Author: Joe Kubert
Publisher: ibooks, inc., 120 pages
Copyright: 2003
School Library Journal Review:
Adult/High School–Kubert combined war and comics to great effect in the "Sgt. Rock" series (DC Comics); in this work, the combination is taken in a very different direction. The author/illustrator's family immigrated to the U.S. from Poland before the Nazi invasion, but he has always been troubled by questions of "what if?" His answer is this book, a speculation on what might have happened had he found himself trapped as a teenager in the Warsaw ghetto. Kubert's alter ego is Yossel, a boy torn from his family but sustained by a compulsion to draw. The comic-book heroes of his sketches appeal to the Nazis, and the soldiers keep him on as a kind of pet. This position is of exceptional use in gathering and passing on information to the Resistance movement to which he belongs. As the uprising escalates, his art continues to provide him solace, even until his final tragic moments. Created to appear as illustrations from Yossel's sketchbook, the pages feature rough yet evocative pencil sketches rendered in Kubert's trademark dramatic style. The black-on-gray drawings make the plight of the people and the devastated, decaying hell of Warsaw in 1943 profoundly tangible. While the straightforward prose does not always have the same impact as the images, the work as a whole is a fascinating and provocative reminder of the lingering psychological effects of war.–Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada
Yossel is a Jewish boy living in Nazi-occupied Poland. At the start of the story, the Final Solution and the concentration camps are just a rumor. However, when a camp escapee makes his way to the ghetto and reveals the horrors, Yossel loses his innocence. Then, he meets an old teacher of his who has escaped from a death camp. Yossel draws his story and it is very powerful. The novel is presented like a sketchbook "diary" and feels immediate and alive. Readers see everything from the horrors of ghetto life to the desperation of the concentration camps themselves. The narrative itself ends with a fierce climax during the Jewish revolt in the Warsaw ghetto on April 19, 1943. Kubert delves effectively into the psychology of the victim and oppressor and presents a solid historical overview of events. Yossel survives by drawing comics for and entertaining the German guards. His family is sent to Auschwitz, while he takes part in the Warsaw Uprising. A highly personal look at man at his worst.
A disturbing experiment in memoir and a personal tale of a young artist's existence in the Warsaw ghetto in 1941 and how events conspired for the Jewish prisoners to rebel against their captors. Joe Kubert came to America in 1926. This graphic novel version of his life imagines what the fate of his family would have been if they had stayed in Poland and fallen to Nazi persecution.
This is, by far, one of the best representations of the horrors of WWII that I've ever seen.
Favorite Quote: "I ran blindly into the darkness, away from the awful sight that was etched behind my eyes. I knew the guards would think that the boy caught in the electrical wires was the only attempting to escape, but, they would check. They would take a count of the camp, barracks by barracks, subtracting those who had died that night in their bunks. Only then would they discover my flight."
Reading Level: Intermediate to advanced
Notes about Audience: Highly recommended for mature readers, ages 16 and up.
No comments:
Post a Comment