The Novels
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, Alan Cope, an 18-year old Californian was drafted and sent to Fort Knox for basic training. From there he was sent to New York and then on to Europe, a broken and devasted place in the final years of the war.
After the war Alan returns to the U.S. but he can't fit in. This place is no longer home, so he goes back to Europe.
Some fifty years later we find him living on a small island off the west coast of France. One day a young French man asks him for directions. This young man is Emmanuel Guibert, the brilliant artist and graphic novel illustrator. Their chance encounter is the beginning of an extraordinary partnership.
Although they were a generation apart, the two men found a perfect friend in each other: Alan needed to tell, and Emmanuel wanted to hear the stories of Alan's life in early post-war Europe.
The two men went to the little shed on the small vegetable plot that Alan owned, just a short distance from his home, and there Alan not only re-told, but re-enacted his war time experiences. Most of this he did in direct speech. For example, instead of saying, 'He asked me if I wanted to come,' Alan would stand in the middle of the floor of the garden shed and re-enact the parts. 'So do you want to come? he asked.'
Emmanuel recorded everything. He produced drawings illustrating the events and people that Alan described, and showed them to Alan, who either approved them or suggested changes here and there to highlight the characteristics of the people described.
This book is called Alan's War, but it is not about the war. It is a deeply personal account of the experiences of a young man and the people he met. There are no heroics and there is no glory.
This is the story of an 18-year old boy who is thrown into another world. He focuses on people. With a few well-chosen words he reveals the character and spirit of the people he introduces us to. While reading his book we see the world through the eyes of this very sensitive and observant young man.
Emmanual Guibert's illustrations fit Alan's narrative perfectly. They are as subtle as traditional Chinese ink washes, and are perfect character studies of the people we are introduced to in the book.
Alan and Emmanuel's friendship lasted for about five years before Alan died in 1999. After Alan's death, Emmanuel went to the places and sought out the people Alan had spoken to him about.
Alan's War
In 'Ethel and Ernest' Raymond Briggs tells the story of his parents: how they met, the sort of people they were, the world they lived in, how they lived and how they died.
They met in 1928 and died in 1971. All the social changes that took place during these years are reflected in their conversations with each other.
The book also gives an insight into English society, which was sharply divided into different social classes. This is still this case to some extent, but much less than it was during the years of Ethel and Ernest's marriage.
They were Working Class, although Ethel did not accept that fact, and was delighted when she was promoted to a job in an office from packing parcels in a warehouse, and even more delighted when her son graduated from school.
Ethel and Ernest express two very different, but very typical English Working Class attitudes of their time. Ethel admired people who she saw as Upper Class, and wanted to be like them. She voted for the Conservative Party. Ernest, on the other hand, was proud of being Working Class, voted for the Labour Party, and wanted a better life for ordinary people. Ernest challenged the authority of the day and Ethel accepted it.
Ernest appears intelligent, and while Ethel appears simple, sometimes there is great wisdom in her simplicity.
This is a love story.
Level: B1 B2 (pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate)
Suitablilty: 15 years +
Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have created a very different kind of superhero comic book.
They have taken central characters from famous works of literary fiction and cast them in role of secret agents employed by British Intelligence defending the British Empire in the late 19th century.
Alan Quartermain is taken from King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, Campion Bond is a 19th century version of James Bond, by Ian Flemming and 'M' is his boss. Captain Nemo is from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are taken from the story of the name by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mina Murray is taken from Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Invisible Man is from the story of that name by H. G. Wells.
The British attitude towards their empire is seen in a highly satirical light: everything British is superior, and everything that is not British is inferior at best, and diabolical at worst.
But that's where the fun begins. If the Empire was not under threat from forces of darkness, the League would have no mission to embark on, and we would have no adventure to read about.
Level: B1 and B2 (pre-intemediate ad upper intermediate)
Suitability: 17+ years
This book is an adaptation of a story from the famous T.V. series, 'The Twilight Zone', that originally aired from 1959 to 1964 and had a cult following. In this story, Martin Sloan, is the wealthy and successful vice president of an ad agency, but he is unhappy with his life and suffers from stress. One day while driving and accutely aware of his stress, his car skids out of control and one of the tires bursts. Sloan gets out of the car and notices a sign that reads, 'Homewood, 2 miles'. Homewood is the town where he grew up. He leaves his car in a service station and walks into the town. With a sense of wonder he goes into a soda shop where the chocolate soda he orders is still only a dime, like it was when he was a kid. As events unfold we realize that he has gone back in time.
Level: B2 (Upper Intermediate)
Suitability: all ages
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The author, Craig Thompson, is one of the most acclaimed graphic novelists of our time. He won four Harvey Awards, two Eisner Awards and two Ignatz awards.
In Carnet De Voyage' ('Travel Journal'), the author travels through France, Morocco, Barcelona and the Alps and describes his experiences with such sensitivity and honesty that you feel like this is your own experience, and that the things he describes really happened to you.
Craig Thompson feels things deeply and expresses them with wonderful clarity. While on one hand, his extraordinary sensitivity enriches his work, on the other hand it sometimes makes him too introspective and feel very sorry for himself, which can be annoying. But then he saves the situation by seeing the funny side of things and being able to laugh at himself.
Levels: B1 and B2 (pre-intermediate and upper intermediate)
Suitability: all ages but would probably not be of interest to someone under the age of 15.
Sentences is the autobiography of, MF Grimm, whose real name is Percy Carey. He is a legend in underground Hip Hop. This novel is an insight into that world and its origins. It is a world of show, glamour, violence and the fight for survival.
Carey was a talented child and got a job as one of the extras in Sesame Street. As he grew up he understood the rules of his world: you were part of the gang that protected your neighbourhood from rival gangs, and you performed random acts of violence on gang members in other neighbourhoods to display your dominance. Percy survived well in this world. He was brash and fearless. But in spite of the violence, there was something good here: ‘…there’s a real sense of family on my block. I NEVER got into it (fought) with anyone from my neighbourhood. We also had one common bond – the corner of 84th and Amsterdam. That was HOME BASE for us…..You could be from 80th, 83rd or 96th Street, so long as you stood on ‘The Corner’ you was FAM (you were family).’ He tells us that he still keeps up with everyone from his block.
On page 18 he tells us how neighbourhood parties would happen spontaneously, ‘…you just plugged a sound system into a streetlamp and guys and girls would show up. Simple as that.’ This was the birth of Hip Hop.
Percy Carey describes the elements of Hip Hip: the DJs, the B-Boys (break dancers), the Graffiti Writers ‘who provided a visual representation of what Hip Hop was all about’, and the EMCEEs (emcee= M.C. usually means Master of Ceremonies, but this is the name given to Hip Hop rappers because of their entertaining, rhyming talk that is a running commentary on society). He tells us that besides these four elements, there is a fifth element, ‘There’s also the secret FIFTH element….the GANGS. Without the gangs…..we called them the CREWS….NONE of this would have happened. Believe that.’
As a teenager Percy knew he wanted to become an emcee (a rapper). An emcee’s rise to stardom happens as a result of the so-called ‘battles’. At these battles, emcees confront each other in front of judges and huge audiences. They taunt and denigrate each other using violent and abusive language. All of this is done in fast-talking rhyme, some of which comes from the emcee’s repertoire, but most of which is invented on the spot. The ability to do this effectively is seen as the intellectual arm of Hip Hop and those who excel can receive huge acclaim, stardom and usually vast wealth.
Percy Carey achieved success as a rapper, but made most of his money selling drugs. He lost the use of his legs in a gang-land shoot out. In 2000 he was sentenced to life in prison, where he took the opportunity to study law. As a result of the many counter-suits he filed, his sentence was reduced and he was released in 2003.
In prison this brilliant young man, who no longer had the use of his legs, and who had received a love of reading from his grandmother, began to see the world differently. He helped illiterate inmates, including those who were racists and white supremacists, by reading their mail and writing letters for them. In prison he had time to reflect and he came out of prison a changed man. Nowadays he invests his time in his company, ‘Day by Day Entertainment’, in writing, and in doing whatever he can to show young people a different way. On the last page of this book we can read, ‘……I want to show the youth that there’s other options out there that don’t involve guns and crime. You CAN make it in this business – and any business for that matter – without taking the route I took. If I can help one person, then this project has been a success. My name is Percy Carey. Thank you for reading my story.‘
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The story begins in 1980. Islamic fundamentalists have taken power in Iran, and the author, Marjane Satrapi, is ten years old. Her world is just about to change completely. The co-educational, bilingual (Farsi and French) school she attends is closed down because it is seen as a symbol of Capitalism. She, like all females in Iran, is obliged to wear the veil. Her parents are educated and liberal, and fiercely proud of their history, their country and their their intellectual freedom. They belong to a class of Iranians who seem to be prepared to go to any lengths to protect this freedom.
At the beginning of the story we see the world through the eyes of a ten-year old child. She is loved beyond measure by her parents and grandmother who pass on to her their values of loyalty, decency and courage.
We are well into the book, in fact on page 20, before we learn that the author's great grandfather was the Shah or Iran, of ancient lineage, displaced by Reza Shah Pahlavi, favoured by the British, who had designs on Iranian oil. Marjane's grandfather was an intellectual. Communism was a fashionable ideology among intellectuals at that time and his involvement with communists caused him to be imprisoned and tortured. Other friends and family members were also imprisoned and tortured, and some died under torture.
Marjane goes to high school in Austria, and later to college in France. As a young teenager in Austria she needs to find a balance between who she is and the world she now finds herself in. Sometimes she cannot find this balance and experiences heart-ache, strangeness and unspeakable lonliness.
You might imagine that this is a dark book, but it is not. It is warm and funny. The author manages to place before us some of the most important socio-political events of our time with a lightness of touch and with humour. But the humour never trivializes the events that unfold in the story. It is used to disarm us and to inform us. This book is compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand the current situation of the Middle East and for any individual who would like to participate in the coming of age story of an extraordinary young woman of our time.
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Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by the Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, was first published in 1885. It is set in London and tells the story of the talented Dr. Henry Jekyll, a decent and respectable man with a good reputation, who had always felt within himself some negative and low tendencies which he hid from the world. He formulated a drug which enabled him to become another person: Edward Hyde. As Edward Hyde he could do the worst things imaginable - things that Dr. Jekyll, would never do. But this experiment turns out to be disastrous for Dr. Jekyll.
In this story Stevenson makes us think about the struggle between Good and Evil and the inner conflicts that people often experience in their lives.
This version has been adapted to Graphic Novel form by the famous Graphic Novel Writer, Alan Grant. Like Robert Louis Stevenson, Alan Grant is Scottish. He lives in Moniaive, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, and he organises the yearly Moniaive Comic Festival.
The artist, Cam Kennedy, is also Scottish. Originally from Glasgow, he now lives in Orkney. His ability to illustrate character, i.e. to show someone's personality by creating a picture of that person, has made him one of the most famous comic illustrators of our time.
Level: B1 & B2 (pre-intermediate and upper intermediate)
Suitability: suitable for all ages