A Letter To Jo

by Joseph Sieracki, Kelly Williams (Illustrator)

Overview

Come face-to-face with the raging terror of World War II in this firsthand graphic novel adaptation of a Polish-American machine gunner's letter home.

As Leonard fights on the frontlines of World War II, memories of Josephine and home help keep him alive. As Josephine contends with life, family, and work in Cleveland, letters from Leonard sustain her. But official censorship forces him to leave out much of the most significant action he sees.

Finally, with the war coming to an end, Leonard is able to tell his full story. In a quietly beautiful letter to Josephine, Leonard writes of the loneliness he felt, the camaraderie he experienced, and the terrible violence he witnessed.

Now, Josephine and Leonard's grandson Joseph Sieracki has carefully researched the battles Leonard describes and expanded the letter into a moving tale of a young man's fears and bravery far from home. Brought to heart-wrenching life by the paintbrushes of Kelly Williams (Creepy, Eerie), A Letter to Jo is at once a tender love story and harrowing battlefield memoir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603094528
Publisher:	IDW Publishing
Publication date:	01/21/2020
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	1,019,877
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Joseph Sieracki was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. There he earned his undergrad at Ohio University and his Master's degree at Cleveland State. He is currently teaching in a suburb of Cleveland, residing with his wife, Andrea; daughter, Quinn; and dog, Bentley. A Letter To Jo is his first graphic novel.

Kelly Williams makes comics. Sometimes writes, just about always draws. He has done work with Dark Horse, BOOM!, IDW, Image, Alterna and more. Best known for the graphic novels The Cabinet and Metaphase along with his work in Eerie and Creepy. He exists in the middle of America with a wife, daughter, dog, and cat.

Editorial Reviews

"Sieracki effortlessly adapts his grandfather's letters into a narrative that feels both intimate and sweeping... Williams captures the desolation of the battlefields and the bloodcurdling violence of government-sanctioned killing. But through it all, the love story conquers the darkness so hauntingly illustrated." — School Library Journal

"There’s a horrible beauty in Williams' depiction of the war experience, like isolated segments from a Bosch painting transported to the war in Europe. What A Letter To Jo accomplishes is placing that personal experience of Leonard in a wider context, the war experience as well as the romance with Sieracki’s grandmother. It is, truly, the American story of that era." —The Beat

"It’s both beautiful and terrifying, and not to be missed." — 13th Dimension

"A Letter to Jo serves as a touching tribute to those affected by war, and small glimpse for those who are lucky enough to never experience it... Kelly Williams uses incredibly detailed line work mixed with some of the best watercolors I’ve ever seen in a comic." — AiPT

From the Publisher

02/07/2020

Drawn from a letter penned by debut author Sieracki's grandfather Leonard to his wife, the titular Josephine, this book presents a largely paint-by-numbers tour of the European theater of World War II. Training, traveling, bonding with fellow soldiers, and infantry combat are covered with a generalized expediency—assuming, more or less, that readers have seen a war movie before and know how this goes. Secondary characters get short shrift—Jo herself only exists to pine for her beau back home in Ohio, with barely a trace of her interior life or wartime experience, and a completely fabricated Puerto Rican corpsmate serves to spark an anachronistic (and virtue-signaling) exchange on American immigration policy that pulls readers out of the intended setting. Sieracki's writing is most engaging at moments of personal struggle—loss, loneliness, and shell-shock feel thoughtfully lived-in, and Williams's (Gothic Tales of Haunted Love) artwork flourishes during firefights. Yet the disconnect between the art and story is palpable, with the illustrated thrill of combat overwhelming more subtle aspects of the narrative. VERDICT Leaning hard on cultural wartime tropes and cartoonish bouts of combat, this tale misses an opportunity to share a meaningful, specific story by painting in the broadest of strokes.—Emilia Packard, Tokyo, Japan

Library Journal

02/07/2020

Gr 9 Up—In this moving graphic novel, based on the real-life story of the author's grandparents, high schoolers Leonard and Jo fall in love the same year that the United States enters World War II. Leonard is sent to the front lines, so he writes Josephine letters, but it isn't until the end of combat is in sight that he gives her an uncensored accounting of the terrors he faced. In this "Letter to Jo," Leonard's experiences seep into Josephine's world until it's as if she is right there with him as he operates his machine gun, meets new friends as quickly as he loses them to German gunfire, and drops into despair as he tries to drink away the trauma of warfare. Sieracki effortlessly adapts his grandfather's letters into a narrative that feels both intimate and sweeping, conveying the common experiences of World War II soldiers. Relying on a muddy palette, Williams captures the desolation of the battlefields and the bloodcurdling violence of government-sanctioned killing. But through it all, the love story conquers the darkness so hauntingly illustrated. VERDICT Sieracki puts an incredibly personal face on history. A valuable addition to any graphic novel collections, and a strong supplement to curricula on World War II.—Michael Marie Jacobs, Darlington School, GA

School Library Journal