Tales From the Farm, Alex Award Winner!

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) awards ten books with an Alex Award. The award is given to books written for adults that have a strong teen appeal. In 2008, one of the award recipients was the graphic novel Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm, by Jeff Lemire and published by Top Shelf Publications. The last comic to win the award was Persepolis (which won in 2004).

Tales of the Farm tells the story of an orphaned 10-year old boy named Lester who recently moved to a farm in southwestern Ontario to live with an uncle he barely knows. His uncle is unprepared for the task of raising a 10-year old boy, leading to a strained relationship between the two. As Lester and his uncle grow even further a part, Lester befriends the local gas station owner and former pro-hockey player Jimmy Lebeuf. What follows is a gentle tale of fantasy, friendship, and eventual acceptance of a new life. The graphic novel’s combination of somber themes told through the lens of adolescent angst and imagination make it a perfect Alex Award winner.

Tales from the Farm is the first book in a trilogy set in a fictionalized Essex County, Ontario. Top Shelf has an eight page preview of the graphic novel online.

Nick