Illegal

Story

Illegal is a graphic novel telling the story of Ebo, a 12-year-old orphaned boy fleeing from the poverty and hardship of his village. His sister left a while ago and now it seems his brother has too, so he leaves in search of them and a better life.

Why we chose it

A thought provoking graphic novel that tells, in words and images, the stark story of an child asylum seeker’s journey.

Where it came from

Eoin Colfer is an Irish author best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl series. At school he loved reading stories about Vikings and these inspired him to write his own stories.

Andrew Donkin is an author and graphic artist who has produced over 60 of his own stories. He has also illustrated Batman and Superman for DC Comics.

Giovanni Rigano is an Italian artist and illustrator. Along with his own work, he has illustrated The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean graphic novels for Disney.

Colfer and Donkin were inspired to write the story after seeing images of the sinking boats carrying refugees, and that none of them were ever named. They went to conferences and spoke to refugees who had survived the journey about their experiences, and many of these stories are told in the book.

Where it went next

In 2018 Illegal won the Judges Special Award at the Irish book awards, and was chosen as a Book of the Year by both the New York and Chicago public libraries. It won the Excellence in Graphic Literature Award in 2019 and was nominated for the Kate Greenaway and the Carnegie awards.

Associated stories

There are a growing number of novels for children or all ages about the experience of refugees, including Fabio Geda’ s In the Sea there are Crocodiles, Morris Gleitzman’s Boy Overboard, Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow and picture books The Journey by Francesca Sanna and The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb.