Review of Invisible

 

Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez; illustrated by Gabriela Epstein

Genre/Category

Invisible is a realistic graphic novel. The category I am reviewing for is Pre-K-6th Grade Graphic Novel.

Target Age Group

Invisible is suitable for children aged 10-12 years or older in 3rd-7th grade. 

Summary

This graphic novel follows five students brought together in a Breakfast Club way: they all have been given the duty of helping in the cafeteria. As students of either Latinx or Mexican descent, they are stereotyped and classified by their school administration as similar, though they are distinctly different. Despite this, the group comes together for a common purpose of helping a young mother and daughter facing housing and food insecurity, which also lands them in the principal’s office, from where the narrative is told. 

Justification

Recommended by Booklist and School Library Journal, this bilingual graphic novel contains many beneficial themes and lessons for young readers, such as the importance of working together and understanding each other’s differences as strengths, doing the right thing even when it’s difficult, and many more. 

Evaluation

I have chosen to evaluate the illustrations, narrative techniques, and characterization of Invisible.

Illustrations

The illustrations of Invisible are vibrant and compliment the narrative well. Each page contains many illustrated panels, allowing for many sequences of action and dialogue to take place with each page turn. The illustrations are heavily focused on the character design and facial expressions of each character, which allows for them to feel realistic, distinct from each other, and representative of their individual personality traits whether it be shy, a bit conceited, athletic, strong, etc. 

Characterization

With a Breakfast Club narrative, it is important that each character becomes more than their archetype, or that the characters find a way to have meaningful interactions despite their differences. In Invisible, each evolution that the characters go through in terms of finding ways to work together for a common goal is well done. They even help each other overcome their own insecurities, from English acquisition to timidness. While the characters work well together in the narrative, I believe each character’s individual traits could have been explored further for the reader.

Narrative Techniques

The narrative styling that Diaz Gonzalez employs adds to both the characterization and the engagement of the narrative. The narrative begins in the principal’s office as the five students have been called there to discuss the actions that occurred during their cafeteria duty, i.e. how they assisted a mother and child facing housing and food insecurity. This scene establishes the rest of the events in the novel, signaling that the entire narrative will take place as a flashback. Moreover, the flashback narrative changes between characters, with it being frequently interrupted by another character stating that the previous events weren’t how they happened, before they then embark on where the narrative picked up from there. The joint storytelling and jumps from character perspective affect the reader’s understanding of the story in an interesting way, as we must simply trust each perspective being given to us. Plus, one more engaging narrative element is the twist ending for why they are really in the principal’s office at all!

Reference

Gonzalez, C. D. (2022). Invisible. (G. Epstein, Illus.). Graphix.