With October approaching, I decided to start gathering some books that I thought would be good for the spooky season, so I’ve spent the past couple weeks reading a lot of comics, anything that I thought might fit the theme based on the cover or the book jacket blurbs. Ghost stories, monsters, creepy tales, and that sort of thing. Not all of them really fit—as it turns out, you can’t always judge a book by its cover. Go figure! But I’ve got a number of them stacked up now, and (hopefully!) I’ll start sharing those with you next week.
In the meantime, I got started a bit late on this week’s column, so here’s three graphic novels for young readers!
Lost in Taiwan by Mark Crilley
Paul’s visiting his big brother Theo in Taiwan, but he doesn’t really want to be there at all. He’d rather stay in the apartment and play videogames with his friends back home and eat McDonald’s burgers because they’re familiar, and he hasn’t made any attempt to learn the language. When he gets a tip from a friend about a hot new videogame console that isn’t available yet in the US, Paul finally takes a chance and ventures out on his own to an electronics store … and then gets completely lost (and drops his phone in a puddle). Fortunately, he runs into Peijing, who speaks English. She’s out making a bunch of deliveries around town, and offers to let Paul ride along with her to see if anything looks familiar. In this whirlwind tour, Paul gets a small taste of the many things that make Taiwan special—the foods, the sights, the people, the language.
Mark Crilley uses a sort of sketchy illustration style for the book, with a more hand-drawn texture, and the characters are a bit cartoony. Paul’s journey is only a day long but he manages to squeeze in a lot of personal growth there: not only does he try new things, but he also has a meaningful (albeit brief) conversation about the way he describes Peijing’s cultural practices as “exotic.”
Crilley explains in his afterword that this book is really his love letter to Taiwan, where he spent some time teaching English right after college (more like Theo than Paul). He tried to squeeze all the things he likes about it into the book, ending with an exhortation to go visit. It ends up being a cute story with just a touch of romance—not a particularly deep plot, but a great setting.
The Other Side of Tomorrow written by Tina Cho, illustrated by Deb JJ Lee
Yunho and Myunghee are both kids in North Korea, each taking turns telling the stories of their experiences. Yunho’s mother snuck across the border to China and promised to return for him when it was safe, and in the meantime he has been trying to take care of his grandmother on his own, dropping out of school to search for scrap metal to sell. His uncle is helping to get things set up so Yunho can escape, but then gets arrested and Yunho must make the trip on his own. Myunghee lives with her very ill grandmother, so she is also not in school and instead spends her days searching for roots and herbs to sell and then takes care of her grandmother. But when her grandmother dies and she is left on her own, she decides it’s time to take her chances at crossing the border.
The two children have different experiences with the border crossing, but eventually end up crossing paths, and Yunho’s mother welcomes Myunghee to join their little family, with the hope of eventually making it to the United States. The road there is fraught with difficulties: even after they’ve left North Korea, there are so many people who could turn them in and have them repatriated if they’re discovered.
It’s an eye-opening look into the oppressive regime of North Korea, and the difficulties that its citizens face. Because the media is state-controlled, it’s very hard for them to comprehend what life is like outside of their own country. The story takes place around 2013, and the author’s note explains that the number of kids who have been able to escape North Korea each year has decreased since then due to crackdowns. The book is beautifully written and ultimately has a happy ending for these two kids, while also acknowledging that there are so many more stories yet to be told, and not all of them end so well.
You Belong Here written by Sara Phoebe Miller, written by Morgan Beem
Essie Rosen is a senior, but she already has one foot out the door. She’s missing her best friend, who is off to college this year, and Essie is planning on joining her at the prestigious acting program as soon as she graduates. In the meantime, she’s planning to cut back on acting for now and spend more time this year with her boyfriend Bruno while she still can. But things don’t always go according to plan. Her relationship with Bruno hits a rough patch, her audition to the college program is a disaster, and Essie isn’t sure what to do next. She ends up in the school play—something she never wanted to do—and befriends fellow actor Christopher.
The story is partly told through Essie’s journal, a project assigned to the class by her English teacher, and that serves as a narrative voiceover throughout the book. Essie struggles with living up to her parent’s expectations, particularly because she feels the responsibility of not screwing things up the way her big brother did. She feels abandoned by her best friend, who hasn’t been returning her texts (and finally explains that she’s taken up rugby, of all things!). And she really doesn’t know what to do about Christopher, because her family has a grudge against his older brother that has extended to the whole family.
As the title suggests, the book is about figuring out where you belong, and also about figuring out who you are. Both Essie and Christopher have been trapped a bit by expectations—people judge them based on their older siblings, and they have dealt with that in very different ways. I’d recommend this one for high school age readers just due to some of the emotional and relationship content—lots of teenage angst here!
Disclosure: I received review copies of these books. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers.
Fonte: GeekDad - Leia mais