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GECDSB
Think Literacy Student Success Initiative |
| GENRES | GRAPHIC
NOVEL, MYSTERY, ADVENTURE, REALISM |
REQUIRED READING ABILITY:
Junior: Average Intermediate: Low/Average SUMMARY: The police tell Alex that his
Uncle Ian was not wearing a seatbelt and was killed in a truck/car accident.
Alex cannot accept this as the truth, as his uncle ALWAYS wore his belt
and was very conscious of safety. He sets out to investigate, and when
a few other unsettling details appear around his uncle's funeral, Alex
begins to grasp the truth. He discovers his uncle was really a secret
agent for MI6 – Britain's top-secret Intelligence Service. Before
long Alex is blackmailed into joining them in order to unearth his uncle's
killers. If he isn’t careful, however, he may follow a little too
closely in his uncle’s footsteps, and suffer the same fate… WHO
WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who... There are now seven Alex Rider novels, starting with Stormbreaker, as well as the movie version (which this graphic novel follows, rather than the original book). Be warned that students who have recently lost a family member might find Ian’s death and Alex’s orphaned state upsetting, especially as the graphic novel has much more visceral scenes of death, including Ian's shooting at point blank range. This novel never digs too deep into emotions and/or levels beyond the plot and action, however, but these illustrations might be a bit upsetting. The illustrations and alterations from the original text should make this graphic novel an interesting choice for media literacy with your students, especially if you use the accompanying non-fiction text that outlines the making of the movie, on which the graphic novel is based.
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