Monday, October 3, 2011

Book Review: Beowulf (Graphic Novel)

Okay, so I know I'm not really a graphic novel kind of girl, but I'm actually falling in love with them. I'm in a Young Adult Literature class that requires me to read 25 young adult lit books, one of which was required to be a graphic novel. Well, after flipping through a few, I left my teacher's classroom with a whole stack. Next on the docket, I'm going to read Maus (a book where the author recounts his father's experience with The Holocaust, while depicting the Jewish as mice and Nazis as Cats... it's fun.)
Anyways, Beowulf by Gareth Hinds was AMAZING. Adam and I read it together. It's much more to read a graphic novel with a boy, considering that they make better fight scene sound effects (Adam rocks at sound effects, me... not so much). The book is innovative in that it sticks to the storyline of the famed piece of literature, but brings the story to life and quite frankly makes it interesting with its illustrations. The artwork is very interesting and the illustrator does a wonderful job of depicting the characters and capturing the story's essence without the use of words. I found myself looking forward to each of the three battles, rather than dreading page after page. I think this book would be great for boys probably from ages 10-16. There is a lot of butt kicking in this book and when I say that this is a graphic novel, I mean it in both ways. Let's just say that the pictures don't leave much gore for the imagination. However, I feel that it is appropriate for the targeted age bracket. If you ever want to read Beowulf, save the yourself the pain and just read this graphic novel.

No comments:

Post a Comment