English / Canada
The wild swans
Andersen, Hans Christian
(text)
Maguire, Thomas Aquinas
(illus.)
[Vancouver]: Simply Read Books, 2011. – 15 + [102] p.
ISBN 978-1-897476-36-9
Swan | Metamorphosis | Redemption | Fairy tale | Graphic novel | Picture book | Leporello
Reading age: 6+
White Ravens issue: 2012
This emotionally dense graphic-novel version of Andersen’s classic tale of metamorphosis and redemption will lead teenagers to rediscover the timeless appeal of fairy tales. The plot unfolds without words on 102 accordion book pages (there is a separate text booklet), and the characters move through a more than 60 feet long continuous landscape. But “moving through” does not capture Maguire’s powerful art of visual storytelling. The characters merge with the landscape, the hair of the female protagonist, for example, intertwining with the tall grass and the nettles from which she weaves the shirts that will eventually break the evil spell. These graphic fusions and mutations perfectly correspond to the physical and emotional metamorphoses of the characters, driving along the plot from within.