Summary from Goodreads:
A beautifully crafted graphic novel adaptation of Harper Lee’s beloved, Pulitzer-prize winning American classic.
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
A haunting portrait of race and class, innocence and injustice, hypocrisy and heroism, tradition and transformation in the Deep South of the 1930s, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird remains as important today as it was upon its initial publication in 1960, during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement.
Now, this most beloved and acclaimed novel is reborn for a new age as a gorgeous graphic novel. Scout, Gem, Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, and the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, are all captured in vivid and moving illustrations by artist Fred Fordham.
Enduring in vision, Harper Lee’s timeless novel illuminate the complexities of human nature and the depths of the human heart with humor, unwavering honesty, and a tender, nostalgic beauty. Lifetime admirers and new readers alike will be touched by this special visual edition that joins the ranks of the graphic novel adaptations of A Wrinkle in Time and The Alchemist.
Fred Fordham has created a very lovely adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel. The colors and art are best when it’s not dark (i.e. the nighttime scenes when the children are sneaking around the Radleys’ house). I snagged a screenshot of part of the page where Jem, Scout, and Dill have met and colors really do pop in the daytime scenes. There are also some sections where certain angles or characters owe a huge debt to the To Kill a Mockingbird movie, like the “mad dog” scene.
What I found missing was all the “local color” that comes through in Scout’s internal monologue about Maycomb and all its goings on, good and bad. It gets shoe-horned in rather awkwardly at times when it’s not cut entirely. For instance, the entire sequence at the end of the book with the pageant (Scout dressed as as ham) and the scary walk home when the children are attacked feel flat. There is so much that Scout thinks about during the pageant, all her funny little-girl thoughts, and then the walk home is much scarier when Scout can only describe the muffled sounds she hears as opposed to several blurry panels.
Definitely worth a read if you are a graphic novel and To Kill a Mockingbird fan.
Dear FTC: I had a paper galley of this book then switched to the digital galley since that was in color and definitely easier to read.