Charles Dickens
Scenes from an Extraordinary Life

Excellent combination of historical facts, illustrations and cartoon strips really bring the great man's story to life. The key novels are fitted in chronologically so you get a sense of how they arose from the events of his life. Good for grown ups too.

Shows the power of the visual to awaken the imagination.

I couldn’t resist this ‘picture book’ by Brita Granström and Mick Manning. I have learned more from their brief, non-fiction book than I would from most longer and perhaps ‘worthier’ works … contains the bare bones of facts while depicting the life of Dickens in great detailed drawings, sometimes cartoon style. A picture really can replace a lot of words.

From the award-winning non-fiction team comes a dramatisation of Dickens' life told through a non-fiction picture book.

The eventful ups and downs of  the life of Charles Dickens, the best-selling author of his day, are told in words and pictures in this excellent introduction to the man and his works.

Anyone who is familiar with Manning and Granstrom’s work will welcome this book as yet another stunning example of their meticulous research, detailed art work and highly informative text.

Another wonderful title from this inspirational duo. The combination of words and pictures in their books is perfectly balanced and the way the speech bubbles take us through the story really keeps interest alive... Comic strips introduce us to each of his novels in a succinct but interesting way. An exceptional book.

We see how he got his inspiration for many of his stories from events in his own life which makes a good tale of its own.

An accessible introduction to the author's life and work for young children.

An excellent companion text for children who are reading any work of Dickens as it gives an interesting and valuable insight into the life of this much-celebrated author.

Mick Manning and Brita Granström take us through the whole life, and do so very wittily. The major novels are neatly summarised in strip cartoons, the visual style is vivacious, with spoken texts ballooning out of people's mouths, and there is a strong feeling of a life lived...anyone of any age who is interested in Dickens would gain something from this book: its verve and wit are infectious.

This Scottish-based partnership has developed a quirky but highly effective way of mixing words and pictures that packs in a phenomenal quantity of information that the reader absorbs almost by osmosis. It is done in a way that is not only merely unforced but highly amusing and entertaining, and conveys their own infectious enthusiasm for the subject.