The Nobody vs Scrawl

First, let me tell you that I have no idea what I am doing. This whole blogging world is brand spanking new to me, so I am hoping all goes well. I see there are lovely pictures included with the other blogs, but I have no idea how to do that. My two books are Scrawl by Mark Shulman and The Nobody by Jeff Lemire.

Scrawl is about a boy named Tod Munn. Tod is pretty much a social outcast who hangs out with other social outcasts. Told through first person narration, he leads you to believe that his life pretty much sucks. The story is a little different because instead of having a story told from the point of view of someone who is being bullied, it is told from a bully's point of view. Yup, Tod, it would seem, is your typical school bully. The whole story is told through a series of journal entries that he has to keep as part of his punishment for something really bad that he and his friends have done.


Throughout the book, more and more of Tod's issues are revealed, and we discover the reasons for his behavior. We also discover that he is actually a really good kid, and his is more of a victim than anything else. I liked this book. Tod's voice is authentic, and I think kids, particularly kids who are being bullied, will identify with Tod.

The Nobody by Jeff Lemire is a graphic novel which makes the book more accesible - especially for reluctant readers. This book takes H.G. Wells' Invisible Man character and puts him into a modern small town setting. The invisible man is befriended by a young girl in the town whose mother has recently left the family, and she becomes his only friend as everyone in the town eventually turns against the mysterious, tortured newcomer. Of course, he is just holed up in his hotel room trying to hide (the experiement that allowed him to become invisible also plays havoc with his mental state, and he has done something nasty) and survive, but the people's curiosity and fear lead to his ultimate demise.

I also enjoyed this book even though I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels. Certainly very accesible for reluctant readers, but there is some very strong language. The "f" word is used several times, and I'm not sure I would have it in a junoir high library.

With a better message and more wide-spread appeal, I am going to have to choose Scrawl as my winner.