William Grill

Deftly illustrated with thick, wintery colored pencil, this large-format nonfiction account of Shackleton’s early 20th-century expedition to Antarctica includes detailed diagrams illuminating kid-magnet facts that relay the complex voyage, devoting, for instance, two pages to images and names of the 69 shipboard dogs. We learn that in recruiting the ship’s crew, “Shackleton quizzed candidates on their practical skills, but also about more unusual things, like if they could sing show more well.” And while the journey was gripping, Grill’s illustrations make it moreso, using double-page spreads to depict the tiny ship’s isolation in pack ice or the roiling sky over the Elephant Island camp. The glossary is useful; it lacks only a bibliography. show less

For the 2014 CYBILs, I read two different graphic novel accounts of Shackleton's last expedition to Antarctica. Separately, they both seemed to miss key points. Together, though, the presented a more complete picture. I wish they were actually combined as an anthology, rather than being separate competing points of view.

Shackleton's Journey by William Grill is presented as a folio sized picture book but was still included in the graphic novel section for the CYBILs. It's 80 pages, so roughly show more twice the length of a normal picture book, but still on the short side for a graphic novel.

Shackleton's expedition included a lot of men and a lot of dogs. Both books include mini caricatures of each man and dog. For an oversized book, I expected better, more detailed portraits. Instead, we get thumbnail sketches that are even less detailed than those in Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey by Nick Bertozzi.

What the book does better, though, is explaining Shackleton's goals, and his strengths as a leader. While the Bertozzi book goes into loving detail about the ship and what was actually done on the journey and during the time they were stuck on the ice, he doesn't try to get into Shackleton's head. Rather, he ends up painting Shackleton as selfish and incompetent.

Some key points that I only got after reading Grill's account is what the goal of exhibition was (crossing Antarctica) and how many people survived (all of them). But I wish the available space of the pages had been put to better use. The illustrations are sadly sparse. show less

Nuevo México, 1882. Una manada de lobos recorre el valle de Currumpaw, Nuevo México, causando estragos entre el ganado y evadiendo a unos desesperados rancheros locales que intentan darles caza por todos los medios. Debido a sus amplios conocimientos sobre los lobos y a su demostrada pericia como cazador, los lugareños deciden contratar a un reputado naturalista, Ernest Thompson Seton, para que trate de acabar de una vez por todas con lo quebraderos de cabeza que les produce la manada show more liderada por el famoso Rey Lobo. Pero la funesta expedición que recorrerá todos los rincones de las vastas llanuras del Viejo Oeste tendrá un resultado completamente inesperado para los desafortunados captores.
William Grill («El viaje de Shackleton»), nos lleva a los últimos días del Viejo Oeste en una fábula en la que un lobo único cambia para siempre la vida de un cazador. show less

Deftly illustrated with thick, wintery colored pencil, this large-format nonfiction account of Shackleton’s early 20th-century expedition to Antarctica includes detailed diagrams illuminating kid-magnet facts that relay the complex voyage, devoting, for instance, two pages to images and names of the 69 shipboard dogs. We learn that in recruiting the ship’s crew, “Shackleton quizzed candidates on their practical skills, but also about more unusual things, like if they could sing show more well.” And while the journey was gripping, Grill’s illustrations make it moreso, using double-page spreads to depict the tiny ship’s isolation in pack ice or the roiling sky over the Elephant Island camp. The glossary is useful; it lacks only a bibliography. show less