Who are some of the authors you read no matter what they put out? One of my favorites is Marieke Nijkamp they have a vast backlist including work for tie ins to Vox Machina. But my favorite works by them include their works that focus on disability, such as the Oracle Code, Unbroken and If We Break, with If We Break being one of my all time favorite horror novels.
Nijkamp’s graphic novel Ink Girls, is a timely story about freedom of the press that pairs eleven year old Cinzia, a printers apprentice, with royal Elena to solve a mystery that has placed people they both care about in danger.
Cinzia’s master is a printer who is arrested by one of the powerful men in the city who is trying to cover up his own misdoings. He is threated by her trying to expose how he is defrauding the city they share, so Cinzia’s master must leave clues for her young apprentice to find the information she needs published.
While looking for this information Cinza runs into Elena, neither of them are considered to be important. Cinza because she has a injured leg and Elena because she is autistic coded. But through their friendship and their interactions with other girls in the city they not only find the information Cinza is looking for but they build a powerful network of young women in the city to help change the way things are done.
This piece shows the power that young people have to change the world and find justice if they trust themselves and their voices.
Bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp and debut illustrator Sylvia Bi make an interesting story about the power of print and young people.
Have you read any of Marieke Nijkamp? Do you know of any other authors who focus disability in their work?
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