I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly

Kelly, J. (2009). I Kill Giants. CA: Image Comics. ISBN: 1607060922

Plot Summary

  Barbara Thorson is a seriously peculiar girl. She has secluded herself from any friends, is constantly bullied, and has a hard time telling fantasy from reality. She wears bunny ears, refuses to follow rules, shuns others because they are either stupid or annoying, and she refuses to back down when she believes she is killing giants. Then comes Sophia who manages to break through Barbara's tough and confusing shell and a beautiful friendship is born and readers find out the reason for her escape into this world.

Critical Evaluation

  I Kill Giants is a powerful graphic novel of a young girl who is battling her own awkwardness and differences as she shuts herself up in an imaginary world. From the description I thought i would be reading a true fantasy novel and was pleasantly surprised when I instead read a poignant approach of childhood and the struggles that it brings. This novel is a great example of how graphic novels can have the same literary affect that books do. I loved the manga style illustrations which just added to this inspiring book.

Readers Annotation

  Sometimes fantasy is better than reality.

Information about the Author

  Joe Kelly studies at the New York University where he was recruited into Marvel Comic's Stan-Hatten Project. His first published work for Marvel was 2099: World of Tomorrow in 1996. In 1997, Kelly began his first monthly assignment, Deadpool. He has since worked on Marvel Comics that have featured popular characters such as Daredevil, the X-Men, and the Green Lantern.

  Kelly is part of the Man of Action Collective o Creators whose works are featured on Cartoon Network. In 2007 he taught a course on graphic novel writing at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

Genre

  Graphic Novel

Curriculum Ties

  Can be used in a psychology class to better understand how children shut themselves up when things go bad.

Booktalking Ideas

  - How do you deal with pain? Can you understand why she escaped into the fantasy world?

  - What do the giants symbolize?

  - It only takes one person to save someone, have you ever come across a situation like this?

Reading Level/Interest Age

  9-12th grade/Young Adult

Challenge Issues

  Magic, supernatural
   I would offer my library's Collection Development Policy which highlights how challenges and reconsideration's are handled. I would ask the challenger and the professional reviewing it to familiarize themselves with the book.

Reason for Selection

  I found this on a list of the top graphic novels for teens.