A dramatized consideration of a complex, thorny history.
Children escape Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
A young girl eagerly accepts a copy of Vogue from her doting father; a bespectacled boy forms a romantic friendship with a male classmate while dreaming of attending art school abroad; teenage sweethearts navigate their families’ class divide; a nightclub musician cares for his young son. Castro is about to come to power, and a year and half passes as his regime takes hold. Material goods are scarce, education is restricted, neighbors turn against neighbors, and families are pressured to send their teenagers into the military or rural education service. Meanwhile, in Florida, one heroic priest is planning an exodus, Operation Pedro Pan, to help children and teenagers escape Castro’s Cuba and find refuge in the United States. Frattino’s story is comfortably methodical—establishing characters in crisis, building to conflict, and resolving things fairly neatly with moving sacrifices made along the way. This straightforward narrative melds well with Montanez’s classic comic-book cartooning: charmingly retro in color and character appearance. But while the comic-book tone produces a satisfying story, it also puts the reader at a remove from the societal crisis at its core. Historical context exists primarily as a force pushing on the story’s plotlines, and Castro looms as a boogeyman rather than a painful reality. Perhaps the most effective and chilling scene is when the nightclub guitarist dreams of his young son in military uniform, sporting an eerily comedic Castro beard—but these visceral moments of existential terror are often superseded by procedural drama and character simplification. Aiming to be both an engaging reading experience and a synopsis of historical events, the book stumbles somewhat on both counts.
A dramatized consideration of a complex, thorny history.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9781603095921
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
A timeless story of marriage, well-grounded in queer history. An absolute triumph.
Chronicling same-sex love in early New England.
This graphic biography by award-winning graphic novelist Walden (Spinning, 2017, and On a Sunbeam, 2018) takes its inspiration from the artifacts and archives of two women who lived together in rural Vermont for nearly half a century. Walden’s presentation of their story firmly insists that the reader engage directly with the daily lives of women in the early 1800s. As the book begins, Charity arrives in Weybridge, Vermont, evading rumors and judgment back in Massachusetts. Sylvia, a large family’s youngest daughter, cares ceaselessly for nieces and nephews while quietly seeking her own life. Soon after meeting, Charity asks Sylvia to share her rented room above a gristmill, and the pair become inseparable. They build a tailoring business, rent land, and construct a home together. They attend church, share life with Sylvia’s family, and actively participate in their community. That they remained partnered in a world where homosexuality was essentially unimaginable is played with such subtlety as to sometimes blur into insignificance. Yet, that normalcy reveals the book’s beating heart—existing resolutely as themselves in a circumscribed world is a resounding affirmation of queer love. But even life-long love has an end. The specter of mortality haunts nearly every page—the pair endure a litany of family deaths and spend much of their old age managing ailments, awaiting what lies beyond while holding fast to each other. This unrelenting passage of time is communicated in uniformly 12-panel pages filled with conversation and daily work. When Walden pushes against this format’s restrictions, her looser, almost ethereal imagery proves breathtaking. Walden also employs her particular gift for drawing simple faces that express innocence, excitement, devastation, and devotion in a few pen strokes—she brings Charity and Sylvia to life with tremendous tenderness and grace.
A timeless story of marriage, well-grounded in queer history. An absolute triumph.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781770468382
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
An informative, breathless sprint through the evolution and consequences of human development.
The professor and popular historian expands the reach of his internationally bestselling work with the launch of a graphic nonfiction series.
In a manner that is both playful and provocative, Harari teams with co-creators adept at the graphic format to enliven his academic studies. Here, a cartoon version of the professor takes other characters (and readers) on something of a madcap thrill ride through the history of human evolution, with a timeline that begins almost 14 billion years ago and extends into the future, when humanity becomes the defendant in “Ecosystem vs. Homo Sapiens,” a trial presided over by “Judge Gaia.” As Harari and his fellow time travelers visit with other academics and a variety of species, the vivid illustrations by Casaneve and colorist Champion bring the lessons of history into living color, and Vandermeulen helps condense Harari’s complex insights while sustaining narrative momentum. The text and illustrations herald evolution as “the greatest show on earth” while showing how only one of “six different human species” managed to emerge atop the food chain. While the Homo sapiens were not nearly as large, strong, fast, or powerful as other species that suffered extinction, they were able to triumph due to their development of the abilities to cooperate, communicate, and, perhaps most important, tell and share stories. That storytelling ultimately encompasses fiction, myth, history, and spirituality, and the success of shared stories accounts for a wide variety of historical events and trends, including Christianity, the French Revolution, and the Third Reich. The narrative climaxes with a crime caper, as a serial-killing spree results in the extinction of so many species, and the “Supreme Court of the future” must rule on the case against Homo sapiens. Within those deliberations, it’s clear that not “being aware of the consequences of their actions” is not a valid excuse.
An informative, breathless sprint through the evolution and consequences of human development.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-305133-1
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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