Dan in Green Gables, an energetic and enchanting YA graphic novel, embodies the spirit of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables while giving it a shiny new take that compassionately incorporates chaotic family dynamics, friendship, queer identity, religion, bullying, and--above all--love.
In this full-hearted "reimagining," Dan is not a sunny, red-haired 11-year-old orphan in Canada but a sunny, red-haired 15-year-old gay kid in Tennessee. It's spring of 1995 and, although he longs for some stability, Dan Stewart-Álvarez is used to starting over, thanks to life on the road with his free-spirited but troubled mother. When she abruptly abandons him with virtual strangers--his sweet, folksy Mawmaw and gruff, hard-edged Pawpaw--this bubbly, lighthearted teen is flattened. But only for a moment. Soon he's making friends, resisting bullies, and trying to win over his homophobic Pawpaw and the conservative church they attend.
Rey Terciero (one of the pen names used by award-winning author of Free Lunch Rex Ogle) puts his own perceptive, empowering stamp on the classic story, with lettering done by Lor Prescott. Comics artist Claudia Aguirre (Lifetime Passes) dramatically reflects Dan's bright personality, fierce loyalty to friends and family, and periodic explosions of sadness or anger through expressive illustrations on fully saturated backgrounds. The artist uses mood-mirroring color to fill panels featuring intense emotion and highlights important moments with perspective changes, bursting stars, overflowing hearts, and motion lines. Dan in Green Gables stands alone as an uplifting and gratifying graphic novel, relatable to any reader who believes, like Dan, that "happiness is a revolution." --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor