Edinburgh Napier University

  Frankenstein is surprisingly well-suited to stories aimed at children and is often adapted for young readerships. This essay explores why, through a focus on graphic narratives. I examine five books: picturebooks Do not build a Frankenstein! by Neil Numberman (2009) and The Monsters’ Monster by Patrick McDonnell (2012), graphic novels by Chris Mould (1997) and Marion Mousse (2009), both titled Frankenstein, and Margrete Lamond and Drahoš Zak’s illustrated novel adaptation, Frankenstein (2005). These texts adapt Shelley’s plot or offer new stories based (sometimes loosely) on her novel’s characters and tropes, creatively exploiting pre-existing knowledge of the story and its iconography. The narratives’ complexities emerge through the interplay between pictures and words, both demanding and enabling active reading strategies by young (and adult) readers.