Powerful, moving, and utterly unforgettable.
A Dutch girl must unravel a complicated family history to save her beloved grandmother.
In Dutch author and illustrator van Lieshout’s debut graphic novel, Oma, Annick’s grandmother, has leukemia, and doctors have said that her best chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant. Family members usually offer the likeliest match, but the search for a donor leads Oma to learn that she’s not biologically related to her siblings. Hoping to discover the identities of Oma’s biological parents—and a viable donor—Annick studies the only surviving clues from Oma’s World War II childhood: a set of prints of Amsterdam buildings. Along her life-changing journey, Annick meets Koenji, a handsome street artist and poet whose mother is from Japan, and the pair piece together the significance of the buildings in the prints, following a trail that leads them through Amsterdam and on to the U.S. Told from the perspective of an omniscient blackbird through dual timelines that shift between 2011 and the mid-1940s, this skillfully researched tale is historically and emotionally resonant, reinforcing the importance of art as “a radical act of freedom and resistance.” Van Lieshout juxtaposes her clean, striking two-toned illustrations against stark black-and-white photographs, adding dramatic splashes of color. The backmatter cites the real people and places that served as inspiration. Accessible, haunting, and immaculately researched, this work will claim its place beside graphic novel classics such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.
Powerful, moving, and utterly unforgettable. (photo credits, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781250869814
Page Count: 256
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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