Luther

by Rich Melheim
illustrated by Jonathan Koelsch
2016 / 72 pages

I've reviewed other "comic biographies" and never enjoyed one more. Luther is scripted like a movie, has witty dialogue with actions scene interspersed, and the artwork is of the same sort you would find in Marvel or DC comics – it is fantastic!

Educational comics, as a genre, are valuable in that they make learning history a lot less painful. But very few of these graphic novels are the sort of comic that a teen would just pick up and start reading. Luther is the exception. I don't want to over-hype it – a kid who reads nothing but superhero comics will still find this a bit of a stretch – but it really is as good a comic as you will find.

Cautions

Since this is intended for teens, I'll note a few cautions about language. The word "crap" is mentioned three times, "ass" once, and "old fart" once. But when you consider this is a comic about the notoriously potty-mouthed Luther, this is really quite tame.

I'll also note that a depiction of Christ shows up on the inside back cover of the book. It is not part of the story, but rather part of an ad for other comics by the same publisher.

Teens should be told that while the general storyline follows real events quite closely, specific details are often made up. For example, while we know Katharina von Bora was a self-assured woman, it seems doubtful that she popped the question to Martin Luther. Also much of the dialogue is made-up. Some of it is made up of quotes or near quotes from what Luther did actually say. But since most of Luther's day-to-day conversations were not recorded, these parts had to be made up.

One final caution: the comic treats as fact that famous, but unconfirmed, conclusion to Martin Luther's speech at the Diet of Worms, where he is said to have declared, "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." There is good reason to doubt he said these words.

Conclusion

The comic has several strengths including the overall picture it gives of the happenings going on in the broader world that made it possible for Luther to both spark this Reformation and live into old age and die a natural death.

Another strength is that while this account is sympathetic, it notes (briefly) one of Luther's weaknesses: that sometimes Luther's pen got the best of him and he could write some "terrible and hateful words" denouncing Jews, Calvinists, and Anabaptists alike.

Overall this is a comic that teens and adults (who aren't embarrassed to be seen reading a comic) will certainly enjoy.

I've reviewed another graphic novel on Luther's life, and I think the two of them perfectly compliment each other. This Luther is the more exciting of the two, but it plays a little looser with the details. Meanwhile Luther: Echoes of the Hammer is a more reliable history lesson, but it isn't nearly as dramatic.

If you buy Luther (or anything else) at Amazon.com here or Amazon.ca here you can support this site at no cost to yourself.

Other reviews related to Martin Luther

Another solid comic about his life Luther: Echoes of the Hammer
A comic about his wife Katie: Mother of the Reformation
The 1953 Oscar-nominated film Martin Luther
The short biography The Heroic Boldness of Martin Luther
The children's picture book about Luther teaching The Barber Who Wanted to Pray

Seeing Is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion

by Jonathon Van Maren
2017 / 171 pages

As an English teacher, I have compiled a list of about 70 books that I consider to be really good reads for high school students. I thought that the list was finished... But Seeing Is Believing is really good enough not only to make this blog, but to join my list of all-time really good high school reads.

Why? Because Jonathon Van Maren, a front-line soldier of The Culture War (another of his books), makes a compelling case for the use of abortion victim photography – for the use of  graphic pictures. 

His argument is based on not only its current effectiveness, but on the history of social reform movements that have been successful because of their proponents' willingness to bring the ugly truth of oppression and injustice before the public, even at the cost of criticism and controversy.

That long sentence pretty much summarizes the book, but let me work it out a little further. Van Maren demonstrates, in Chapter 1, how four different reform movements – targeting slavery, oppression in the Congo, child labor, and civil rights abuses in the U.S. – used visual evidence of these evils to influence not only minds, but also hearts. The next chapter describes how photographs of abortion victim effectively re-stigmatizes abortion. Chapter 3 zeroes in on how abortion particularly traumatizes those who work in the abortion industry. 

Chapter 4 addresses the objections of pro-lifers to abortion victim photography, while the next chapter responds to more general objections to abortion victim photography. Chapter 6 gives a series of specific examples of people whose views of abortion, or potential decisions regarding abortion, have changed due to abortion victim photography.

Finally, the conclusion refocuses us on the real reason for using graphic visuals – the unborn child whose life is saved when his or her mother changes her mind about having an abortion.

Two appendices from other writers give the history of graphic images in pro-life work and a statistical analysis of the effectiveness of abortion victim photography.

If you think that Jonathon Van Maren can help you convince others that "our culture must face the victims of abortion," you can order it here, or here in Canada.

The Great Cake Mystery

by Alexander McCall Smith

73 pages / 2012

Precious Ramotswe must ranks up there with some of the best-loved fictional detectives of all time, rubbing elbows with Hercules Poirot, Cadfael, and Father Brown. But as beloved as she is among adults, did you know that the star of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is also popular among children? McCall Smith has written a series of mysteries for children, featuring Precious when she was just eight years old.

For those who don't already know, Precious lives in Botswana. In The Great Cake Mystery Precious doesn't think of herself as a detective yet, but her dad thinks she has it in her. So when a classmate is accused - without any proof – of eating someone else's sandwich, she is upset. Precious, you see, is a kind girl who wants to help others. In this case helping means setting a trap to catch the real snack stealer.

SPOILER ALERT: Precious bakes a cake full of glue, covers the whole thing with icing, and places the cake outside the classroom "on the shelf where the children left their bags." And not too long afterwards the whole class hears the howling cries of the little thieves - monkeys! Precious has saved her friend from the mean accusations of their classmates. And, this being a old-fashioned sort of book, those classmates are truly sorry for what they thought and said.

This is a charming book, made all the more so by the folksy illustrations throughout, at least one on every two-page spread. McCall has written four other children's mysteries starring the young Precious, with The Great Cake Mystery billed as "Precious Ramotswe's very first case." (In a confusing twist, that same billing is shared with at least one edition of another book in the series, Precious and the Monkeys. Whether The Great Cake Mystery is the first or not, it serves as wonderful introduction to the young detective-to-be.)

CAUTION

We've read two other "young Precious" mysteries so far, and our daughters have loved both The Mystery of Meerkat Hill and The Mystery of the Missing Lion. I had a slightly different take. While I loved the former, I thought the later was marred by a insertion at the end where they treat a lion as if he were a person. Precious ends up giving a brief lecture about how all lions should live free, including the missing tame lion they'd just recovered, and all the adults side with the child.

It is, on the one hand, no big deal - it is only a few pages in an otherwise enjoyable story. But it rankled me because this childish "feel-good-ism" is rampant in our culture, and I don't think we need to be feeding any of it to our undiscerning children. The fact is, a tame lion would most likely die in the wild and a well-treated tame lion is not an oppressed lion. So what Precious proposes is both completely unnecessary, and quite likely very harmful to the very lion she wants to help. We're taught that good intentions are what really matters, but God says otherwise (Prov. 27:14) – if our well-meaning efforts cause damage, then we need to stop doing this well-meant damage!

CONCLUSION

My wife and I didn't know about this brief lecture until we came across it in the audiobook with the kids listening along. It wasn't objectionable enough to stop listening to the book we were already three-quarters of the way through, but if I was buying this series for a Christian school library I would get The Great Cake Mystery and The Mystery of Meerkat Hill, but give The Mystery of the Missing Lion a pass. There are two others in the series but we have yet to read (or listen to) them.
       
I should note that the audiobook version are truly remarkable, with the reader delivering all sorts of wonderful accented voices.

Oh, and if your kids like this series, they might also enjoy a five-book series McCall Smith wrote about Akimbo, a boy who lives on a game reserve in Africa. I've reviewed those here.

All, in all, these are books that children even as young as 5 may really enjoy listening to, and 9 year-olds and up could really enjoy reading. Our whole family was thoroughly charmed.

The Far Side Of The Moon: The story of Apollo 11's third man

by Alex Irvine

illustrated by Ben Bishop
64 pages / 2017

Everyone's heard of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. And many of us know the name Buzz Aldrin too, the astronaut who accompanied him, and who was the second to walk on that cratered, barren, surface.

But did you know the Apollo 11 mission actually shot three men into space?

Who was the forgotten third man?

In this short graphic novel we get to experience the moon landing from the perspective of Michael Collins, the third man in the capsule – best known as one who "didn't get to walk on the moon." He travelled the same 200,000 miles through space right along with them, but someone had to stay behind in Columbia, the orbiting Command Module, while Armstrong and Aldrin headed to the surface in The Eagle, their Lunar Lander. Collins stayed behind, circling the Moon 14 times as he waited for their return.

Far Side of the Moon seems intent on conveying both how remarkable his story is – he flew to the moon! – and how melancholy – he never got to touch it. The muted pallet of black, white and spot color purple, creates just the right mood.

That muted pallet also means that even though the drawings are solid, this isn't a visual feast, and it isn't likely to grab the eye of a young reader. But if a boy, maybe 10 and up, already had any sort of interest in space-exploration, then they'd be sure to enjoy all the details about Michael Collins' training and about the different spacecrafts he flew. It might need a teacher's or parent's involvement; they might have to put it in his hands. But if they got started on it, I think most tween and even teen boys, and some girls too, would find this a really enjoyable book.