An erudite reflection on the experience of holding two cultures within oneself.
A mixed-race woman reflects on her evolving sense of identity.
Hook was born to linguist parents, her mother’s roots in Beijing and Southern China and her father’s in western Germany. From birth, even her names reflected a complex identity. Her mother chose the name Lidun, selecting specific Chinese characters to connote strength and sincerity. Her father’s choice was the similar-sounding Leise, recalling a childhood friend whose name had a unique pronunciation: LEE-za. This introductory story gives a strong sense of the book’s ruminative tone, a collection of moments circling the titular themes. Hook’s Midwestern childhood was punctuated by a year in Tokyo, where she attended a diverse, substantially mixed Asian school, finding a peer group that reflected her self-understanding. As she grew up, Leise began to see herself as “a bridge” between her Chinese identity and a majority-white society, experiencing the external pressures put upon her to perform that function. In American Girl doll catalogs and stores, she seeks, with limited success, a doll reflecting her appearance and experiences. She lightens her hair out of trend-driven curiosity, and her dark-haired mother reacts with disappointment. A year spent working at a Beijing art gallery leaves her emotionally exhausted from constant code-switching. Expected to play an obliging Asian for foreign visitors, she never feels Chinese enough, in work ethic or language ability, for her local employers. Many of Hook’s experiences feel held at arm’s length for careful observation and sober assessment. Nonetheless, moments like this Beijing sojourn ache with youthful confusion, and specific passages where Hook claims language and appearance rather than waiting for cultural permission feel cathartic and exciting. Drawn in an accessible style, alternating structured panels with looser pages for emotional impact, this book works as both mirror and window. Every face, every name, has a story to tell.
An erudite reflection on the experience of holding two cultures within oneself.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781250845030
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
A memoir for those who want to laugh through the free fall of their own emotional roller coaster.
A humorous take on dread.
In her amusing graphic memoir, cartoonist Correll turns her emotional roller coaster into a literal, visual experience with her own amusement park of worries that she calls Anxietyland. Within this playful framework, she guides readers through her lifelong struggle with severe anxiety—there are attractions like the “worry-go-round,” “booze cruise,” “downward spiral,” and more, all culminating in finding the help that not only helps her manage the anxiety, but pushes her to do the work in confronting and living with it. To her credit, Correll uses the amusement park concept to dissect points in her life where her anxiety was holding her hostage from leading a fulfilling life. One panel shows Correll’s whimsical approach, as when her cat, Oliver, goes missing. “Why hasn’t he come home?” she thinks, her eyes full of worry, her mouth downturned. “What if he’s dead?” The subsequent image shows her pet peeking into the panel; the accompanying text reads, “Oliver (very much alive).” It’s one thing to read a memoir that breaks down episodes with the benefit of time and knowledge; it’s a completely different experience to see someone living through their depression while hanging on for dear life in “anxie-tea” cups. Readers who hold season passes to Anxietyland will be able to laugh along with the author, but this book will also benefit those coming to terms with a new or future anxiety diagnosis. These readers may, for the first time, be able to put their swirling emotions into a tangible context that makes more sense to them and others. That’s the beauty of Correll’s memoir: The book provides a comical medium lens that can open doors to understanding—rather than a door to the house of horrors.
A memoir for those who want to laugh through the free fall of their own emotional roller coaster.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781668004159
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.
Immersion journalism in the form of a graphic narrative following a Syrian family on their immigration to America.
Originally published as a 22-part series in the New York Times that garnered a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the story of the Aldabaan family—first in exile in Jordan and then in New Haven, Connecticut—holds together well as a full-length book. Halpern and Sloan, who spent more than three years with the Aldabaans, movingly explore the family’s significant obstacles, paying special attention to teenage son Naji, whose desire for the ideal of the American dream was the strongest. While not minimizing the harshness of the repression that led them to journey to the U.S.—or the challenges they encountered after they arrived—the focus on the day-by-day adjustment of a typical teenager makes the narrative refreshingly tangible and free of political polemic. Still, the family arrived at New York’s JFK airport during extraordinarily political times: Nov. 8, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was elected. The plan had been for the entire extended family to move, but some had traveled while others awaited approval, a process that was hampered by Trump’s travel ban. The Aldabaans encountered the daunting odds that many immigrants face: find shelter and employment, become self-sustaining quickly, learn English, and adjust to a new culture and climate (Naji learned to shovel snow, which he had never seen). They also received anonymous death threats, and Naji wanted to buy a gun for protection. He asked himself, “Was this the great future you were talking about back in Jordan?” Yet with the assistance of selfless volunteers and a community of fellow immigrants, the Aldabaans persevered. The epilogue provides explanatory context and where-are-they-now accounts, and Sloan’s streamlined, uncluttered illustrations nicely complement the text, consistently emphasizing the humanity of each person.
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-30559-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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