Oxygen Mask: A Graphic Novel: Carnegie Medal-Winning Author

This book cannot be set in any other time period than 2021. It seamlessly integrates daily life, the Black Lives Matter issues that surrounded George Floyd's death and the COVID-19 pandemicSet within a single family home, a very ordinary one, where a Mother, a Father, a brother, a sister & the protagonist (a young man - age unspecified) live in reasonable harmony. Brother is playing video games, sister is chatting on her phone. An illustration of power sockets on page 332 locates it in North America, but without that, it could easily have been set in any corner of the UK, Europe or North America.It's written as people talk with short snappy phrases, a few longer sections, occasionally single words. There is repetition, there is emphasis. There are pauses where there need to be pauses and rhythm when things need to be moved on. There is a real sense of normality underlying a confusion and fear about what’s happening in the world – both from a COVID-19 perspective and in relation to the racism filling the news. Hope, love and family are the threads that are strengthening as other things crumble.The book has 387 pages, but really more like the 100 listed on Amazon as some don't have any words, and some just a few! It is a book to read quickly if you wish, but equally it is a book to read and inhale. Slowly, one breath at a time.In through the nose and out through the mouthThe artwork is stunning, with bright colours contrasting with black/grey. The book was created during the pandemic with the author & illustrator working independently. The original illustrations were done in a lined journal and the brushstrokes, spatters and pencil strokes interspersed with blocks of paint, crayon lines and pieces of fabric really work. The way that the words are taped over the images adds so much to the authenticity of the story.This book is poetry, it's emotion - but what it isn't is boring!Overall, this book was a surprise - I hadn't expected to enjoy it anywhere near as much as I did. I borrowed it from my library, but it's a book that will end up on my bookshelf and one which I will be suggesting to others.It is one of the few books that I read, and immediately re-read – and the second time through was equally powerful, and more detail became apparent.

12yr old boy "that book is brilliant".Me "glad you like it. Written by someone who thinks books are boring"12yr old boy "yes that makes it easy to read, 20 mins in the bath. Perfect. The pictures make it very relatable too"Me "feel free to give it to a friend"12yr old boy " Mum's already stealing it off me!"

Super bouquin, il est trés beau d'abord, pas dans le sens minutieusement bien léché, justement c'est un bouquin qu'on aura pas peur de faire vivre et respirer. Puis il agit comme une sorte de poésie trés directe, avec ses refrains et de multiples ramifications à la fois conceptuelles et physiques parce qu'on peut les toucher et être touché à chaque page. On inspire/expire litéralement. Vraiment trés bien fait. Trés graphique, du figuratif, de l'abstrait, trés texturé dans les images comme dans les mots.