Endearing and enlightening.
In prolific Japanese graphic novelist Tagame’s (The Contracts of the Fall, 2015, etc.) first “all-ages” manga, a Japanese man confronts his internalized homophobia when his deceased brother’s husband visits from abroad.
After the death of his husband, Ryoji, white Canadian Mike arrives in Japan to connect with Ryoji’s twin brother, Yaichi, his young niece, Kana, and his hometown. Readers are quickly introduced to single father Yaichi’s hesitations about interacting with a gay man, distilled in panels that parallel his stifled gut reactions and his politer actual responses to certain encounters, from Mike’s hugging him (uncomfortable for cultural reasons in addition to his homophobia) to Kana’s inviting Mike to stay. Kana helps open Yaichi’s mind about Mike through her shameless curiosity and immediate affection for the foreigner. This slice-of-life tale of cross-cultural connection skillfully balances moments of bigotry or mourning with delightfully light scenes as Yaichi, Mike, and Kana grow closer. Inviting black-and-white illustrations deftly capture the characters’ wide range of emotions, from joy to grief and beyond. As he gets to know Mike, Yaichi starts to question whether he truly accepted Ryoji’s sexuality when his brother was alive. Though he never verbally rejected Ryoji, he avoided discussing his sexuality and allowed his brother to fall out of his life. The final pages make it clear that Yaichi still has a lot to learn and will leave readers eager for the sequel.
Endearing and enlightening. (Graphic novel. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-87151-5
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre (King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger; being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Lush watercolors move with fluid lines throughout this reimagining. The artist’s use of color is especially striking: His battle scenes are ample, bloodily scarlet affairs, and Polyphemus’s cave is a stifling orange; he depicts the underworld as a colorless, mirthless void, domestic spaces in warm tans, the all-encircling sea in a light Mediterranean blue and some of the far-away islands in almost tangibly growing greens. Don’t confuse this hefty, respectful adaptation with some of the other recent ones; this one holds nothing back and is proudly, grittily realistic rather than cheerfully cartoonish. Big, bold, beautiful. (notes) (Graphic classic. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4266-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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