i've seen from other reviews that the author is apparently white, and as i am not black, i can't say if the author has the right to tell this story or not. but i still think this was a very informative graphic novel about a real life boarding school for girls of color during the 1830s, way before the american civil war and the abolishment of slavery. as you can imagine, there was much racism and terrible acts committed, especially amongst the people of canterbury. there were a lot of horrible things that happened to them, but i especially admired miss crandall's bravery. i wish there was more to know about the girls, as we weren't able to get to know them that well in the story. there were random subplots that i think didn't add much to the story and i felt like it was better if they just focused on the main one, since it's a short novel and the extra subplots made it kind of confusing. the art style i really enjoyed and i love the colors.

I am a bit dismayed that this is the first I've heard of the Prudence Crandall School. It's the exact sort of story that fascinates me: a woman bucking societal norms for the greater good. Crandall was already pushing boundaries by having her girl's school curriculum emphasize science and math. She was encouraging her students to think and ask questions, to really explore the way that the world works. It was a logical step, then, to include Black students. Of course, that was completely revolutionary in the 1800s. Lupano shows us all of the challenges the school faced: low enrollment, public ridicule, lack of support, and outright threats. But we also see the students challenged by what they were learning in school and from public opinion. They are questioning religion, their role in society, what to protest and what to accept. They come from different backgrounds and it affects how they interact with one another. The school's eventual downfall is disappointing but unsurprising, given the political climate of the time. The cartoony illustrations keep the events from feeling too intense but remain highly expressive. It's absolutely compelling. Even cooler, the afterward includes brief biographies of Crandall and of each of the students. To have a paragraph about most of the students is a bit astonishing, given how little we know about most women from the era.

A very interesting tale that managed to juxtapose historical information with magical realism in a new and unexpected way.

White All Around is a wonderfully illustrated graphic history that follows the events of a boarding school in Canterbury, Connecticut. Prudence Crandall (its headmistress) decides to welcome young ladies of colour. The White townspeople get furious and sought to abolish the school by any means necessary. While they are vehemently against the school, both the teacher and the girls fight bravely to have equal rights.

I enjoyed the FOREWORD given at the beginning about Nat Turner, and the AFTERWORD about the students who attended the school. It helped me learn more about each woman, and see the whole picture.

This book is targeted towards the middle grade level, however, I believe that everyone should read it. It's a good introduction into the black history and racism. It was an easy 5⭐️ read for me and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

{Digital copy provided by NetGalley}


This is an absolutely stunning graphic novel centered around a boarding school in 1832 who starts educating black girls, only to be met with fierce resistance and violence. The real life history interwoven into this story was very interesting and the book is as well, if a bit dry at points. The true standout however is the incredibly beautiful art, really reflecting nature, animals, clothes, architecture, and people in the most vibrant fashion. A unique achievement!

This is a graphic novel based on true events from 1830s Connecticut. Prudence Crandall, a boarding school teacher, decides to admit black girls/women into her school at a time when black people in the “free” North still faced segregation, racism and hostility.

This is the first graphic novel I’ve ever read and I adored the illustration, it was so well done and lively. I adored the colour palette. I will certainly look out for other works by this illustrator.

I enjoy historical fiction, especially when there’s a focus on social issues or movements. This is a commentary on racial and gender discrimination and is definitely an important story that more people should be aware of, but I did feel that a lot of the characters were a bit underdeveloped. I wish there had been more focus on the students of the school and less on Crandall. I get that she is the centre of the story, of course, but in a book highlighting discrimination based on race, I had hoped for less focus on a white woman (writing as a white woman myself). I think good characterisation is super important if you’re dealing with a story based on true events so I wish there had been more of a focus on that.

The story is an easy read in terms of style and in being easy to digest. I read in one sitting. This was a new story to me, so I really enjoyed learning about this period of history. The end note including true facts of the story and a further explanation of how things turned out for the characters was a great addition and I appreciated the context provided.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. For me this was mainly due to the illustration. Thank you to Netgally and Europe Comics for providing this ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

**all opinions are my own**

This short graphic novel is based on a true story. The real people who feature in the narrative and their fates (known and unknown) are listed at the end, and they form the core of the story. Since this is an honest look at a school in the US in 1832, which had only black students, it does not have a happy ending.
It is a hard-fought battle and may have had some positive ripples, but it was sad to see how it all played out. It starts with the town that is happy enough with the girls' school run outside of town (Connecticut, USA). Then one girl asks a question that leads to another, and the status quo changes. Things move quickly from that point on, and some of the dialogues were quite evocative and calls to question what passed for ordinary at the time.
I was pleased with the detailed information that the author provided at the end regarding the people because it made me consider once again that the events of the book were actually true and might have been even more dramatic than those shown in its pages.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Thank you netgalley for the arc.

This was an interesting read. I never knew about this piece of history. The ending to the comic is bittersweet but makes sense. The afterword also had some interesting extra info.

“Even in the land of the free, not all of America’s children are welcome.“

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review

I had never heard of this piece of history before, so thank you to the author for bringing this to my attention through a graphic novel.

White All Around is a true story of Prudence Crandall, a schoolteacher and activist, who ran a successful boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut in the 1830s. When Crandall decides to open the school for black students, and later, exclusively black students, the townsfolk are not afraid to show their disagreement. The school becomes a target for vandals and angry opposers of Crandall’s decision.

The story is nicely paced and I really enjoyed the intrigue of the few characters in the woods. It’s surprising how connected you can feel to characters through a graphic novel – I grew very fond of Crandall and her students.

Wilfrid Lupano tells this story in an accessible way, accompanied by Stephane Fert’s wonderful illustrations. I appreciated the addition of factual accounts of history at the end for a more in depth look into this story.

Something to note is that this is a black story written by a white man. As a white reviewer myself, it is not my place to say whether this is or is not appropriate of the author. However, I do think the topic is handled sensitively and is well-researched, but I am happy to be corrected if others disagree.

An important story told about Connecticut in 1832 and a girls boarding school which open its doors to POC and the fallout from this . It’s a shocking story if I am honest as it still shocks me to this day that people behave so appalling to others but I am glad I read it. It makes this story more accessible by putting it in graphic novel form. My daughter was keen to read it to and enjoyed it and asked lots of questions afterwards. I also found the illustrations to be very good

This is a beautiful graphic novel despite its challenging subject matter. The art style is soft, gentle, and has muted color palettes which convey season, mood, and time throughout the book. The art was definitely my favorite part of White All Around, and I'll look out for more work by Stephane Fert.

I found this important story about the early history of integrating education in America to be more white-centric than I would hope for something published in 2021. We have many stories about the white perspective of American history and race relations, and I was hoping this would focus more on the voices and stories of the black women in Canterbury. They did not feel fully fleshed out within the narrative of the graphic novel, although the afterword did provide more context; I wish some of those stories had come through the narrative more in the book. I do think this book is a good entry point for learning about experiences of racism and sexism in 19th-century America, but it could have gone further to develop those nuances.

"White All Around" is no character based story. It doesn’t tell thoughts and the development of one or more characters, instead historical facts have been incorporated in an appealing and fulfilling way. I was shocked about the intolerance of the people in the town and knowing that this is based on real actions, makes it even worse. But I think that’s exactly what historical literature should do: It should raise attention for the issues and errors of the past times to avoid them in the present and future. This graphic novel opens eyes for racism, sexism and intolerance in general, which needs to be done more often. An appropriate Fore- and Afterword provides background knowledge about the setting and situation of the story. All in all it’s a greatly drawn graphic novel, which hopefully may invite more people to read about historical events.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an important story to be told especially in today's environment and in this case, it was told with the care it needed.

A really important story. The rating reflects the amazing execution of the artwork (5 stars) and the slightly disjointed narrative (3 stars).

The story follows the historical account of a boarding school that begins to educate young women of colour. It felt really apt to read this during international women’s day - the author does a fantastic job of highlighting the bravery and determination of women who had not been allowed to access education, the allies that supported it, and the barriers they encountered along the way.

It’s not a happy ending (because it wasn’t back in the 1830s) but the book benefits from some further contextualising of the story, and celebrates the contribution many women continued to make to the abolitionist movement.

Really hard in places, but an important narrative we should all be aware of. Definitely worth reading!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an Ebook copy in exchange for an honest review!

First off, I really loved the art style! So soft and lovely! Despite the generally uncomfortable situations that occur in this story, the illustrations are always gentle and fairy-tale-like.

Though I didn't really connect with any of the characters, (Which is the cause of the loss of one star), I liked the story overall. It was a really interesting choice of setting, too! I've never come across a book or even a movie set in this time period!

I give White All Around four stars out of five!

Beautiful and heartbreaking, a testament to the struggles and strength of real women I may have never had the pleasure of hearing about otherwise. The graphics were stunning, some of the best illustrations I have seen inside a book. It had a dreamy, almost Disney-like atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed it, my only complaint is that certain details did get a little confusing but the afterword was helpful. I may even go back and look at it again now that I know more about the real people it's based on. The cover was also very eye-catching. I am not a very big graphic novel person, but if I saw this at a bookstore I may have actually bought it despite the fact I usually don't ever read graphic novels.

Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comics for the advance digital reading copy of this book.

This graphic novel depicting the story of the Canterbury Female Boarding School and the lives of the black female students that attended the school was fantastic. I truly appreciated the information about the students contained in the afterword.

This book has an easy to read format and the illustrations were wonderful. This book should be added to history curriculum's throughout North America.

An extremely touching and full of life lessons nook. Prudence Crandall’s Canterbury Female Boarding school is the first school in Canterbury 1832 that will focus in providing some classes to young black ladies. Prudence Crandall teaches anyone who wants to learn. She helped her African American students, and this made the other residents of the village oppose her actions and treat both Ms Crandall and the children terribly. These residents refused to tolerate a school for young women of color. Despite this hateful reaction, she continued to operate the school.
The public and legal reaction to Prudence Crandall’s school not only illuminates what was happening to African-American citizenship in that region, but also a general trend within New England to restrict the rights of free people of colour.
Inhabitants in Canterbury continued to sabotage Crandall’s school. Following a mob assault, she was forced to close the school. Ms. Crandall continued her interest in the reform movement throughout the rest of her life.
Overall, it was a fantastic story told enthusiastically through a very nice artwork, full of colour and warmth.

(4.5)
Prudence Crandall runs a boarding school for girls for white girls, until one day one girl of _color_ asked her a question about a stick in the water. The curiosity of it makes her wonder several things about what is wrong and good. So Prudence accepted the black girl in her school and the problems began. The whole town when crazy trying to understand that situation, but Prudence Crandall wanted to change things. More black students arrive and making everything worst.

I did not know the real story that is basically this book (plus that little boy) and it was hard to read in some parts when people from the town attacked them and you can feel the helplessness there.

I loved the illustrations and the colors on every page with a style of old children's books. It was a delight to see and enjoy the frames and knowing more about the real persons behind this story.

The story could be raw and cruel in some parts and with an ending "not so fairy tale", but the characters and their interactions between them made the whole situation a new experience. The slavery was legal in those times and some black people were free but not entirely.

In conclusion, "All white around" is a real story that you have to read sometime in your life, it's worth reading.

First of all I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this graphic novel, white all around, he tells us how a colored girl begins to ask herself questions about why when you put a stick in the water it gives the illusion of being crooked, when in In reality it is not like that, so she makes the decision to go where the teacher who runs a school for white girls, where only the daughters of the slavers went, the teacher makes the decision to include the girl in her class, to teach her and other girls of color who want to learn, however this decision is hampered by whites, who are not willing for these girls to learn, so they will do everything in their power to scare the girls away.

At first the drawing did not attract me so much but if the story, to the point that I could not stop reading, shows a crude reality, which unfortunately still exists in some sectors of the world, it shows us how people blame others for their evils. just for being different, no matter who they hurt. There is a scene that broke my heart, it was the breaking point, no one apologized, those who did not know were made, and when they finally achieved their goal they were surprised. When I get to the end of the story I like to know that it is based on real characters, I liked being able to learn more and in a way as interactive as a graphic novel is, despite having a bittersweet ending, it leaves us with a touch that A slight change was achieved with the girls, although it is small, something was achieved with them, who managed to have knowledge despite everything.
for me this book deserves 5 stars out of 5, a compelling story, and that leaves you with a learning.