Black '47: A Story of Ireland's Great Famine

Goodfellow’s graphic account will ensure its memory continues to haunt readers of all ages for many years to come

* Evening Echo *

Damien Goodfellow has created an intense graphic novel that brings a small segment of the tragic moment in Irish history to life. It's dark, atmospheric graphics take the reader directly into the time with texture, powerful emotion and realism. The reader has a strong experience of the landscape, the people, the depths of despair, the fragility of life and hope and the sheer strength and determination it took to survive. The story is never rushed, creating a pace that perfectly creates the sense of the family’s journey and hardship.  The written text is used sparsely, making it an easy read and also opening up a greater understanding of the tale through its' combination with incredible illustrations. A moving, compelling historical book that will ignite further interest in the Great Hunger

* Fallen Star Stories *

masterly artwork ... Damien Goodfellow’s novel makes the Great Famine devastatingly accessible in new ways ... largely unique in the way it uses the graphic novel format to narrativise the crisis ... The novel is rooted in the traditions of comic books, and its art is impressive. The drawings, often cinematic, juxtapose indigence and death with the desolate beauty of the Irish landscape and the splendour, but also squalor, of the big city. This viscerally brings the poverty and suffering of 19th-century Ireland into the present ... beautifully adapts the conventions of the graphic novel to make the history of the Great Famine devastatingly accessible in new ways

* Irish Times *

the graphic lines of the pictures, and the dark toned colour palette gives a real sense of desperation and fear that runs through the entire story … a harrowing but important read

* Clare People *

this graphic novel brings history to life with its haunting illustrations, capturing the stark reality of poverty and hunger

-- Children's Books Ireland Reading Guide