The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales

by Ailsa Wild, Gregory Crocetti (Science Director), Briony Barr (Art Director)

One Nurse.

Trillions of microbes

A deadly WWI battle...

France, 1916. While treating a patient with dysentery, Sister Annie Barnaby encounters a strain of lethal bacteria. As the invaders journey deep into her gut, the resident microbes must fight to survive. Annie’s life hangs in the balance.

Enter the phage, deadly predators, ready to wage war to protect their host.

Created by a team of scientists, artists, educators, writers & historians, The Invisible War is a graphic novel like no other.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science, Nonfiction, War, History, Comics, Historical

88 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2016

Reviews

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like history and science, then you will likely enjoy this graphic novel.

The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales depicts how dysentery enters the human body, grows and propagates. The story is explained at the bacteria's level as well as the human level.

The novel takes place during WWI and follows nurse Annie Barnaby as she gets infected when treating a patient. We follow the bacteria's journey through her body.

The illustrations are in a black-and-white style and excellent. At the end of the story there's a section with questions and answers related to the disease, WWI and other related information.

Overall, an interesting and informative graphic novel.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley

[Shai · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Invisible War is not just like any ordinary or common graphic novel that I've read so far. Surprisingly, this book is not only entertaining to read but it also very educational, notably on the medical part and other useful information about the war.

This is quite an informative read even beyond the end of the story — the appendix is rich in noteworthy facts that will leave readers to want more. If you're looking for something interesting to read, this graphic novel is a must and should be a recommended read for students.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly not what I expected when I first looked at this. It's a story told on two fronts. First in the hospitals of World War I and secondly, in the bodies of those injured. This is really a learning text about dysentery disguised as a comic. The book did a fantastic job of not only showing how one contracts dysentery but about how it wreaks havoc through the body. The bacteria and cells talking were often silly but kept you interested in what could become a tedious subject. I was surprised at how much I liked this. If only Ailsa Wild could have written all my textbooks in school.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odd but almost interesting. A nurse on the Western Front in France during World War I catches dysentery and the story divides into two tracks as we see her getting sick in the world we are used to seeing and follow on a microscopic level the infectious bacteria ravaging her intestinal cells and battling her immune system.

Having the war setting is supposed to help make the scientific stuff more exciting, but it's still a pretty dull slog, especially if you try to make it through all the text after the story.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see this being a really useful tool for high school students who want to learn about history (World War I) and science (the mechanism of Shigella infection) simultaneously. The story of an Australian nurse serving in France and how she contracts dysentery is fairly thin, and the speech bubbles from the bacteria and phages, etc. are rather silly, but the drawings and plentiful background material are impressive.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Will Eisner, who created the Spirit, was drafted, into World War II, the powers that be figured that since he was a cartoonist, he should do that during the war too, but to help the troops. He came up with a user manual that used sequential sequence, and funny cartoons to explain how to do things such as check the oil on your jeep. He had a character called Joe Dope. He continued helping the army after the war, so that all the technical publications that had confused the troops could become more clear.

This book, the Invisible War, attempts to do that with dysentery, with a history lesson, thrown in on the side, all in an interesting and informative story.

The readers learns not only how field hospitals were during WWI, but also how the body fights bacteria, before we had antibiotics. And although antibiotics cure so much, because of the mutations that happen in the body, one day we may have to go back to a time that the body had to fight these illness on our own.

Well written, with tons of footnotes that you can either read as you go alone, or read at the end, if you want to know what was going on.

Fascinating stuff. As someone who has had bronchitis, strep throat and pneumonia, I am very grateful for modern medicine, and that I do not have to put my body through what Nurse Annie had to live through.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great method to cover two complex aspects of life - how your gut works against an invasive virus and set this against another war, this time in the trenches of France. The graphics maps out the guts' battlefield, the text maps out the human toll and some of the issues facing the men and women at the battle front. Every part of these portrayals were brilliant and the graphics of the injuries/illnesses were quite graphic.

[Romany · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know about dysentery, this is the book for you.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up with the idea that I might be able to use it in my Health class. It's very informative about the war on the western front as well as the progress if bacteria and sickness in the body. Very interesting.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

World War I was a time of great changes when it came to warfare - from mustard gas to the Browning Automatic Rifle, the way the world fought wars had changed. Unfortunately, medical science hadn't caught up with many of these changes. Soldiers suffered from debilitating wounds that often led to a slow, painful death or traumatic amputations. Many soldiers suffered from diseases that today are easily treated, including influenza, tuberculosis, and typhoid. "The Invisible War" highlights one of these terrible infections and the ease with which it was passed from person to person. 

The book starts with with Sister Annie, a nun tasked with helping to run a casualty clearing station in northern France. One of her patients is brought in suffering from what seems to be a simple case of diarrhea. However, when Sister Annie examines his clothing, she realizes he has contracted dysentery. From this point on, we get to see the lives of the germs that cause dysentery. Sister Annie is exposed when a fly lands on the soldiers soiled clothing and then lands on some cheese brought to her by a friend. We see how these germs infect the digestive system causing dehydration and bloody diarrhea.

The illustrator of the graphic novel does an amazing job of showing how debilitating the disease is without getting too gross - there are images of patients who have soiled themselves and their undergarments, but it never crosses the line of being disgusting. Icky definitely, but not over the top. The images of the gut, with the anthropomorphized germs and immune system cells, do a great job for helping younger teen readers understand how the disease affects the tissues of the digestive tract and how the immune system releases cells to fight the invaders. 

Overall, it is a worthwhile look at this dangerous disease that is still around today. 

Julie K. / Marathon County Public Library

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales' by Alisa Wild with art by Briony Barr is a most unusual graphic novel. It tells two very different stories at the same time and both are very interesting.

The first story is about Sister Annie Barnaby treating soldiers in a field hospital during World War I. When a solder comes down with dysentery, she is curious about what is causing it.

The second story is the course of disease as a lethal bacteria enters Annie and threatens her life. This story is told on the microscopic level.

Throughout the story are links to short articles describing things like how patients were moved through field hospitals and what the shigella bacteria is. The story is also a bit on the graphic side with the side effects of disease and war.

The art is really good, as are the articles in the back of the book. This was one of the most unique graphic novels I've read in quite a while. I really enjoyed it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Scale Free Network and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Josée Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded an e-copy of this book from NetGalley.
I was perusing the Science category and the cover caught my eye right away. Also, since I have a degree in Microbiology the subject matter was of great interest to me. I don't read scientific books or articles very often these days, but after reading this book, I know I must!

The book consists of a story about a nurse contracting dysentery during WWI and is told in graphic novel format. Throughout the story there are numbers you can click to be brought to another page with additional information. This wasn't working for me (the fault of my reader?) but it wasn't a big deal since all the extra information was at the end of the book and using bookmarks was easy enough. It's this additional info that I really enjoyed. It also contains some clickable links (this was working for me) that bring you to articles on the Web to read more on a particular subject. Some of the information was new to me and I found it absolutely fascinating!

I highly recommend this book - it's suitable for everyone. You don't need a degree in Microbiology to enjoy it as everything is well explained in simple language.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly read this book way back in 2017! And wasn't that a long time ago, two years before COVID. A barely remembered time. I thought there was just a 2 page Appendix I had left to read, turns out it was an 18 page Appendix. So, I reread the whole thing.

This is a graphic novel about infectious dysentry on the Western Front of WW1, in Pozieres, France, 1916. It shows the battle on two fronts, one the human macro level, and the inner human micro level. Trench warfare is compared to the battle in the trenches of a nurse's gut - as the inner battle rages on between Shigella bacteria and the protective bacteriophages.

The 18 page Appendix is a tutorial about the Western Front, and the microbiology of our guts, infectious diarrhoea, particularly about bacteriophages. I learnt lots about all of it.

I think the Goodreads rating of 3.6 currently is pretty spot on for me.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambitious and creative presentation of what is a complicated and intricate process, featuring loose-lipped streetwise bacteria and rapping viruses. War imagery inside and out provides a clear model and metaphor for the spreading and battling of bacterial and parasitic infections.

Could be popular course material for high school biology students, especially with the excellent accompanying Q&A section in the back. The human body is a strange and wonderful thing, as is this comic!

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good illustration and explanations about the microbiology of dysentery. I found myself gasping and saying “oh no!” quite a bit.

Also I don’t think I’ve ever found flies as dangerous and disgusting as I did here. Lessons learned, my friends.

[مصطفي سليمان · Rating 3 out of 5]

رواية مصورة لطيفة جدا مناسبة للوقت الحالي. بيتكلم علي العدوي اللي كانت منتشرة خلال الحرب العالمية وازاي تم ملاحظتها بسبب انتقال الفيروسات والأمراض عن طريق الاختلاط وقلة النظافة والاهتمام بعدم الأختلاط
رواية لطيفة واستغربت أن مفيش اي كلام عليها في اي مكان

[Permanently 23 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This graphic novel is ambitious. I really enjoyed the story set on the front line, but tuned out when the story veered into the science side of things - it’s just not that interesting to me. Could be a great teaching aid though? 2.5 stars.

[Ric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to microbiology… a war against dysentery- shigella flexneri - while fighting World War I. A graphic description in a graphic book. Very informative. (Bit disappointed in the artwork… somewhat naive.)

[Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Amit Verma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful, informative, enjoyable graphic novel explores contribution of nurses in treating world war1 injurrd soldiers and how reserarch by sister William helped discover treatment of bacillary dysentery.
.
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Book is set in British casuality removal camp in France and describes in great detail how Shiga enters human body and creates life threatening dysentery.
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Book has lots if information about dusease, human physiology, gut microbes, human gut physiology and atricities of war. It underlines how bacteriology evolved and role of hygiene was discovered.
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A lot if new things about our gut bacteria and bacteriophages.
.It also tells few interesting facts about world war 1.
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Art is wonderful and simple on eyes and brain.
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Very nice educational graphic novel.

[MissJLovesReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and definitely not what I was first expecting. I was gearing up for a historical piece on maybe the first or second world war, but what I wasn't expecting was to be educated on the science behind our gut and gut bacteria. I enjoyed the way the author made a confusing topic relatively easy to understand for those of us who haven't studied in this area, especially with the 'war' between the good and bad bacteria in our gut.

I can't imagine how difficult this would have been for people to deal with such complicated issues decades ago, let alone during a war. It would have been extremely confusing and scary for those suffering. I know from having many gut issues myself that it can be an all-encompassing issue and definitely life-altering at the time.

While this graphic novel wasn't at all what I was expecting when I saw the front cover, I quite enjoyed it and the science lesson it provided me. It even made me want to go and grab some probiotics to helps the good guys 'fight' in my gut!

[Aaron Marc Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. I like the change of format (from the previous Free Scale Network books) to the graphic novel. It gives the scientific explanations an animated quality that really helps the understanding. Like when we first take a journey from the macro to the micro scale, each frame is like increasing the magnification in the microscope and moving a step closer to that world. The "characterisation" of the evolutionary processes with the viruses was also brilliant.

The book can be enjoyed simply for the great story it is, but the scientific resources in the back demonstrate the level of thought that goes into each character and event in the book. This story is real life in a very literal sense.

A great read for everyone curious about the world.

It should be especially interesting for teachers teachers as I think it would be a great study in biology class to read the book and use the additional resources to take a deeper dive into the science.

[Cande · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Invisible War is a very interesting graphic novel about WWI and illnesses. The story follows Annie, an Australian nurse working on the battlefield, and a group of Shigella bacteria as it makes its way to Annie's body.

Although it took me so time to get used to the story, I did like it. We see how the bacteria get to the intestines and how it starts to spread and kill organisms. It is not a nice reading, especially because it's a graphic novel and sometimes it got a little bit disgusting and I had to pause. However, it was truly fascinating to see how the bodies work.

What it was a win for me is that The Invisible War highlights the nurses' accomplishments in the war, how they had to learn quickly, how they work nonstop and exposed themselves to terrible diseases. Nurses that made important discoveries that what never recognized. Oh yeah, I'm always here for forgotten women.


Recevied a copy through NetGalley in exchange an honest review.

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Invisible War is a fascinating series of images paired with scientific details and history. I am always interested to see what can be done with graphic novels and comic books. What stands out most in this entry is the way the authors combine the panels at the beginning with a series of "behind the scenes" pages that lay out the content behind this text.

A really interested book in its set up, and one I greatly appreciated.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book and project! This is a really engaging tale about bacteriology in WWI, including a really wonderful level of accessibility and detail. The accessibilty is aided by the graphic medium and a thorough appendix.
I did research on diatoms and other protists for a while so any story about microscopic life has appeal, and this one is a ripper.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that provides a fascinating insight into the war fought on two levels during WWI. Recommended for any lover of history or science. With great images highlighting the science of dysentry and how it affected the lives of those fighting and helping in WWI.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating nonfiction graphic novel, but it's not for the faint of heart! It's the story of a nurse in World War I France who gets dysentery, told from the GERM's point of view! So you learn all about how the bacteria and viruses work as they infect the intestines, and then bacteriophages come into play as the immune system gears up and fights back. There's also a good bit of information about battlefield nursing conditions during World War I. When I quickly grabbed this off the library shelf I thought it was going to be about the 1918 influenza outbreak, but, wrong disease, right era. It was still quite interesting, and appropos to read during the COVID-19 era, although also quite gross. The black and white illustrations are excellent, and there is quite a bit of humor, too, even though it's a straightforward true tale. The bacteria are given cheeky nicknames ("Tella" and "Roidy") and dialogue as they move through the body, cheering each other on-- "Woo! Let's find some slime!"-- or showing distress when battling the bacteriophages; those organisms speak in rhyme: "You infect. We protect," etc. Quite amusing! Good book for kids who love to learn about the human body, combined with learning some history. The afterward gives more detailed descriptions of how the process works, since it is simplified a bit for the story, and includes the scientific names for everything.

[Brooke Lorren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Invisible War is a cute graphic novel that discusses two very un-cuted topics: World War I and gut microbes. Both can be pretty disgusting (and dry topics if the author doesn't write about it correctly) but this book is an interesting look at both topics that is suitable for young teens and older.

The story shows us how dysentery is spread from an ill patient to a healthy individual through a fly as a host. It shows us how the new individual is infected, then allows us to see how her gut is invaded and tries to fight off the bacteria. Dysentery was a deadly disease in the early 1900s and before; I won't spoil it by telling you what happens to the lady who caught it.

At the same time, The Invisible War also shows us a view of what it was like to work in a hospital during World War I. What was it like to see all these patients coming in? What kind of injuries were they treating? What sort of things were they discussing? This story gives us a peek into the lives of ordinary people who were helping in the war.

By no means will The Invisible War make you an expert on either World War I or gut microbes like dysentery, but this story is an interesting introduction to both. I recommend this graphic novel to students in junior high and high school, as well as adults who just want a fun read about the topic. It would be great for homeschool students!

[Marta Ilieva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this eARC from publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was such an unexpected read – a conglomeration of history and biology in a graphic novel format. It details the working conditions of nurses (in this case Australian) during World War I, and examines how easily it was for them to fall prey to the surrounding germs. I absolutely loved the real-life and bacteria “war” connection – it was a fantastic explanation of how a germ spreads throughout the body, and how the human body fights back. Definitely my favorite part, not only because it was educational (and, hello, I AM a teacher after all!), but also because it was visual, thus providing a great feature for visual-learners. Another great attribute of this graphic novel is the emotion it evokes. It is incredibly easy to make a strong connection with Sister Annie, and I found myself on an emotional roller-coaster ride while she was sick. I can see middle, high, and maybe even some upper elementary school students loving this book for the images and history, as well as the focus on science. I hope the book will evoke simple human compassion, if not for overall humanity, then certainly for nurses. Wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Invisible War was definitely the most timely book I’ve read all summer as it deals with diseases from World War I but I definitely thought about it from a COVID perspective as I read it.
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France, 1916: Sister Annie Barnaby is a nurse who treats patients in the war. One of the patients has dysentery and she encounters a strain of lethal bacteria that has her fighting for her life. Phage are the deadly predators who try to protect the body against infection.
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This YA graphic novel was created by a team of scientists, artists, educators, historians & writers. I was blown away by how much I learned and how it applies so much to the pandemic we are facing now. Usually I’m not a huge fan of nonfiction but I found myself turning pages quickly to see what happened next in this black and white graphic novel. Thank you so much to all our front line heroes. This book made me appreciate them even more. Brilliant and important.