American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

“It’s easy to become anything you wish…so long as you’re willing to forfeit your soul.”

This graphic novel is a super-award winner (the heavy hitters- the Printz Award and a National Book Award finalist nomination).  It is composed of three stories: the folk tale Monkey King, an blonde-haired, blue eyed student whose cousin, a very stereotyped Asian caricature, comes to visit, and then Jin’s story.

Jin’s parents are Chinese immigrants, who met in graduate school.  Until third grade, Jin lived in Chinatown in San Francisco, and had a good group of friends and a community.  However, when the family moves and he transfers to a different school, things get complicated.  Jin has to listen to the tired Chinese jokes, racial slurs and hurtful, ignorant comments of his classmates.  He’s not sure how to defend himself when other students ask if he eats dogs, or if he’s related to the other Asian student in the class.

When he develops a crush on a pretty, blonde girl, and one of the other white students confronts him and asks him not to date her, all of Jin’s internalized self-hatred combusts, and he ends up saying some very hurtful things to his only true friend.

Told in sections that juxtapose myths of the Monkey King, Jin’s internal thoughts, and his life at school, this graphic novel is provocative and interesting.  I finished it quickly, but it left me thinking for a long time after I stopped reading.  The honest reflection of prejudice and commentary on the process of assimilation made for some good dinner-table conversation.

Happy Reading!

Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. Ages 12-15.

If you liked this graphic novel, this author has written several other books.  Check out Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks or The Motherless One.  If you want to explore books by other authors, my favorite graphic novel is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

“Hugo quickly realized he had to make it seem like his uncle was still around.  He would keep the clocks running as precisely as possible, and he’d take his uncle’s paychecks from the office when no one was looking (although he didn’t know how to cash them).  Most of all, Hugo would do his best to remain invisible.”

Hugo is a twelve-year old orphan, taken in my his alcoholic uncle, who looks after the clocks in a Paris train station.  When his uncle disappears, Hugo is afraid that if he is discovered, he will be taken to the orphanage…and he can’t bear that, because it would mean giving up on his mystery, the only thing left from his father:  the automaton, a wind-up clockwork robot with a secret inside.

Hugo’s father died in a museum fire, but he left a legacy for Hugo.  He was restoring a battered automaton, a clockwork machine that looks like a human, who carries a secret message inside.  It is an old-fashioned robot that can actually write!   If Hugo can repair it, he can see what message the automaton hides inside.

The story is complicated by a young girl, a mystery about old movies, a heart-shaped key, and a secret drawing.  It unfolds partly in prose, and partly in beautiful, intricate pencil drawings.  I could really stare at these illustrations forever.  So, the story is rich with atmosphere: the drawings evoke a feeling of old-time black and white movies.  The hand illustrations are interspersed with prints from actual old movies, which really add to the effect (and the mystery).

This is a wonderful sharing story, and I think is especially suited to younger readers, or the reluctant reader crowd.   It’s a heady accomplishment: finishing a 500 + page book, but with the combination of the mystery (what message is trapped in the broken automaton?  Who is Georges Melies, anyway?  What does all this have to do with old films? What is going to happen to Hugo?) and the beautiful illustrations, the story flies by.  This is the second time I’ve read it, and each time, I find myself wishing I could just move into the story for a little bit, and look at Paris at night through the back of the clock tower, like Hugo does.

Happy Reading!

Book website: http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/index.htm

Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. New York, Scholastic: 2007.  533 pp, ages 8 and up. ISBN: 978-0439813785

If you liked this book, I think you will also like Shaun Tan’s graphic novel, The Arrival, or Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  If you want to read more by the same author, try The Houdini Box.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I normally put a quote from the book at the beginning of every post, but I can’t for this one-there are no words!  But with this book, the pictures are so beautiful and tell such a good story, you don’t even miss the words.

This is a graphic novel that tells the story of a family.  The country they live in isn’t safe, and they have to immigrate to a new one.  The father leaves first, gets on a ship, and tries to find a job in the new country.  He hopes to save up enough money to send for his family so that they can all be together again.

Life in the new country is strange and hard.  He doesn’t know the language, and all the food looks different.  He tries to find a job hanging posters, but accidentally hangs them upside down because he can’t understand the strange symbols of the new language.  When he goes to buy bread at the store, the storekeeper shows him many fruits and veggies that he doesn’t even recognize, much less know how to cook.  Instead of dogs and cats, there are beautiful, unusual pets that look like magical creatures.  Along the way, he meets other immigrants and, in pictures, they tell him their own stories.

We’ve all read stories about immigrants, but usually, the story is about a specific person moving to a specific country.  But in this book, we don’t ever know the new country, or even the old one.  It could be on another planet, even!  I love it, because it really makes you feel like the immigrant; you understand what it’s like to move to an unfamiliar place and not understand what’s going on.

The illustrations are fantastic.  It’s like looking through an old photograph album, full of fanciful creations and unusual buildings.  You should get to know the illustrator, too, because he just won an Oscar for his short film(adapted from a story) calledThe Lost Thing.

Oh, and if you’re worried about the ending, don’t be-the whole family gets together in the end! I have to admit, I cried a little when they did.  Please don’t miss this book!

Happy Reading!

Author’s website: http://www.shauntan.net/

Tan, Shaun. The Arrival.Arthur A. Levine Books: New York, 2007.  128 pp. Ages 8 and up.  ISBN. 978-0439895293

If you liked this book, try his other book, Tales from Outer Suburbia, or The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

 

Oh, Kirkus Reviews just posted this about Shaun Tan.  It’s lovely!