Books. Once you get past about 9 you think that books with
too many pictures are a bit beyond you. That's if you continued reading beyond
the age of 9. Where I come from this pretty much had you made out as a complete
utter weirdo. It took me a long time to
come back to books with pictures, as my impression of graphic novels was that
they were all spaceships, scantily clad ladies and Batman style 'Ker-blam'
wording.
I only read a couple of graphic novels a year but don't know
why I don't read more. Days of the Bagnold Summer is my first this year. It's a
slim volume, around 100 pages but manages to pack in humour and emotion. It's
about a single mum and her teenage son, who have to spend the summer holidays together.
It becomes clear early on that neither of them are happy
about this situation but there's an undercurrent of love that goes through the
story that is undeniable and most visible in the drawings. The illustrations
are black and white and not beautiful exactly but so accurate. The son, Daniel looks like an amalgam of every
teenage long haired, heavy metal fan and he looks almost constantly mildly
embarrassed.
My favourite character is Ky's mother. She's hilariously
awful and a fantastic contract to Daniel's Mum, Sue. There isn't a huge amount
of plot and we leave the characters in a similar position as to how they
started but with a feeling that they both enjoyed each other's company,
although they'd never say it. I didn't want Daniel to go back to school in the
end and I was sad when he did.
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