Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower

Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower, 2001, Berkeley: Image Comics, Inc. (1-58240-200-0)

Awards: Nominated for several Eisner Awards.

Author/Illustrator website:  http://ericshanower.com

Media Used: unknown (black and white)

Annotation:

Paris, a very promiscuous man, discovers he is Prince of Troy, and leaves the woman he loves behind.  Paris is forced to go off to save the King's sister.  Instead of saving her, they kidnap Helen, starting a war.

Personal Reaction:
The first thing I have to say about this book is that I am not used to this much "almost" nudity in a picture book.  I suppose this is fairly standard for graphic novels, but I am  not a heavy reader of graphic novels.  Only 12 pages into the story, a detailed sex scene was taking place.  Other pictures feature a man's face nuzzled in a woman's cleavage, and a very detailed spread of a woman giving birth.  I would not recomend this book for anyone under the age of 13.

Fiction Graphic Novel

Curriculum Connection: 9th grade English companion to Homer's The Odyssey (or possible 12th grade English due to content)

POTENTIAL FOR CHALLENGE
This book is filled with nudity.  Parents often complain about books with nudity and profanity.  The books that are most likely to be challenged are books that parents can quickly flip through in order to see what the book is about.  If a parent was to flip though this book, they would immediately see full fledged nudity.  There are full page spreads featuring a man nuzzling his face in a woman's bare breasts, and many detailed sex scenes.  Many parents would not want their children exposed to this.  It is one thing to read a book that describes it, but to actually see it is on another level.  For many parents this is equivalent to allowing their 14 year old son to see a rated R film.  There are regulations in place to prevent such things from happening with movies, but not for books. 
This book should still be included in the YA section of the library because it has received an endless amount of wonderful reviews.  Many sources also list this book as teen material.  If need be, there are many sources to back up the purchase of this title.