texas Longhorn-type horns, a protruding lip, and large jowls that somehow seem familiar. His hench-dogs are slobbery, idiotic, and brutal, and are rendered in Felix Delep’s lanky whispy pencils. All the animals have amazingly human expressions, and it’s easy to empathize with each. Indeed, many of the scenes are heartbreaking.
The story revolves around a starving young mama cat named Miss Bengalore and her attempts to organize the Castle against the brutality of Silvio’s reign. The Hindi-sounding name is not a coincidence, as she’s shown early in the book what happens to those who speak up and riot. She has all she can handle with her three kittens and her forced work hauling stones all day to Silvio’s commanded building of a wall fortress, but, one night, she sees an old gray rat, a traveling storyteller named Azelar, do a performance about, “a little man, a fakir who fights against a king and an empire….” Is Azelar’s appearance a coincidence? Or does he have more to teach the Castle animals? When the old rat is injured trying to escape the guard hounds, Miss B. rescues him. Can he convince Miss B. and the other animals to work towards a better life away from Silvio’s grasp?
The story pacing kept my interest and the colors are muted and appropriate for a difficult story like this. The lettering is very small, so I needed my cheaters to read it. Even though this story is based on Animal Farm, this is not a story for middle graders. There is considerable violence as well as adult situations, even though those are animal-portrayed adult situations. In a country where some try to ban mouse-nakedness, librarians should be aware that this comic discusses very hard political issues, and the brutality is explicitly portrayed. I suggest putting this title either in the adult area or young adult.
Animal Castle, vol. 1 Vol. 1 By Xavier Dorison Art by Felix Delep Ablaze, 2022 ISBN: 9781684970032
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
The cover of this graphic novel makes one assume that it’s about the author’s marriage to his long-time partner, but by the end of the 112 pages, you will change your assumption. This witty, humane, honestly perceptive story about two men in a relationship and where they are right now in their lives in this country is more of a snapshot in time, with all the attendant Woody Allen-New York-neurotic angst one would expect from a working artist.
That’s not to say this isn’t an enjoyable read. It is. It’s like sitting down with your best friend to trade personal anecdotes, hurts, and love stories, with all the warmth that connects you to them. Honestly, Kirby is so perceptive and intuitive about himself and his partner and their families and friends, you feel like you’ve known them forever. I imagined us sitting with coffee while he admits in one page that he’s sometimes “micro-aggressive” in his select use of the word “husband” to other people.
As the graphic novel advances, Kirby uses red and blue colored pencils on a monochromatic background to draw attention to main parts of the story, express emotion, and communicate extra little funny comments on the side. There are extra comments squished in everywhere! Don’t miss the “Earthlink” comment on page 34 or the “Young Rob” on page 48.
The thing is, Kirby starts the story admitting that “he doesn’t have a sentimental bone in his body” and feels apathetic about getting married to partner John. He’s also nervous about getting older, and while he’s “adept at putting off scary stuff,” after Minnesota legalizes gay marriage, they decide to do it, just for the legalistic freedom it will give them.
Despite how much he tries to convince himself that marriage is just dotting an i or crossing a t, both men look positively scared but happy at the moment they hear, “I now pronounce you married.” So, maybe it was kind of a big thing after all? This moment is repeated on eleven other pages as the author places it against the background of what was happening politically in this country and how that affected people that don’t toe the WASP-traditional-nuclear-family-choice line.
Despite how happy they are as a couple, as time passes and they get on with their lives, with all the happiness and sadness that entails, Kirby compares their familial bliss with what’s going on in the country at large, and here is where the graphic novel changes to a very different theme. Part two is more of a recounting of the Trump years, the abolition of Roe v. Wade, the killing of George Floyd, mass shootings, and how the couple navigates the constantly changing landscape of the recent United States decisions.
At one point Kirby muses, “it sure would be nice to just not think about it anymore…but that’s not the world we live in.”
I remember as a child learning about the Civil Rights Act, which was voted into law the year before I was born. My childlike brain said, “Okay, that’s solved—they passed a law. So, like, that’s fixed, right?” It took me years to learn that it’s not that easy. So…me too, Rob. Me too.
Even when Rob and John are discussing these events with their friends, they’re sensitive and considerate to possible different opinions, and the story has such a good use of framing and flow to echo the previous pages in the story. This ties the first half of the story into the second half’s discussion.
I feel like the four pages of wedding-themed music and six pages of wedding-themed movies could have been less, and it slowed the story’s momentum. But that’s a small quibble for such an enjoyable read.
This graphic novel has no depictions of sexual acts but does portray two men kissing. There is no violence. There are many, many depictions of typical day to day adult family life, like grocery shopping, dog walking, working on the computer, and dinners out with friends. It should be shelved in the adult section and is recommended for any library.
Marry Me a Little: A Graphic Memoir By Rob Kirby Graphic Mundi, 2023 ISBN: 9781637790397
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Oh, how tough life must’ve been back in the late 1700s! Our narrator, Abigail Adams, takes the reader through the history of democracy from as far back as we know to the present day.
We are taken on a journey through the beginning ideas of democracy from Ancient Egypt to its spread and rise in popularity throughout Europe. The book focuses on how democracy came to be how it is today in the United States. It chronologically explains not only major events and turning points, but highlights lots of interesting facts.
Author, Don Brown, doesn’t sugar coat this story either. It was clearly not a smooth, straight path to arrive where America is today. Examples include startling events such as the entire Roanoke colony failing to survive, and disappearing after being one of two colonies sent by King James I to colonize in Virginia. Meanwhile the colony in Jamestown barely survived and even had to resort to eating their deceased neighbors to prevent starving to death. It is not graphic or inappropriate for children, the author simply shares harsh facts of the challenges people faced. It ends on the note that things are not perfect and there are still areas in which America can improve to ensure a free and fair democracy for all.
Author and illustrator, Brown, has a simplistic drawing style that makes reading a densely fact filled book like this a lot more fun. Oftentimes, pictures add a lot of clarity for the reader, such as providing a map of the location discussed, or visually showing the struggle that people faced. This adds a lot of clarity for readers who could be unfamiliar with some of the vocabulary used. To end tis work, there is a timeline included, a short biography of Abigail Adams and a very well done section of references that include corresponding page numbers.
Overall, this is an awesome nonfiction graphic novel. It is packed with information, nicely illustrated and includes a full reference list at the end. I have never read a middle school graphic novel that has so much detail and is so well researched. I am really impressed with this book and look forward to learning more by reading the rest of the books in this series.
Big Ideas That Changed the World, vol 4: We The People Vol. 4 By Don Brown Abrams, 2022 ISBN: 9781419757389
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
“This book is more than the story of how two Polish Jews survived; it is also a cautionary tale of what happens when people stand by and allow antisemitism, hate and prejudice to run rampant” (Introduction, xii).
This nonfiction graphic novel illuminates the story of Bluma Tishgarten and Felix Goldberg, two young Polish Jews who were survivors of the rise of fascism and Hitler’s rise to power. It also reveals the intensification of antisemitism in Europe and the rise and consequences of the Holocaust to contemporary readers. The narrative follows Bluma and Felix on their individual fraught journey to an eventual fruitful meeting filled with optimism, endurance, and promise. It does not sugar coat the horrors of the Nazi concentration and death camps but offers historical insight and background along with the pain and anguish experienced by the protagonists and their allies. It is not an easy story to read but an extremely important one, especially in our current society.
The story, opening in the present day, explains several Jewish customs before moving back through time to the explore the beginnings of the Holocaust in 1917. It paints a bleak picture for the Jewish population as events lead up to the rise of Hitler and the start of World War II. In alternate vignettes the reader follows Bluma and Felix as they are separated from everything and almost everyone they have known and thrown into the frightening cauldron of racial and religious exploitation.
Towards the end of the war, Felix is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he is tattooed and where 960,00 Jews, 74,000 Non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romas, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and over 15,000 citizens of other nations died before liberation. At the same time, Bluma and her sister Cela are transferred to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp which also housed Jews, POWs, political prisoners, Romas, criminals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals and where approximately 50,000 people died. Both camps excelled at humiliating treatment and considered the inmates as less than human. Eventually the three protagonists, along with Felix’s friend David Miller, are sent to a Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg, Germany. (Ironically, in 1924, Adolf Hitler was imprisoned there and where he wrote Mein Kampf.) The four young people meet, fall in love, and have a double wedding before moving to the United States. Once they are settled, they begin informing others about the atrocities they experienced and the dangers of unbridled antisemitism. They encouraged their children to continue their mission with one of the results being this moving graphic novel.
The evocative black and white realistic illustrations signify both the hardships and the joys that the families experience. Most of the written content is in text boxes augmented by some dialogue. There is a great deal of information to absorb on each panel and page. A variety of panels and backgrounds of the pages add to the depth of data and emotion in the story.
Extensive back material includes family photographs, biographies of the creators and contributors of the graphic novel, a timeline of events related to World War II and the Holocaust, a succinct glossary, recommended resources, and an index.
Highly recommended for middle and high school libraries and public and academic library collections. The title has been nominated for inclusion in this year’s YALSA listing of Great Graphic Novels but is a substantial read for older readers.
Thanks to Crystal Strang who gifted me an autographed copy of the graphic novel after attending a presentation by the author, illustrator, and publisher. She, along with the creative team, truly understands the importance of making sure this message is spread far and wide for people of all ages.
We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story By Frank W. Baker Art by Tim E. Ogline Imagine & Wonder, 2022 ISBN: 9781637610206
Publisher Age Rating: 12-16
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Character Representation: Polish, Jewish
With every year, truth seems to become more and more subjective. At least that is what many forces want us all to think. In issue after issue, we are driven apart by obfuscation and subterfuge. It’s hard to imagine how we can come together to exist in the same reality sometimes. Author Samuel Spitale believes he knows how to reclaim our reality with his book How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality.
This hybrid comic and non-fiction book looks at propaganda and bias. It is lengthy and detailed. Spitale tells story after story that illustrates how humans seek to reduce complexity and how our brains can fail to recognize certain facts. These blind spots allow us to be manipulated by marketers and public relations companies. He cites a wide variety of interesting research including Daniel Kahneman and his work on human error. The illustrations by Allan Whincup effectively break down some of the more complex ideas into understandable parts. The comics are more on the cartoony side than realistic and that helps when tackling such an intense subject. Graphs, pie charts, and topical quotes spoken by cartoon politicians and economists help relay the information.
The book spends a lot of time on the history of propaganda as well as U.S. political history. It rings true for the most part, but occasionally becomes a left wing polemic. The chapter on what to do about this substantial problem is slight on workable solutions, so readers may be disappointed considering what the title of the book is. Spitale is still describing the problems right up until the conclusion. Previous works on similar topics, like Unrig, had specific proposals and examples of solutions that are being tried around the country. This book could have used more of that.
The publisher states this book is an “illustrated guide.” That is more accurate than calling it a graphic novel. This is a dense book with lots of text. There are illustrations on most every page, but they are not sequential art. This book belongs in an adult nonfiction collection. Only the most interested teens are going to stick with this to the end. This is certainly an important topic, but I wonder, if they had fully committed to telling a story with pictures would the work be more accessible to a larger audience?
How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality By Samuel Spitale Art by Allan Whincup Quirk, 2022 ISBN: 9781683693086
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Maggie, an NPR journalist, and Adam, a high school counselor, are like-minded, white, progressive newlyweds on the cusp of starting a family in Austin, Texas. On their way home from purchasing a pregnancy test, they’re accosted by two men with a gun, demanding valuables. Maggie, a Texas native, watches in horror as Adam quickly hands over their money. When the muggers demand Maggie’s new wedding ring, she’s prepared to stand her ground, but is utterly shocked when Adam tearfully pulls the ring off her finger. The men laugh at him for crying and then leave on scooters with the goods.
around for a long time. With the advent of the Internet and social media, the word has become quite significant to current political discourse. Exploring the damage disinformation can do to democracy, author Teri Kanefiled and illustrator Pat Dorian discuss the history of disinformation and how to combat it in their book A Firehose of Falsehood: the Story of Disinformation.
If you and your significant other agree on most things, what happens when one big thing comes up that you disagree on? Is being almost perfect for each other enough to happily continue the relationship despite that one Big Thing?
Many are familiar with the adage about a spoonful of sugar helping medicine go down, especially those familiar with Disney’s Mary Poppins, but there is some truth to that statement when it comes to subjects that are either too dense to completely process or too terrifying to rationally contemplate. Such subjects can be made more palatable and/or digestible when put into a graphic novel format. Writers Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa use the graphic novel format effectively in their satirical guide to dictatorship, Dictatorship: It’s Easier Than You Think!
This review refers to the hardbound trade which comprises the first five issues of Animal Castle. It’s marked volume 1 and it is a handsome volume, indeed! I read the first five issues as the individual comics, through my subscription at my favorite comics pusher, so I was curious to see what the compiled edition looked like. This glossy library bound edition shows the richly painted art from the first comic cover and includes a preamble by the author, all the variant covers, and lots of bonus material displaying the original pencils and thumbnails. The cover art wraps around to the back side. It should hold up to many circulations.
The cover of this graphic novel makes one assume that it’s about the author’s marriage to his long-time partner, but by the end of the 112 pages, you will change your assumption. This witty, humane, honestly perceptive story about two men in a relationship and where they are right now in their lives in this country is more of a snapshot in time, with all the attendant Woody Allen-New York-neurotic angst one would expect from a working artist.
democracy from as far back as we know to the present day. 
by and allow antisemitism, hate and prejudice to run rampant” (Introduction, xii).
With every year, truth seems to become more and more subjective. At least that is what many forces want us all to think. In issue after issue, we are driven apart by obfuscation and subterfuge. It’s hard to imagine how we can come together to exist in the same reality sometimes. Author Samuel Spitale believes he knows how to reclaim our reality with his book How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality. 
