To start, the colour palette and artwork are beautiful, I just had this feeling that this wasn't an own voices story. It was a very white centric graphic novel - the school mistress, the townsfolk, the witch in the forest? The black characters all felt like extras, which was such a shame. I'm pretty sure Wilfrid Lupano is a white author, which is perhaps why the story felt quite muddled and lacking focus. It's beautiful and I learnt about an interesting historical character - Prudence Crandall. But Prudence Crandall is white, and the novel delves into white saviour territory. There's an afterword that reveals a lot more of the history of the women who attended the boarding school, but I'd have loved the overall graphic novel to have centred on these women's stories.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“White All Around” is an historical graphic novel set in Canterbury, Connecticut - in 1830s - where Prudence Candall is a teacher in a school of white girls. Prudence decided to change something and introduce in her course Sarah Harris. She is a black woman that lives in the same town of Prudence.

People of the local community didn’t take the news so well and order Prudence to stop.this "inclusion". But, the teacher doesn't give up and starts a new class for black women only. She tried hard for their school to become legal, (even going to jail for a few days)

A story about racism, courage and inclusivity.

The art style reminded me a faitytale. The stroke is blurred and the colors are "soft".

What if the solution to xenophobia was education?
“White All Around” by Wilfrid Lupano & art by Stéphane Fert is an eye opening historical graphic novel with beautiful illustrations. I fell in love with the cover, I knew the story looked very promising and totally in my tastes and I was not disappointed!

What is this Story about?

This graphic novel tells about a real event in America, where a respected and beloved school teacher in the 1800s decided to change path. From holding a middle class boarding school for white young ladies she tried to swap to African descent young ladies. She believed there was more of a need, and there really was. But the town turned on her in a way she never foresaw. It is a terribly sad tale that needs to be heard and that resonates so much today.

Racism was rampant at the time and the small mindedness of the town people hurts. What is truly frightening is to see how little has changed in a way. The problem is still the same. The education system is terrible in America, people in poor regions have sub-par education. An unspoken segregation is taking place between social classes, which can often be summarised into minorities at the bottom, given poor education and kept far enough from the white higher middle class to still be treated as “others”. It is a true horror story. And the only thing that can change mentalities is open mindedness which comes from equal education and equal opportunities. But I’m losing myself in the message.

How are the illustrations?

The drawing style is dynamic with a look similar to sketches for the early Disney princess animation films. It is textured like real pastel chalk on paper. And the colours are wonderful with lovely earthy soft rose tones contrasting with a dark teal throughout. There is something whimsical about it, with lovely rounded shapes, all in curves, that makes the tough message so much more palatable.

I guess that’s because we feel like we are viewing things from those young ladies’ eyes and they are young, full of hope and dreams and ready to stand up for their beliefs. That’s something quite beautiful and it deserves the colourful, feminine design it has. I truly enjoyed the curves and elegance and softness of this comic and hope to see a lot more from that artist.

I recommend this book to all who loved Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog”, the girl classics like “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett but also the books about other women who lived in persecution like “The Diary Of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank. This is a very strong graphic novel and I truly believe it should go into every hands.

This was a wonderful graphic novel. The artwork is stunning and the story is moving. It's a story that needs to be told. I live near this school and did not know about it. Now I need to find the museum and visit when we're allowed to again. Definitely a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC

I adore this graphic novel and to be honest it is one I am going to have to buy for my shelf. The story of Prudence Candall and her students and was beautifully portrayed. The strength and courage these women had was truly inspirational.

I read it again with my 7 year old son, and he paid attention to the illustrations and what they depicted and he was shocked that this had happened, the cruelty, how unaccepting we were. To be honest that shock was what you want to see; that is how we know we as a society have grown. The notes after the novel about the women and the lives they led after this tragedy was a beautiful edition.

Thank you for such a wonderful graphic novel. I gave it five stars would have given it more if i could.

One of the things that I really like about the books that Europe Comics puts out is that they're often inspired by real historical figures and events, even if they go on to do their own thing. I like this aspect of their books because it normally leads me to discovering something I never knew about a famous figure, or to discover a whole topic I've never heard about. White All Around falls into this second category, introducing me to an amazing part of history that I had no idea existed, but now want to learn so much more about.

The story follows school teacher Prudence Crandall, who runs a small boarding school for young woman in Caterbury, Connecticut in the 1830's. She's a well liked and well respected member of the local community, but this all changes one day when she decides to open her school to Black women. It begins when she welcomes Sarah into her classroom, a local girl who's been coming to her to ask questions and learn.

As you can expect from a period before slavery was made illegal, this does not go down well with the local community, or the parents of her white students. Knowing that she's going to be facing an almost impossible task of creating a learning environment for both Black and white students Prudence does the only thing she can, she makes her school exclusively for Black women. Thus begins her long battle to help and educate Black women from across the country, and the trials she faces as a result (some of them literal legal trials).

The book doesn't really spend a lot of time with Prudence, however, treating her more as a supporting character rather than the lead in the story. Much more of the focus is given over to a handful of her first students, framing the narrative around their experiences. There's Sarah, a local woman who travels to the school every day to attend classes, Eliza, Jeruska, Maggie, and her sister Dorothy, who've all travelled to attend the school. There's also Maria, who works for Prudence, but has chosen not to attend the school. It's through these women that we witness events unfold, whilst Prudence is in the background working for her rights to teach these women.

This mixture of characters are quite a fun group, as they're all very different from each other and often disagree on a lot of things. Through their discussions and arguments we get to see their different opinions on their education, the actions of the townsfolk, and things like religion and their own personal beliefs. Their religion is a fairly major secondary plot, as throughout the book we see Eliza being somewhat unwilling to pray with the others, and at one point the entire school is banned from attending the local church due to their race. But this story-line reaches a head when Eliza reveals that she prays deep in the woods, surrounded by nature, and that she believes god to be a beautiful Black woman. It's a beautiful moment where Eliza gets to talk about her belief in her version of god, and of the strength she and other women of colour have. Her faith gives her a sense of power and strength that she'd otherwise go without.

There are a lot of wonderful moments like this throughout the book, moments that look at the individual and persona struggles of being a Black person in a time where half the country still owned slaves, where you're being legislated against and hunted. There's a character called Feral, a young boy living in the woods, who has memorised the confession of Nat Turner and believes that he can truly be free running alone in nature. Through him we see a young man who's fighting against the society around him so that he can be himself, and even though he's doing no harm to anyone he's persecuted because of the colour of his skin.

The book has some wonderful artwork too, provided by Stephane Fert, who's style adds a certain degree of magic to the book. Instead of making things hyper realistic the book has an almost fairy tale quality to it. The characters are almost caricatures, with distinct and over the top looks, whilst the environments look like places out of a children's book, with the woods around the school having more in common with a wonderland forest than a real world place. But this style really helps the book. It makes what is at times a harsh and upsetting story easier to handle. There are points in the book that enraged me because of the injustice that these people had to face, if these moments were drawn in a more realistic style it would have made it harder to read; as it is, the moments of happiness and levity feel the more stronger and leave the book feeling hopeful and sweet.

White All Around is a great story, one that takes a little known part of history and gives it the spotlight, inspiring the reader to want to learn more about these people and the times they lived in.

I liked this novel. It told a story that I had never heard before, and it needs to be told. The art in this novel was great, I loved the color scheme. I was very happy to see the historical notes at the end of the book. I liked knowing that the characters in the novel I read were real people, not figments of the author’s imagination.

Canterbury, Connecticut in the 1830s. Prudence Crandall runs a boarding school for girls - white girls, that is. When Crandall, herself white, starts accepting black students, the town collectively freaks out. This doesn't stop Crandall, more black students arrive, and the situation escalate.

I had never heard of this story, and it is an interesting one. The book is nicely paced, and the illustrations are in the style of 1950s children's books, which is very charming.

Not a story with a happy ending, but worth reading.

White All Around tells the intersection of the notorious result of well-documented racism in the South with Nat Turner's rebellion alongside lesser-known racism up North. When Prudence Crandall School takes in a student of color, and then only accepts Black girls, the townspeople have their own violent revenge shadowing Turner's, which forces us to think about who writes heroes and villains in history.

The art is just gorgeous, it gives life to flat dialogue which could be boosted with more context that we as a reader don't get until the end. Visually breaking up and highlighting changes in time or space would have helped readers more easily navigate the story.

First and foremost I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this graphic novel. I found in those pages, filled with emotions and colours, an important piece of history that I could not imagined actually happened.
Settled in the early 1830s, the story follows a young woman, Miss Crandall, who heads and teaches a boarding school for sole girls in Connecticut. As the stories goes on, we see how she tries to change her society mindsets by converting her school in a safe place for young black women to study and know each others.
I personally loved the story and the extraordinary illustrations. The author has used a colour palette that creates a perfect bond between what happens and what the characters must have felt at that moment.

Its absolutely appalling to me that the events in the graphic novel were based on true events. It is also horrific that this is the first time I am even learning about these events! It really opened my eyes, and has made me want to learn more. That is one thing I love about books -- they're not only entertaining, but they are educational as well.

The illustrations were very well done. They're very colorful, but will say a few illustrations were a little more graphic than I had anticipated.

I was given the opportunity to read and review this book through Net Galley and I am so glad! The story sucked you in and you'll find yourself thinking about the characters long after you finish the book. Can't wait to read more by this author!!

White all around is a story set in the middle of the United States in the 1830s, Canterbury, Connecticut. It's about a female boarding school and the first integration of a black girl, named Sarah, into a white school. After headmistress Prudence Crandall is faced with enormous backlash, she does something remarkable: she makes it a school for women of colour only. This fictionalised historically-based graphic novel is set thirty years before the abolition of slavery in the US. Throughout the book, the white people of the town try to do everything they can to stop these black girls from getting an education. The fact that it's based on actual historical events, that some of these people did exist, made it all the more heartbreaking. It shows the injustice and the ugliness these women had to live with every day. At the end you can find the story of the actual headmistress and their students, and what they went on to do after the end of the drawn story. It manages to do so with a stunning art style, with warm colours and interesting shapes. If I were to judge this book purely on the art, it would be the best I've ever read.

I do however wish some of the subplots had been left out. I thought the part about Feral was interesting but wish they'd gone more in-depth about Nat Turner, who he is constantly citing. I disliked the part with the white witch, she didn't add anything to the story but instead made this story seem more magical. I wish they'd replaced her with an accurate portrayal of magic in black communities or maybe even cut her out completely.

I'd also like to say that I am a white reviewer and thus can't judge if the authors have the right to write this story. I can't help but wish this story would've come from the black American community itself, instead of white french authors. I'm grateful that they're shining a light on this, but I just wish the profits would go to the community that has been through the horrors drawn.

I'd like to thank Europe Comics for providing this copy via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
White All Around is a beautiful graphic novel set in.1832 in Canterbury, Connecticut, African Americans are FREE but have no civil rights. A small female boarding school was preparing to welcome its first black students. Sarah seeks the why and the how so Miss Crandall invites her to learn in her school.
Twenty black girls can board at Miss Crandall's school. A law was designed specifically to shut her school down, She went to jail for a few days when she refused to pay the fine. She tried hard for their school to become legal.
The parents were scared to send their daughters to the school but still try change their children's destiny. Eliza is the first student who arrived and slowly the school filled.. Meanwhile, the people in town grow more and more furious.
I liked the colors and pictures. This was a beautiful, heartbreaking story. It's sad that nearly 100 years later African Americans are "free" and still struggling for equality in our country! Highly Recommend.

Absolutely stunning illustrations, characters and a conflict coming alive right off the page and a part of history that doesn't get talked about in this manner nowhere near enough.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
A gorgeously drawn and well-written book about a school principal who decides to allow black girls to get an education. We see that the girls themselves are delighted to finally get a chance to study, we see them build friendships, have a good time... well as good as one can have given that the people from town are very much against coloured people making an appearance and getting an education. I was just disgusted by the townspeople, what a horrible horrible people. Just because people have a different colour doesn't make them any less or bad... I wanted to flip some stuff while reading this book. The ending was both hopeful and heartbreaking.
But sorry, I just wasn't interested in the little boy who ran around the woods. Couldn't care one iota about him. I am sorry, but I was wondering why that was added. Though OK, he didn't deserve what came to him. :(
I love the extra information at the beginning of the end! I learned new things today, and I love that we see what happened to several characters who truly existed!
The art was just GORGEOUS!

White All Around is a fascinating graphic novel adaption based on historical events. The story is well told and the art is beautiful, allowing the reader to truly see and understand what the students went through. I would highly recommend this to those interested in history and anti-racism.

Beautiful illustrations and color palette with fleshed out characters. Story was well paced and I loved the school setting.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Europe Comics for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This comic tells the story of Ms. Crandall's school for girls of color. After Ms. Crandall's "a white woman" starts to accept black girls to her school "in a white town" the teacher and her students face the wrath of an ignorant hateful community.
The amount of hate these women faced was appalling and thier strength was out of this world.
The art was mesmerizing!

An amazing book. I find myself as a white women, often very unaware of African American stories and history. So, this is a WONDERFUL way to educate myself. The art was also stunning, and overall the story was just very well done. It kept my attention until the very end!