Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words 'Another. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. I agree with the School Library Journal’s noted grade level range on Amazon as 4th through 8th grade and because of its complexity, would count this more as an upper middle grade read that would also interest high school students.Award-winning graphic novelist Matt Phelan delivers a darkly stylized noir Snow White set against the backdrop of Depression-era Manhattan. They were brave and heroic and while in all appearance a little rough around the edges, they loved Samantha and wanted to protect her with everything that was in them. I wanted to hug them and give them a home. I liked the solemn feel of the era as depicted in Phelan’s illustrations exquisitely crafted with pencil and ink. I liked that it was set in the late 1920s. I was actually searching for Marvel comics in the teen section when I found this one and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

I stumbled upon this book while browsing the stacks at my local public library. I’d never read anything by Matt Phelan before. With an amended will, Samantha stands to receive the greatest inheritance, rendering her stepmother all the more jealous, leaving Samantha with no choice but to run and hide or face the same fate as her father.

And when it becomes clear that she’s nothing left to gain from him, she realizes that daddy dearest is far more valuable dead than he is alive. Her deplorable stepmother, green with envy towards Samantha because of the way her father treasures her, sends her off to boarding school. She’d lost her mother to an illness that consumed her long ago. In Matt Phelan’s re-telling, Snow White is a little girl named Samantha. In that regard, Matt Phelan delivers a visually spectacular rendering of Snow White, with a historical twist, told against the backdrop of a pre-Depression era New York City. When done right, you don’t need a great deal of dialogue to tell a good story. They fascinate me because they challenge the reader to pay close attention to the unspoken details that unfold before their eyes in the illustrations. I don’t get too many opportunities to read graphic novels but when I do, I enjoy the experience a great deal. Snow White: A Graphic Novel by Matt Phelan

Snow white by matt phelan