I understand the desire to put the entire novel into his new rendition and to stay true to Lee’s text-believe me, I know-however, this book seeks to do so by putting in too much dialogue to the point of a few monologues. There is a lot of text that can be a turn-off to younger readers promised a comic-book-like experience. While the book has these moments, they are far and few between.

It doesn’t get much better than that, right book lovers? However, I love the novel as a novel and expected the graphic rendition to be written more to the style of a graphic novel: intricate artwork that stands in place of longer text, sequential images without interruption, and a variety of paneling choices. The illustrations and color are beautiful, and the pages are thick and crisp. Thus, I come to this graphic novel both loving the medium and the original text and the mindset of, “Please don’t make me hate this.” Women wrote back then? Who knew? I can write, too! Harper Lee’s death stands to be the only “celebrity death” I have cried about and written about. To be clear, To Kill a Mockingbird was my favorite book I read for school and was a big stepping stone in cultivating my passion to write. This took place while Lee was in a nursing home unable to consent to this publication, which many people think is a sequel to her famous novel, leading to outrage and disappointment. This would go on to be her legacy, having published one novel, until the first draft of the well-known work would later be printed in 2016 and titled Go Set a Watchman. In 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published under the pen name, Harper Lee.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Fred Fordham