Nancy Drew: The Fake Heir by Karnesa McGaha

1.  

     How is the work illustrated?

Nancy Drew girl detective #5 The Fake Heir is illustrated in a cartoony style.  The illustrator used a technique similar to Japanese Anime to draw the characters.  The faces and eyes in particular are draw with harsh lines and sketchy strokes.  The artwork adds to the mystery of the book.  Most of the illustrations serve as support for the words, making the book very word specific.  The entire novel is illustrated in color but rely heavily on a blue grey color scheme to create mood. 

2.      Why was the story written as a graphic novel?

The original stories of Nancy Drew were published in novel form but the author tried to re-do the same stories in graphic novel form to encourage young readers to read.  This book is one in a series of seven other stories.  A new book was released every three months in order to create suspense and excitement as a ploy to get readers “hooked” to the series.

3.      Who narrates the story?

 The novel is narrated by the main character, Nancy Drew.  She appears as the child detective in each book.  In each story she seems to discover or uncover some sort of mystery or problem to solve.  She seems to keep her identity as a child while assisting the adults in the story to solve a mystery or crime.  The author keeps the story in chapters to transition from one thought to another.

4.      Describe one scene in the novel.

The frames that exhibit the overall style of the book can be found on page five.  The narration boxes highlight vocabulary words in bold print.  The second frame on the page has a magnified portion of a smaller detail the illustrator wants the reader to notice.  The illustrator continues to use this same type of magnification throughout the book.  I found this technique particularly interesting because the book is written for young readers so the illustration helps the reader figure out what is important in each frame.  This page is when the plot begins to thicken and you see the characters in a different light.  The story is about a lost treasure that is claimed by a false heir and page five starts to identify who might be suspects later in the story.  This page is also when the author introduces an obstacle for the characters to overcome.