Pages

Friday, August 3, 2018

Anne of Green Gables: a graphic novel by Mariah Marsden and Brenna Thummler

Pages: 229
Intended Audience: Tweens and up
Genre: Graphic novel
Notes for Parents: Nothing to worry about.

The Back Cover
Schoolyard rivalries. Baking disasters. Puffed sleeves.
When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan to help manage their family farm, they have no idea what delightful trouble awaits them. With flame-red hair and an unstoppable imagination, 11-year-old Anne Shirley takes Green Gables by storm.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:
This is based on the Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

What’s good?
This is the classic story of a young orphan girl, sent by mistake (they wanted a boy) to live with siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Despite her precocious nature, she tugs at their hearts, making it difficult for the Cuthberts to send her back. The story moves quickly and touches on the best parts of the novel. Marilla and Matthew are well drawn, and the illustrations capture the time period and beauty of the island nicely.
Best Part: Matthew.

What isn’t good?
I didn’t like a lot of the artwork. While I enjoyed the backgrounds and color palette, there were a lot of inconsistencies with people’s proportions and angles that I found a bit distracting. Anne had a strange detached nose, yet other characters’ noses were not drawn that way. And I’ve never been a fan of the empty circle for eyes. Besides that, the story was very truncated. This is typical for a novel adapted into a graphic novel, but it’s disappointing that so much—character and plot development—is lost in translation.
Worst part: Beady eyes.

Recommendation ☺☺☺☻☻ (3/5)
I love L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. The graphic novel was cute, but it lacked the character and plot development that makes the novel a classic. The graphic style makes the story move almost too fast, and the reader loses out on the depth and charm or the original. Having said that, Anne Shirley fans should enjoy this as a companion to the novel and movies. It’s sweet and fun.

Marsden, Mariah, and Brenna Thummler. Anne of Green Gables: a graphic novel. Kansas City: Andrew McMeel Pub., 2017.

No comments:

Post a Comment