I picked up March: Book One the other day and enjoyed it so much that I picked up book 2 today. March is a graphic novel trilogy about Congressman John Lewis’s life and involvement in the Civil Rights movement. The third book in the trilogy won several book awards this year: The National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, The Corretta Scott King award, the Michael L. Printz award, and the Sibert Medal.  This is how it finally got on my radar. It floated through my life but I finally paid attention last month when it won so many awards at the ALA conference! (it is very rare for one book to win multiple awards in a year).

I can see why it is so highly regarded. First of all, the art (by Nate Powell) is stunning. But really, the whole story is extraordinarily inspiring. And especially so now in our current time. We are facing a time of dissent that will be written in the history books and it is important to look to those that came before us and how they went about their protests.

John Lewis is an American hero and, honestly, anyone who writes their biography in graphic novel format is a badass.