A Bag of Marbles by Joseph Joffo

It's kind of weird, but my main impression of World War II in Europe comes from Anne Frank. I did study about it in history, but to be honest, the war in the Asia-Pacific arena always felt more personal somehow. I mean, my country was invaded after all.

But having said that, I do want to learn more. I have heard so many stories about the atrocities in Asia, but what of Europe? That's why I requested A Bag Of Marbles, a comic that tells the true story of Joseph Joffo and his brother, Jews who was running from the Nazis.

The story was not as powerful as I expected. But I think that's due to the e-Galley copy I received. Despite the fact that this is a comic, the images were heavily pixelated and some panels didn't even have words that I could read. So I was really reliant on just dialogue and some inner thoughts, which I think limited the impact of the book. After all, a lot of the impact of a comic comes from the images.

Pacing wise, I wasn't very impressed. I didn't have a very good sense of which part of the war the boys were in (was the war already starting? ending? in between?), which again, could be due to the missing panels and blur pictures.

I really would like to read the actual biography though. From what I've seen in the comic, this sounds like a story that's not just about two young boys, but includes a wider community/parts of a community that connects them.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. Unfortunately, my review is impaired by blur pictures and some missing text.