Around the World [Hardcover]

Matt Phelan (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: October 11, 2011 | Age Range: 9 and up | Lexile Measure: 710L (What's this?)

A Scott O'Dell Award-winning graphic novelist follows three dauntless adventurers on a Jules Verne-inspired challenge: circling the world, solo!

As the nineteenth century wound down, a public inspired by the novel Around the World in Eighty Days clamored for intrepid adventure. The challenge of circumnavigating the globe as no one ever had before--a feat assuring fame if not fortune--attracted the fearless in droves. Three hardy spirits stayed the course: In 1884, former miner Thomas Stevens made the journey on a bicycle, the kind with a big front wheel. In 1889, pioneer reporter Nellie Bly embarked on a global race against time that assumed the heights of spectacle, ushering in the age of the American celebrity. And in 1895, retired sea captain Joshua Slocum quietly set sail on a thirty-six-foot sloop, braving pirates and treacherous seas to become the first person to sail around the world alone. With cinematic pacing and deft, expressive art, acclaimed graphic novelist Matt Phelan weaves a trio of epic journeys into a single bold tale of three visionaries who set their sights on nothing short of the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A first-rate pleasure from the acclaimed graphic novelist Phelan. And this book - riveting, wondrously drawn, expertly paced - is a triumph in and of itself.
—The New York Times

With uncommon perception and a flair for visual drama, Phelan tracks three intrepid souls' solo journeys around the world...Three true tales of adventure as grand and admirable in the telling as they were in the doing.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A graphic novel that will appeal to aficionados of the form and any reader in search of engrossing true journeys.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

The stories encompass such national ideals as dogged can-do spirit, exploration, enterprise, and commercialism...the very essence of determination and adventure.
—Booklist (starred review)

Phelan invests each tale with its own distinct mood and style.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

About the Author

Matt Phelan is the author-illustrator of the highly acclaimed and award-winning graphic novel THE STORM IN THE BARN. He is also the illustrator of many books for young readers, including ALWAYS and I'LL BE THERE by Ann Stott and THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY by Susan Patron, winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal. He lives in Philadelphia.

Product Details

• Age Range: 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; First Edition edition (October 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763636193
• ISBN-13: 978-0763636197
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Mini Bios of Three Circumnavigators December 1, 2011

By Nicola Manning TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Reason for Reading: I enjoy graphic biographies and while I wasn't too impressed with Matt Phelan's Storm in the Barn, thought I'd give him another go.

This is the story of three late 19th century "around the world travelers". The book opens with the scene from Verne's famous book of the same name where Phileas Fogg makes his bet to travel around the world in 80 days. It was the publication of this book that inspired many real life adventurous types to set off and do the same thing. Told separately in three vignettes, the reader is introduced to the stories of three such adventurers, who each wrote a book documenting their travels. First up is Thomas Stevens a miner, who quits his job, takes up riding the new-fangled invention the bicycle and proceeds to travel around the world via bicycle (this was the penny-farthing bike at the time, though he rode the American version). Next is the story of Nellie Bly, Girl Reporter who set out to beat Phileas Fogg's time and travel the world in 74 days while sending home news reports. The American public went wild for her stories. Finally, we are told the story of Joshua Slocum, retired sea captain, who fixes up a dilapidated little boat into a sea-worthy sailing ship and travels the world by sea.

Each one of the stories is interesting and while having the same theme, unique from one another. Rather than being just a retelling of events, Phelan has chosen to portray each journey through the person's ultimate reasons as to why they conducted the voyage, their driving force and their eventual personal rewards. An enjoyable read. Not overly exciting, but interesting nonetheless.... I can't say I'm particularly fond of Phelan's artistic style; his colours are drab and his watercolours are wishy-washy to my sensibilities, but he is a well known illustrator and obviously many others do appreciate his work. Certainly a unique topic and combination of stories. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Never mix white cheese with plums October 17, 2011

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Book phenomenons are something, aren't they? Get the right writer and they can use words alone to inspire people to do the craziest things. Whether it's Wizard Rock or standing on docks to find out if a favorite character has died, as long as there has been literature there have been people taking books to heart in surprising ways. Around the World in 80 Days may be one of the more extreme examples of this. Had Phileas Fogg not set out to traverse the globe in a matter of scant days, he could not have sparked the imaginations of three intrepid late 19th century individuals. Now you could write a decent nonfiction triple biography of the three for kids and no one would raise so much as an eyebrow (unless it was bad, of course). What's unexpected is taking these true stories and turning them into a single graphic novel. Inspired by their stories, and even more by their internal struggles, Matt Phelan finds a way to bring to life three striking individuals and their circumnavigation dreams.

In the second half of the 19th century a fictional character set out with a challenge. His name was Phileas Fogg, the book was Around the World in 80 Days and the challenge was inherent in the title. So popular was the novel that it inspired others to travel in Fogg's footsteps, so to speak. Three in particular come to mind. First, a miner by the name of Thomas Stevens. Thinking that there must be more to life than spending it underground, Stevens was inspired when he saw his very first bicycle. After purchasing one and biking across the country Stevens got it into his head to go bigger. Why not bike around the world?... Next up, the intrepid female reporter Nellie Bly who vowed to beat Fogg's 80-day mark and became a national sensation in the process. Finally there was Captain Joshua Slocum, a man haunted by his own past who sailed around the world over a time span of over three years. Three people. Three reasons for their trips. Three entrancing stories.

Matt Phelan's previous dalliance with graphic novels was The Storm in the Barn, a winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. That novel was a curious combination of history and fantasy, rendered in almost uniformly brown panels. With Around the World Phelan switches focus and concentrates entirely on real world events. He seems more comfortable working with real people and their lives than he did dabbling in the fantastical. Not that this book doesn't have it's own share of mirages, hallucinations, and monkeys, but through it all are storylines based in fact. For this reason, Phelan makes a mention in the book's Author's Note about why he wrote this story. While at first he just thought the collection would merely dramatize these true stories, eventually he came to wonder about why his subjects did what they did. "What were their motivations? What prior experiences might be traveling with them." He seeks to answer those questions here. How well he does so is in the eye of the reader.

The subjects of this book are also all adults, a fact that proves something I've suspected for years. If you want to write a book for young people and you want your protagonists to be grown, you have several options. Generally speaking you can't write a work of middle grade fiction starring an adult unless those grown-ups are furry woodland creatures or the book is a graphic novel. There are always exceptions to this (The Twenty-One Balloons, Mr. Popper's Penguins, etc.) but by and large that's the rule. Around the World is ostensibly nonfiction. It shows the lives of real people and follows their adventures. However, unless every word of dialogue comes directly from sources that confirm that they said those exact sentences at those exact times, technically the book has to be considered a work of fiction. And as a work of fiction, it stars adults. Fortunately it also utilizes comics, upping the interest levels and making its adults with their childlike dreams all the more relatable.

Because that really is the question: Will kids find this interesting? The book begins well with a scene from Around the World in 80 Days and suspicion about a gentleman thief. That storyline is just to set you up, however, and kids wanting to know more about the thief will have to read the original book (there are worse things). From there the title immediately jumps into the story of bicycles. I understand why this is, since Phelan is keeping his storylines in chronological order (1884, 1889, and 1895 respectively). Still, it would have been nice if the Nellie Bly tale, with its inherent immediate excitement and cameo appearance by Jules Verne, had happened first. The bicycle section makes for a low-key beginning. One trusts that kids that are picking up graphic novel historical fiction aren't looking for huge explosions in the first few pages anyway.

As for the art? Artful. I read a black and white version of this story, though the final copies are all full-color. So while I can't speak to the hues and tones I can at least drop a little praise on Phelan's artistry. A gentle illustrator, Phelan has always been subdued. Expressions on his characters tend to show their subtler senses. His are cartoons that are not cartoonish, if that makes any sense. Of course about 70% of the men in these stories sport moustaches of varying size and walrus-like girth. Those fellows don't tend to change their expressions very often, nor do you require them to. With just a dot or a line Phelan can make someone like Thomas Stevens looks appalled one moment and pleased the next. As for the layout of the panels, I've always loved Phelan's willingness to shake up your view of a scene. Like a good movie director he switches effortlessly between close-ups, scenic panoramas, and other angles and approaches. Phelan has a knack for avoiding the static.

I'm a picky comic reader. Fact of the matter is, speech balloons are important to me. You can't just throw them into a text without thinking about them first. You have to consider what kind of balloon will work best with the story you're writing. Speech in a comic should blend seamlessly with the images. The last thing you want is for a reader to be pulled out of the story by the way in which the words are displayed. Phelan's art in this book is, as I mentioned before, fantastic. However the publisher's decision to place his dialogue in white unattractive squares is odd. Every word spoken suddenly leaps off the page, distracting you from the images. There is no give and take between word and image here, only a glaring difference separating the two. It's a pity and needlessly distracts from an otherwise remarkable book.

So who knows? Maybe this'll inspire some kid to read Around the World in 80 Days. Or maybe even vow to take a trip around the world themselves someday. If three people could do it for such vastly different reasons, so too can a 21st century kid. For older students, pairing this with To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka might make for a great then-and-now compare and contrast of world travel. But standing on its own, Around the World allows us to gape in wonder at those folks that finished what they began. By bike, by sail, by train, they circled the globe and lived to tell the tale. And Matt Phelan knows just how to bring such tales to life. Great stuff.

Ages 9-12 Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Crafted August 22, 2012

By V. Baker

Format:Hardcover

I very much enjoyed these tales of three explorers who circled the globe. As the author notes in the end, his original intent was to simply chronicle their journeys in the first person, but he later became more interested in their inner motivations. This is something that evolves throughout the book, with the final story (#3) being the richest and most relatable of the three. Nellie Bly's story (#2) wasn't particularly relatable, but it was compelling in its own way.

Although the text was dry for my taste on occasion (hence the 4 stars), I particularly enjoyed the artist's depiction of personality and movement through the pen and ink and watercolor illustrations. I was enthralled by the drawings and found myself stuck at some points just looking at the subtleties and beauty conveyed by the art. One of my favorite pages is the one where he subtly merges the image of the miner's candle into that of the bicycle.

I look forward to re-reading this book. _Around the World_ is beautiful and enthralling and short -- my favorite kind of read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it. August 6, 2012

By M. Heiss

Format:Hardcover

This book takes a look at three global travelers and presents them as personalities, not necessarily historical figures. Showing their gruffness and personal quirks, the stories get more other-worldly and hallucenogenic as the book goes on. The stories are:

1) Thomas Stevens -- bicyclist
2) Nellie Bly -- reporter
3) Joshua Slocum -- sailor

It's an interesting, entertaining book.

Parent Note: This book probably won't count as a biography unless your child's teacher is VERY LENIENT.