Cultural authenticity doesn’t make up for a disjointed story with an unclear audience.
In 1990s Texas, 12-year-old Filipina-American Marcine embarks on a journey of salvation and self-discovery.
In the aftermath of loss, Marcine becomes obsessed with the teachings of George Ohsawa, founder of the macrobiotic diet. She feels compelled to save those doomed to unhappiness because they have sanpaku, a condition where the whites show around the iris, believed in Japanese superstition to bring bad luck. Bearing an undeniable resemblance to Marcie from “Peanuts,” she sports a black bob and glasses. In this hefty graphic novel, Gavino’s (Last Night's Reading, 2015) black-and-white illustrations tell Marcine’s story through vignettes at home, school, a local Asian grocery, and (in flashback) the Philippines. Coming-of-age elements such as friendship and self-discovery abound, with a quirky combination of ethics and faith, a sprinkling of lesbianism, and even a subplot that involves pop star Selena. Gavino realistically captures the impressionable spirit of a tween on the brink of adolescence, seeking to define her own belief system among hardcore Catholics such as her grandmother’s prayer group. Cultural notes, such as familiar Tagalog sayings (“Hay naku!”) and a love of Spam, are spot-on. Unfortunately, a convoluted plot makes this a murky read. A subplot about a scandal regarding the statue of a would-be Filipina saint with a “marble vagina” and reference to orgies is particularly confusing.
Cultural authenticity doesn’t make up for a disjointed story with an unclear audience. (Graphic novel. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68415-210-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2018
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery.
Time travel brings a girl closer to someone she’s never known.
Sixteen-year-old Kiku, who is Japanese and white, only knows bits and pieces of her family history. While on a trip with her mother to San Francisco from their Seattle home, they search for her grandmother’s childhood home. While waiting for her mother, who goes inside to explore the mall now standing there, a mysterious fog envelops Kiku and displaces her to a theater in the past where a girl is playing the violin. The gifted musician is Ernestina Teranishi, who Kiku later confirms is her late grandmother. To Kiku’s dismay, the fog continues to transport her, eventually dropping her down next door to Ernestina’s family in a World War II Japanese American internment camp. The clean illustrations in soothing browns and blues convey the characters’ intense emotions. Hughes takes inspiration from her own family’s story, deftly balancing complicated national history with explorations of cultural dislocation and biracial identity. As Kiku processes her experiences, Hughes draws parallels to President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and the incarceration of migrant children. The emotional connection between Kiku and her grandmother is underdeveloped; despite their being neighbors, Ernestina appears briefly and feels elusive to both Kiku and readers up to the very end. Despite some loose ends, readers will gain insights to the Japanese American incarceration and feel called to activism.
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery. (photographs, author’s note, glossary, further reading) (Graphic historical fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19353-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Pairing art from an earlier, self-published edition to a newly adapted text, Hinds retells the old tale as a series of dark, bloody, chaotic clashes. Here Grendel is a glaring, black monster with huge teeth, corded muscles and a tendency to smash or bite off adversaries’ heads; the dragon is all sinuous viciousness; and Beowulf, mighty of thew, towers over his fellow Geats. The narrative, boxed off from the illustrations rather than incorporated into them, runs to lines like, “Bid my brave warriors O Wiglaf, to build a lofty cairn for me upon the sea-cliffs . . . ” and tends to disappear when the fighting starts. Because the panels are jumbled together on the page, the action is sometimes hard to follow, but this makes a strongly atmospheric alternative to the semi-abstract Beowulf, the Legend, by Stephen L. Antczak and James C. Bassett, illus by Andy Lee (2006), or the more conventionally formatted version of Michael Morpurgo, with pictures by Michael Foreman (2006). (Graphic fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3022-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
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