January 17, 2020
Gr 7 Up-Chan and Choy's latest manga adaptation is a dramatic, striking version of Shakespeare's tale of murder and madness. Prince Hamlet's late father, the king of Denmark, was murdered by his brother Claudius, who then married the queen and took the throne. After discovering the truth, Hamlet hatches a plan to expose his usurping uncle. He feigns madness, stages a play to induce Claudius to confess, and competes in a duel that ends in four deaths, including his own. The expressive artwork conveys the fear, resentment, and madness that are central to this play. Hamlet's emo-kid styling and devastating glares make his disaffection and disdain all the more palpable. Chan and Choy visualize Shakespeare's metaphors by depicting animals roaring and slithering through scenes. They don't shy away from the violence of the play; there are blood splatters galore, and Hamlet's father's death by poisoning is particularly grisly. The book concludes with information from Chan about her research on Danish castles. Udon offers teacher guides with lesson plans for its adaptations, which teachers using the book will find helpful. VERDICT This vividly violent tale will appeal to ambitious manga readers and can serve as supplemental material for the study of Hamlet.-Anna Murphy, Berkeley Carroll School, Brooklyn
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
One of Shakespeare's more tragic plays is the subject of a graphic adaptation. As with the rest of the Manga Classics series, Chan has here kept the full script of Hamlet intact and, in collaboration with illustrator Choy, made this piece come alive. For readers who cannot make it to the theater to see Hamlet performed and for those who struggle to read the original, in particular, this is an accessible and appealing alternative. The visuals offer insights into the play, for example in the way that a character's duplicity is shown with two versions of their face, each with different expressions, making concrete what is being discussed in the dialogue. Subtle visual clues such as the wearing (or not) of shoes encourage readers to speculate as to Hamlet's and Ophelia's sanity. In bringing to the page Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" monologue, Chan's background research informs Choy's black-and-white line drawings, which show the variety of emotions and layers of meaning expressed. Backmatter includes a character design sketchbook and notes from the adapter and illustrator that take readers behind the scenes of this graphic-novel version. The manga-style art will appeal to teen readers familiar with that genre. All characters read as white. Does justice to a theatrical classic. (Graphic fiction. 13-18)
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