Three Mentor Middle-Grade Graphic Novels

When I first started thinking about my WIP, Nightmare in Nuremberg, I envisioned it as historical fiction. 

After a recent trip to Europe, where centuries of hidden inside churches, city streets, bridges, and town walls, I started imagining something different. 

It began like this. I walked by a stone ramp in Belfast, Ireland (not far from where fellow blogger, Valinora Troy lives!) that looked something like this--steps down into the Moselle River in Cochem, Germany.

I started thinking. What would happen if two kids went down a ramp that led them to a mysterious boat that took them back in time? 

That's how my idea for writing my story as time travel began.

I had already signed up for the Children's Book Academy course on Graphic Novels. But I knew NOTHING about time travel books. Or fantasy.

Mentor Texts to The Rescue!

THE WRONG WRIGHTS 

by Chris Kientz and Steve Hockensmith. Illustrations and Color by Lee Nielson. Original research byAnthony Bellotti.

I was very happy to find my first time travel mentor text at my local library. Four middle-grade students go back in time to prevent evil investors from ruining the Wright brothers famous flying machine. 

Observations:

• A knowledgeable adult guides them into the past and then disappears.
• Once the four characters enter the past (which is just shown as an opening in a wall with a different world on the other side), the kids immediately are dressed in period-appropriate clothes. (Later on, this is explained as a hologram).
• The kids are each given a tool--a Siri-like wristband (this book was published in 2016-- right after Apple watches were released. Who had the idea first?) that answers their questions, tells them where they are in history, and gives them an idea of their mission.
• The kids discover that history is going to be irrevocably changed by the bad guys unless they intervene. 
• Interesting twist to the story: the bad guys are also time travelers, although the story doesn't explain where or when they came from.
• When they arrive back in the Smithsonian Museum after their adventure, the hallway they had been in has disappeared. 
• Lots of STEM ideas as well as history are included, along with an explanation on the last page as to what was fiction and what was fact. 
• Very engaging, fun, colorful, and relatively short book. 
• Five stars as a mentor text.

THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT 

by Lars Jakobsen (Time travel)

Like THE WRONG WRIGHTS, this graphic novel is also short (48 pages including several pages of back matter). 

Observations:

• A "forward" explains that a new technology for time travel--a time gun--has been developed but is falling into the wrong people's hands. Secret agents are fighting a dangerous crime wave as these criminals are taking artifacts out of their own time. 
• Although it is clear from the header that the story takes place in Denmark in 1929, I had to read the entire book a few times to understand what was going on. 
• The hero, Mr. Mortensen, is summoned into the past because of his time travel abilities. His mission is to make sure that time doesn't get rearranged and save a young mute woman who is being accused of being a witch.
• In my mind, there wasn't enough dialogue or clear action to make the story make sense. The transitions from one panel to another weren't very clear. I frequently got confused over what was happening. 
• Illustrations (a light blue color was used) show the characters shifting into a different time period.
• Moral of the story for me: make sure that the reader has a clear idea of what is taking place on every page. Time warps must be clearly shown from panel to panel. Dialogue must support action. 
• Two stars as a mentor text.

THE STORM IN THE BARN 

by Matt Phelan (historical fiction plus fantasy)

I can see why this book won the Notable Children's Book Award in 2010. The simple text and poignant illustrations with limited but perfect use of color made this a five star mentor text. 

Observations:

• The setting, a dust storm in Kansas in 1937, is a character and an antagonist. 
• Jack Clark, the young main character, is picked on by the town bullies and  disapproved of by his father. Most of this is seen in action panels without text and by the author/illustrator showing Jack's visceral reactions to how he is treated.
• A secondary character, Jack older sister, is very important to Jack's story. She suffers from "dust pneumonia" and escapes into the world of books which she shares with Jack. The two feed on these stories and their mother's stories of her childhood--which are colored with vivid hews, so different than the grey, black and brown of the dust storm. 
• Jack's inner conflict over his role in the family and whether or not he has "dust dementia" is acutely portrayed. 
• The sequencing of events is very clear in text and pictures. 
• Fantasy is intertwined with the history of dust storms in the midwest. 
• An excellent middle-grade read.

Do You Use Mentor Texts?

What mentor texts have you used when you are writing? Please share in the comments and let us all know what you have learned from them.

Congratulations to Antoinette Martin who won Linda Phillips' book, BEHIND THESE HANDS. 

Be sure and check out other great middle-grade books on Greg Pattridge's MMGM blog.