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A review by spenkevich
Took (Graphic Novel): A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn, Jen Vaughn, Scott Peterson
3.0
A creepy woman in the woods, magical kidnapping, a cursed doll, Took: A Ghost Story is a fun little fright tale. Aimed for middle grade readers, this is the right level of scary. While I haven’t read the original novel, which, to be fair, I didn’t realize existed or was aimed at young readers when I picked this up to pass some time, I also don’t really see how a graphic adaptation would have improved upon the story. I do, however, enjoy that it exists to satisfy different sorts of readers and think it’s really great that this is becoming a trend, but feel like this is one where the tension and mystery would be better served by being absorbed in the prose. If anything, the illustrations aren’t anything all that special and are possibly too brightly colored to fit the story. The frightening parts lack any grit and don’t do much to build an eerie tone. Take all this with a grain of salt because it is aimed to function with young readers who might find anything else a bit much, though there really is a noticeable absence of creepy tone in the illustrations. It also can get a bit overly wordy for the frames. It is fun though, and I’m sure kids will appreciate it but it feels a bit slapped together and a bit more fine tuning could have gone a long way here.
But please continue making graphic novel adaptations, it is a wonderful step towards accessibility and reader inclusion for young ages, plus graphic novels can really help encourage kids to approach and enjoy reading no matter their reading level. It makes for good inclusion in libraries to be supplemental to traditional texts and can be very useful for reading hestitant learners. They are also beneficial for developing reading comprehension and associating images and text together too and go great alongside traditional reading materials. Plus they are fun. I will soap box for graphic novels all day any day. So please, continue making adaptations as well as original graphic novels at a variety of lexile levels for young readers.
3/5
But please continue making graphic novel adaptations, it is a wonderful step towards accessibility and reader inclusion for young ages, plus graphic novels can really help encourage kids to approach and enjoy reading no matter their reading level. It makes for good inclusion in libraries to be supplemental to traditional texts and can be very useful for reading hestitant learners. They are also beneficial for developing reading comprehension and associating images and text together too and go great alongside traditional reading materials. Plus they are fun. I will soap box for graphic novels all day any day. So please, continue making adaptations as well as original graphic novels at a variety of lexile levels for young readers.
3/5