“Thoreau at Walden” by John Porcellino (Hyperion, 9781423100386, $16.99, 112
pages, for ages 9 and older)
This is the latest in a series of excellent graphic-novel biographies of
famous Americans to be published by the Center for Cartoon Studies.
(Previous volumes focus on
Satchel Paige
and Harry
Houdini.) Comics creator John Porcellino pairs Thoreau’s words with his
own simple cartoon illustrations to convey some of the most important points
of the 19th-century philosopher’s ground-breaking ideas.
In comic-strip form, Porcellino shows Thoreau walking around Concord,
Massachusetts, and through the town’s surrounding woods; tending to his
several-acre garden near Walden Pond; and busy at work at his writing desk.
All the while, thought bubbles and narration boxes convey Thoreau’s
still-developing ideas on nature, simple living, and civil disobedience. (In
the book’s end pages, Porcellino provides an easy reference that explains
where he found each of the Thoreau quotations he uses in his text.)
This is a book that asks its reader to slow down and contemplate. Its images
are deceptively simple, seeming almost childlike at first glance, but their
easy pace and open spaces lend the book a sense of solitude. Porcellino
really takes advantage of one of the graphic novel medium’s great strength
of: it can actually show quiet. This rich atmosphere makes “Thoreau at
Walden” a singularly useful companion piece to Thoreau’s often-studied works
like “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience.” It’s a great volume to put into the
hands of younger readers of middle-school and high-school age who need an
appealing introduction to help bring them into Thoreau’s pace and frame of
mind as he contemplated the possibilities available in one human life:
“I learned this, at least, by my experiments; that if one advance
confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life
which he has imagined –- he will meet with a success unexpected in common
hours.”
This is a thoughtful, well-made, fascinating biographical sketch.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, April 30, 2008
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