Your Pal Fred

 









Your Pal Fred by Michael Rex is graphic novel and is written for 7-10 year olds in grades 2nd - 4th based on information provide by Penguin Random House (n.d.).

Your Pal Fred is made up of mostly episodic stories that follow the life size toy Fred who is activated in the far future in a post-apocalyptic world. Through 19 mostly episodic chapters he goes on many adventures, meets new friends, helps out others before eventuakky moving on to his next grand adventure.

I've always been a fan of graphic novels ever since I was reading Captain Underpants as a kid so it was very interesting going back and reading something around that grade level. Kids today seem to find a lot of comfort in graphic novels due to the colorful art and stories that my simulate a cartoon they're watching on TV. That's part of wht I chose this, but the other reason being it was on the School Library Journals  list of best graphic novels of 2022 (Bird, 2022). My local library had recently obtained a copy so, I felt this was definitely the one to look into.

What I want to examine for this graphic novel will include, setting, pacing and color used for the illustrations.

In examining setting, Your Pal Fred does an great job of establishing very early on that its set in a post apocalyptic worls filled with destroyed buildings, a lack of technological advancement, deserts and so on. Early on the graphic novel does a great job of this by having the two brothers that discover our main character Fred, not being able to read a sign that we the audience can easily read. I think it establishes very well the kind of world that we are in and we know right away that this is not like our own. It blends elements of Mad Max with the sensibilities of the children's cartoon Adventure Time to create a fun world for us to visit.

Next, I want to look at pacing. Pacing of a story can be slow, or it can be very breakneck, depending upon what its trying to convey to the reader. Your Pal Fred in this regard is breakneck. Despite being over 250 pages it is a quick read with quick simple sentences that flow from one panel to the next and having each chapter more or less be its own separate adventure means these stories are quick and easy to get through. You won't be spending a long time in each chapter and it never fully tells an overarching narrative like the other books I have chosen so far.

Last, it's important to look at the illustrations for  a graphic novel as they are perhaps the most important part of the the graphic novel as the stories actions are communicated through the art rather than dialogue and you can't have one without the other. Because of this you no longer need scene description for your story as its built into the art. I want to look into one aspect I noticed very early on about the art and that has to do with color. Despite taking place in a desert wasteland for the majority of the story, the art is bright and colorful especially when calling attention to the characters. Fred has bright blue hair, a yellow out fit and big wide glasses to distinguish him from everything else and its similar for all the characters and feels more like a cartoon brought to life which I feel could have been the authors intention. It makes the world far more fun to look at and enjoyable. If it was drap and brown like the desert, I think it would be less pleasant and even harder to read because you'd be looking at something you were;s enjoying.

References

Bird, B. (2022). Some of the best graphic novels for kids of 2022 (so far). School Library Journal. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2022/05/18/some-of-the-best-graphic-novels-for-kids-of-2022-so-far

Penguin Random House. (n.d.).  Your pal fred. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/653535/your-pal-fred-by-michael-rex/

Rex, M. (2022). Your pal fred. Viking.

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