Illegal at the literature festival
Illegal is the latest book from the wonderful team that turned Artemis Fowl into a graphic novel sensation. They’ve worked together for over a decade, and the fantastic rapport they share was evident throughout the interview.
I’m always keen to hear from authors about their “behind the scenes” goings on, but this one I was really looking forward to, having been such a fan of the team for so long.
The book
Ebo is a young boy, parents gone, sister left months ago, and now his brother is missing too. Ebo knows that his brother must have gone to make the dangerous journey to Europe to look for a better life. He must follow. A better life will be with his brother, and his sister, if he can find them.
Ever the optimist, Ebo sets out to make his way across the desert, and the cruel waves of the Mediterranean, with nothing but a song in his heart and thought of a better life with his siblings.
The truth behind the book
Hidden in the back of the newspapers, when Illegal was just a twinkle in the eyes of Donkin and Colfer, were stories of ships going missing at sea. These ships were full to the brim with migrants looking for a better life in Europe. Journeys are tough, and those that take the crossings are crowded into ships and small boats, making it even more dangerous. Those that they pay to make the journey have little concern about the outcome.
While Ebo might not be one particular child, he’s the culmination of research, interviews and hope. All the places he goes are real, and the situations he finds himself in are what many in Africa have to deal with if they want to make the trip to Europe.
The journey
Colfer and Donkin met through their agent, the playful banter as they recall the tale makes everyone chuckle. Donkin jokes that he felt the need to get rid of his agent’s new signing, and while we laughed, the plan for an accident on the balcony after one too many glasses of wine seemed well thought out. (Who knows, maybe we’ll get a murder mystery based on that sometime in the future.)
Luckily, no such plan was put into action and the two hit it off straight away, much to the delight of readers everywhere.
Having finished their latest projects Andrew suggested to Eoin that they tried something original next. The pair came up with their story ideas and got together to pitch them to one another. There’s a wonderfully animated nature to Eoin as he tells us the story of what happened. He’s had an idea for a superhero family, who have a baby that turns out to be a superhero too… “wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“What about the forced migration of Africa?”
I’m sure the superhero family would have been a great book, after all, at that point most of us were pining for The Incredibles 2, but I’m so pleased that Illegal made it to print.
Thoughts on the book
Ebo is a fantastic character. I feel a little bit of a draw to him as he’s got the gift of optimism. He’s always a caring person, even in the worst of times, he’s thoughtful, and always wants to help others. He’s a real driving force behind the group.
The book never tells you how you should feel about what’s happening. There’s no agenda. It just portrays one boy and his journey. And it’s a sad, and challenging journey. It’s easy to read a short story in the newspaper about the situation in Africa, but it’s not easy to glean from that exactly how desperate things are or how much someone goes through just to get here. As you turn the pages though you’re greeted with events that you didn’t even think were possible. Surely these things don’t happen? Sadly, they do.
I love graphic novels for many reasons, but one of the main ones is the fact that they’re for everyone. Even if you couldn’t read, the images have been created with such care and attention around the dialogue that you can still work out what is going on. And even if you can’t you can imagine a new and wonderful story based on them. Prose has to be black and white, you have to layout a lot of detail. When you do that you can make subject matter too intense for some audiences. On my first reading of Illegal I was moved by the story, and now looking back on it as i write this I’m struck by some of the things I noticed but didn’t actually take in on the first reading.
Once you’ve read it, go back to chapter 12, pages 76 and 77. Very few words are on this spread, the group are walking across the desert. They put up this slide at the event to show that you don’t need to use the detail as you would in prose, the illustration shows you how tough the characters are finding things. But when I go back to it now I’m struck by one thing. Count the people in each frame and think about what that means. No words, just the illustrations convey that message.
The event
Live events are wonderful to attend. You meet such nice people, and of course you’re all interested in whatever it happens to be that you’re seeing. This one was dominated by young boys and their parents with bags that were weighed down by Artemis Fowl books. I can’t deny that this was part of the reason I went too.
Amongst us die hard fans though (I say that, but I can’t imagine that anyone there could dislike Artemis Fowl), there were teachers and booksellers too. Everyone was whispering about what other tickets they’d got, which bookshop they were going to visit when they went back into town. It’s always a treat to be surrounded by people who love books.
At the beginning of the talk we were treated to watching Rigano doing an illustration of Ebo. Even with just a marker pen and a rickety drawing board it is amazing to see what someone can create. As I watched him put the first few tentative marks on the paper I tilted my head at the board wondering how those out of place lines were going to create an image. Soon there was an outline of a boy, that still didn’t quite look like a boy. But each line he added brought a slight smile to my face, seeing it develop was wonderful, not just that though, watching him jump between lines in Ebo’s face to the smallest detail in the background and back again was fascinating.
Having a child at the centre of a children’s book is almost a given, but Eoin made an excellent point, and it made me think about why I love children’s books… it’s the optimism, the thought that anything could happen. He said… if you ask kids who can draw they all put their hands up. If you ask adults the same question less people will put their hands up because you hear a different question, they can draw, but they can’t draw well.
This book really does make you stop and think. I look at some books and wonder if I’d have read it if it was written by anyone else. It’s very difficult to know the answer to that, but I can say that if I hadn’t read Illegal then I really would have been missing out. It’s a wonderful way to get children thinking about topical issues, and I can really see this working in a classroom environment.
Illegal is just out in hardback this week, written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, and illustrated by the very talented Giovanni Rigano. If you only do one thing this week it should be reading this beautiful book.
