Essex County Volume 1--A Highly-Recommended Alex Award Winner

As reported on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, the American Library Association have announced their Alex Award picks, spotlighting adult books with specific teen appeal. One of them was a favorite graphic novel from 2007, Jeff Lemire's Essex County Volume 1: Tales From the Farm. It's been five years since a graphic novel made the list. As I wrote in a Bookslut column several months back, "In this heartfelt and beautifully sparse tale of an orphaned ten-year-old named Lester, Jeff Lemire uses an illustration style that perfectly captures the wide open spaces of rural Ontario. After Lester’s mother dies, he’s sent to live on his uncle’s farm. He hardly knows his uncle and his father has long since left the scene. Lester forms a friendship with a gas station attendant named Jimmy Lebeuf who used to be a professional hockey player until a bad hit knocked him out of the game. Together, the two comics fans build a rich fantasy life revolving around the possibility of an alien invasion. In a watermark grayscale, Lemire also provides flashbacks to both Lebeuf’s career and the details surrounding the death of Lester’s mother. Another section, showing pages from Lester’s own home-made comic book, is imaginative and funny."

    

Highly recommended for all ages--and best of all, the equally evocative Essex County Volume 2: Ghost Stories is also available! - JeffV