Graphic novels can get a bad rap with some audiences. Some parents might take issue with what they see as being the sole topic of graphic novels, superheroes. Of course, librarians and young readers all over know that graphic novels encompass so many more topics than just superheroes in tights. For a while, Maus was considered the go-to graphic novel for upper-middle school readers. The March trilogy of graphic novels is another one that made the genre more respected in the eyes of reluctant educators or readers who might’ve been averse to the medium. Run: Book One picks up right where March, Book 3 left off, immediately grabbing readers by the pages into this story of ‘good trouble’ that set John Lewis on his way.
Run is a non-fiction graphic novel that commands your attention. It takes place in the narrow band of time between early August 1965 and the summer of 1966. John Lewis and a group of protesters had just been arrested for trying to attend a church that wasn’t integrated. As the book opens that has just occurred and The Watts Riot in Los Angeles are about to happen. Lewis is the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and they’re planning various protests around the country. Things across the country were very tense, the Watts Riots were national news and the slightest thing could’ve magnified things even worse.
The United States was already going through a series of protests and unrest due to the Vietnam War. The Civil Rights Act had passed and was the law of the land, but it surely wasn’t being enforced in many areas. Factor into all of these threads that Black Power was a rising force. There is also the fact that they wouldn’t speak out against doing violent things, which was at odds with Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. and the scene is set for Run.
Run Book One is encyclopedic in nature. It’s drawn in stark, black, and white, except for the cover which adds in red to illustrate the conflict. The book also has one of the best subtitles in recent memory, first you MARCH, then you RUN. This is a thick graphic novel whose 152 pages consists of 33 pages of credits, which are comprised of biographies of people mentioned in the book, sources, notes on the artwork and more. It’s an illustrated history book is another way of thinking about it.
The story is tightly told and very detailed. The growth of John Lewis as a leader starts to happen in Run and will continue in the next book. This is more about his early years before he went to Congress. Considering that Run, Book One ends its story in 1966 and Lewis wasn’t elected to the U.S. House of Representatives until 1987 there are many more details to be filled in.
It’s a tough graphic novel to read because one doesn’t want to believe that people could’ve ever thought or behaved in certain ways. This was a complex time and the team behind the book has done a canvas sprawling great job of making people understand this aspect of that time. The text in Run is OK for younger middle school students. They would’ve studied a bit about this period in time and would benefit from this presentation. Those upper middle school readers and older will get the most from the book. The serious nature of it and multiple real-life people who shaped this era will be able to follow the emotions, thoughts, and implications more effectively than those younger readers. This is one that middle school libraries will have on a revolving door of checkouts. Some teachers will assign the book to classes to read, discuss and talk about, which is something that Lewis would’ve certainly been proud of.
Run, Book One is by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and Nate Powell and available on Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of Abrams Books.
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