Growing Up Graphic: The Comics of Children in Crisis

In Growing Up Graphic, Alison Halsall considers graphic texts for young readers to interrogate how they help children develop new ideas about social justice and become potential agents of change. With a focus on comics that depict difficult experiences affecting young people, Halsall explores the complexities of queer graphic memoirs, narratives of belonging, depictions of illness and disability, and explorations of Indigenous experiences. She discusses, among others, Child Soldier by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikwanine, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq, Matt Huynh's interactive adaptation of Nam Le's The Boat, and David Alexander Robertson's 7 Generations. These examples contest images of childhood victimization, passivity, and helplessness, instead presenting young people as social actors who attempt to make sense of the challenges that affect them. In considering comics for children and about children, Growing Up Graphic centers a previously underexplored vein of graphic narratives and argues that these texts offer important insights into the interests and capabilities of children as readers.

Author: Alison Halsall
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 10/13/2023
Pages: 266
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.99h x 6.10w x 0.48d
ISBN13: 9780814258880
ISBN10: 0814258883
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Comics & Graphic Novels
- Literary Criticism | Children's & Young Adult Literature
- Literary Criticism | Modern | 21st Century