March by John Lewis

Lewis, J., Aydin, A., Powell, N., & Walton, L. (2016). March (Vols. 1-3). Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions.

5Q 4P J S Graphic Format

March has been a graphic novel series on my radar since I watched John Lewis’s incredibly moving National Book Award acceptance speech. The story is an account of Lewis’s life from growing up poor in segregated Alabama, to the 1963 March on Washington. I’m always on the look out for both good memoirs and historical fiction that isn’t about WWII (there’s too much of that time period, and not enough for everything else, in my opinion), and this series is both. Being a graphic novel series, it’s an easy read series on a complicated subject.

This series absolutely belongs in a young adult collection! It is a powerful depiction of what it was like to live in a segregated country, and the hardships that those fighting for civil rights faced. More importantly, the story is told by an own voices author. John Lewis’s story can tell us more than a history textbook, because in addition to the political struggles, he also reveals his emotional struggles. Nate Powell’s black and white illustrations are also very well done.

Read Alike

Long, M., & Powell, N. & Demonakos, J.  (2012). The silence of our friends. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

A semi-autobiograhpical story set in 1967 Texas during the Civil Rights Movement. A white and black family join together to fight for the freedom of five black college students wrongfully charged with the murder of a police officer. Found using the NoveList database.

Shared appeal terms: Compelling writing style, autobiographical comics, graphic novels. Both stories are graphic novels about race, set during the Civil Rights era, and feature black and white illustrations from artist Nate Powell.