The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving retold by Blake A. Hoena
Graphic Revolve series. Raintree, 2011. ISBN: 978 1406 224979.
When the new school master, Ichabod Crane, arrives in Sleepy Hollow,
he
visits some of the local families for his evening meals. During
these
visits he hears the legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Headless
Horseman.
Not only the school teacher, but also the singing teacher, Crane has
amongst his singing students the beautiful Katrina, a young lady
whom
he chooses to teach privately. The unattractive Crane has as his
rival
for her affections a strapping young man named Brom. Unbeknownst to
many locals, the handsome Brom plays practical jokes on Ichabod. Is
he
responsible for the demise of Ichabod Crane? Will the truth ever be
revealed?
With cartoons taking several forms, from colourful stylised pictures
to
depict the current day, sepia for the historic components of the
story
and silhouette style for the night time and more gruesome parts of
the
tale, the illustrations add an extra dimension to the text. Minimal
word count, simple language and different fonts for speech and
descriptive text make this another accessible tale for not just
those
who enjoy classic tales but also for the reluctant reader.
Jo Schenkel