Really disappointing. There was no narrative to this graphic NOVEL, no characters to become invested in, virtually no dialogue - only the text of a mid grade-level textbook (plus some oddly specific details about equipment) accompanied by illustrations that didn’t add much value and weren’t beautiful or striking enough on their own to make up for the weak text. I learned a handful of new facts about Canadian involvement in the war, but not many. I was going to give the book two stars because it wasn’t offensive, but then I decided that there is something genuinely harmful about a book about WWII that mentions Jewish people exactly once, concentration camps exactly once, and (in a book about CANADIAN involvement) mentions Canadian internment camps not at all. There was hardly a word on Canadian support for the war, no mention of the Canadian refusal of refugees, and very little attempt to humanize any of the victims of the war. Basically a summarized wikipedia article with pictures. Ergo, one star.

Are my standards unrealistically high because I just days ago read Maus, a staggering graphic novel about WWII? Perhaps. Does maybe having unrealistically high standards mean I will soften my stance? No.