illegal by eoin colfer and andrew donkin

We also commend Sourcebooks for bringing this project to the States. In reality, she is optimistic about every one of the many thousands of books submitted to us a year, but vigilantly searches for reasons to say no.įor putting a compelling, sympathetic, artful face on Europe’s immigration crisis, we bestow our highest praise on Illegal, a new graphic novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano (illustrator)-which tells the story of young Ebo’s treacherous journey from Ghana to Tripoli and finally aboard a raft on the Mediterranean. When deciding whether to review a book in the pages of Foreword Reviews, our review editor necessarily makes a mental list of attributes and flaws-factors like readability, broad appeal, and attractive design (cover and interior) weigh heavily. Immigration, climate change, drought, disease, racism, sexism, poverty, political division, opioid abuse-these are the whopper issues of the day, and books can play a primary role in effecting positive change IF they reach a critical mass of readers. It’s a reminder that, no matter the importance of the message, books are also in the entertainment industry. In striving to be taken seriously, these books seemingly take themselves too seriously. (Aug.Reviewer Peter Dabbene Interviews Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, Creators of the Graphic Novel IllegalĪll too often, important books sabotage their chances of earning a large readership by using dense, clinical prose and uninviting design.

Agent: Susannah Palfrey, Hachette Children’s Group. Refugees, readers will understand, are not statistics everyone is an individual. Clouds tower above the ocean, and starry skies light the desert. Rigano brings the brothers’ struggle close, but his magnificent panels include moments of beauty, too. Water is precious, and Ebo and Kwame endure periods of intense thirst.

Punchy dialogue and wistful narration note both Ebo’s poverty and his gifts: optimism (“I’m stronger than I look,” he tells a boss), a talent for singing, and initiative (he parlays a box of wet wipes into cash by selling them one by one). But in flashbacks, they see Ebo searching for Kwame in a teeming refugee hub in Niger. It’s clear that he succeeds, because the story opens on a scene of the two brothers drifting without food or water on the ocean. Ebo’s older sister Sisi is already in Europe, and he knows his brother Kwame is headed there, too, so Ebo sets out to find him.

This achingly poignant graphic novel by Colfer and Donkin, collaborators on the Artemis Fowl graphic novels, imagines how one Ghanaian orphan ends up adrift in the Mediterranean.

Illegal by eoin colfer and andrew donkin