A touching story about love, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.
In this graphic memoir, 20-year-old French Canadian Marie-Noëlle lives alone with her cat, Ganache, and a sense of self-loathing that threatens to swallow her whole.
Since her early childhood in Montréal, she has believed herself to be fat and unlovable, and she binges on junk food to replace the loneliness that consumes her. Through vivid flashbacks, Marie-Noëlle revisits memories of childhood bullies, absent family members, and an obsession with perfect princesses. Through dance, she once loved her body but over time replaced that love with harsh, negative judgment. She distances herself from everyone, but her life begins to shift when she goes to university and makes a best friend, Matilda, who makes her feel seen and accepted and suggests that Marie-Noëlle find a therapist. Through therapy, Marie-Noëlle finally realizes that it is acceptable for bodies to come in all shapes and sizes and that her weight is not connected to her worth as a person. This journey to self-acceptance allows her to reconnect with her friends and family as well as herself. The strongest element of the book is the gripping and gorgeous illustrations, which capture Marie-Noëlle’s emotions and magnify the spare dialogue and descriptions. The charcoal pencil-style art is hauntingly realistic, with soft-edged panels and hand-lettered text in black or white. Main characters appear White.
A touching story about love, forgiveness, and self-acceptance. (Graphic memoir. 14-18)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77306-484-0
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Though not the most balanced, an enlightening look back for the queer future.
An adaptation for teens of the adult title A Queer History of the United States (2011).
Divided into thematic sections, the text filters LGBTQIA+ history through key figures in each era from the 1500s to the present. Alongside watershed moments like the 1969 Stonewall uprising and the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the text brings to light less well-known people, places, and events: the 1625 free love colony of Merrymount, transgender Civil War hero Albert D.J. Cashier, and the 1951 founding of the Mattachine Society, to name a few. Throughout, the author and adapter take care to use accurate pronouns and avoid imposing contemporary terminology onto historical figures. In some cases, they quote primary sources to speculate about same-sex relationships while also reminding readers of past cultural differences in expressing strong affection between friends. Black-and-white illustrations or photos augment each chapter. Though it lacks the teen appeal and personable, conversational style of Sarah Prager’s Queer, There, and Everywhere (2017), this textbook-level survey contains a surprising amount of depth. However, the mention of transgender movements and activism—in particular, contemporary issues—runs on the slim side. Whereas chapters are devoted to over 30 ethnically diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer figures, some trans pioneers such as Christine Jorgensen and Holly Woodlawn are reduced to short sidebars.
Though not the most balanced, an enlightening look back for the queer future. (glossary, photo credits, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8070-5612-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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