The popular series, The Baby-Sitters Club by Anne M. Martin, published in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, has been re-imagined for a new generation. Adapted by Raina Telgemeier, the new offering is a series of graphic novels exploring the lives of Martin’s original characters. The graphic novels are available as eBooks and for this review, Mary Anne Saves the Day was read using the Overdrive App on a Samsung smart phone as many students access their e-reading in a similar way.
Mary Anne Saves the Day is the thirds in the new series and typically follows the exploits of the club members as they manage their baby-sitting appointments and manage the challenges presented in this role. In Mary-Anne Saves the Day, the main plot explores conflict within the group and within families and the path to resolution, a typical moral and ethical tale of the series. The characters are easy to relate to and appeal to children from middle/upper primary to high school. Perhaps the main criticism in this is the lack of male characters leaving the main market (although certainly not exclusively) for this graphic novel, girls.
The eBook downloaded well on Overdrive; however, offered few features to support the experience. This was the first graphic novel I have read on Overdrive and it lacked some of the accessibility of the Kindle app. The function of reading was very much the same as reading a book, swiping left to progress one page at a time and little ability to zoom in on the work. Having experienced the more dynamic frame by frame zooming capabilities offered for graphic novels in the Kindle app, reading this novel was less enjoyable than other digital graphic novel offerings available. The size of the book on the phone also presented a problem. Because it was so small, it was very difficult to read causing me to hold the phone quite close to my face. The lack of this function certainly detracted from the reading experience and I would not recommend this method for reading graphic novels as there is not an enhancing element to the reading and it becomes far less enjoyable that reading the physical book.
Putting aside the issues experienced as an adult, children may prefer the eBook version of the text. As Ross et. al (2017) point out, one essential element in reading engagement is preference of reading platform. While a recommendation for this eBook may not be forthcoming in this review, this certainly does not translate to persuading a child or young adult to avoid the experience.
In summary, the eBook, Mary Anne Saves the Day offered nothing new when compared to the traditional reading experience. If anything, the joy of experiencing the key features of a graphic novel was diminished due to the small screen and inability to zoom effectively, requiring the reader to give an unbalanced attention to reading the text rather than also enjoying the art. While the ability to download the eBook from the library through Overdrive as I did for this review will increase accessibility for readers of the series, true lovers of the books and the fun drawing of Raina Telgemeier will likely still seek out the physical reading experience. Essentially, nothing is gained by choosing this version of the text but very possibly, something is lost.
References
Ross, B., Pechenkina, E., Aeschliman, C. and Chase, A-M. (2017). Print versus digital texts: understanding the experimental research and challenging dichotomies. Research in Learning Technology, 25, 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v25.1976
Telgemeier, R. (2007). Mary Anne Saves the Day. Graphix.
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