A man, bull, lion, and eagle are traditionally used to depict the four Christian Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The emissaries of Tze-yo-tzuh, an all-powerful god who created the world and everything in it, are a bull, lion, woman, and eagle. I believe though that in the spirit of the melting pot, Yang melds Chinese mythology and Christian mythology. I don’t admittedly know enough about Chinese mythology or folklore. It speaks openly about racism and race and prejudice. Its illustrations blend manga and American comics while creating something new, its form a metaphor for the story’s message. It takes its challenges of stereotypes to every level, going beyond its text, challenging the belief that a graphic novel cannot have literary value (though this is becoming a less firmly held belief among critics, educators, and parents, I believe). That’s one of things I love best about this book: It issues a challenge to the reader while being readily accessible, even with its graphic novel form inviting more reluctant readers to read. Most of the illustrations feature forward facing characters and often direct stares, placing the reader in the position of a character, of a confidant or aggressor or opponent, creating empathy in many cases and inviting introspection and close reflection of the characters’ words. The characters are not hypersexualized but rather of fairly average body type. His colors are brighter, though I’m not sure what effect that would have on my reading ability unless the brighter colors are more welcoming in the same way that picture book illustrators recommend bright colors to keep a child’s attention and to create a stimulating image. Yang’s style is more confined to the pages, even the fight sequences only occasionally having a limb extended out towards the reader. I also don’t approve of the hypersexualization of characters that seems pervasive in comic book illustration. In American comic books and horror films, the action is generally directed out of the page at the audience, so I flinch from horror films and dodge the illustrations in American comic books, glossing over the pictures, missing the details they add to the story, and catching only the dialogue. suggested that this is a more common problem than I ever would have expected and related to the same reflex that makes me cover my eyes during horror films. When confronted with the form, my mind can focus on either the text or picture but not on both. I have had difficulty particularly with the American comic book format. I cannot pretend to have a breadth of knowledge about either comic or manga illustration styles. This was the first graphic novel I was able to enjoy, though a few others had been put into my hands prior, including Tamora Pierce’s White Tiger, which I’d have loved to have enjoyed. The three tales intersect at the end of the book with a lesson to learn to be happy as one is rather than wishing to be something one is not.

Told with a laugh track and canned applause like a 90s television comedy, the third strand of the story, “Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee” features the worst of Chinese stereotypes in Chin-Kee, a cousin of all-American Danny who so embarrasses Danny that Danny has to change schools each year after Chin-Kee’s visit. It parallels with the ancient Chinese tale of the Monkey King, a powerful monkey who wants to be a god, but whom the gods refuse because he’s a monkey. This is an award winning graphic novel about Jin Wang’s struggle to fit into a predominantly Caucasian America as a Chinese American.

LaFaye in that same History and Criticism of Children’s Literature class at Hollins University, and is another that I have read many times since that class. Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese is another book that I was introduced to by A. Continue reading “Book Review: Pashmina is Maybe Over-Ambitious in its Scope” → Pri blames herself and her prayers to Shakti. Pri’s Uncle Jatin has taken the role of a father figure to her.īut when Jatin’s wife Deepa gets pregnant, she worries that Uncle Jatin will have less time for her, that their relationship will change-so much so that she prays to Shakti to take away the baby-and not long after she is born, the premature baby is sick. Pri’s mother Nimisha does not talk to Pri about Pri’s father or Nimisha’s life in India. In this, the protagonist Priyanka “Pri” lives with her mother in America. It was also an earlier middle grade graphic novel by a woman of color featuring characters of color-or one of the earlier ones that I remember stocking on bookshelves. Pashmina had been on my “want to read” list for some time. I came to Pashmina having fallen in love with Chanani’s illustrations for Bea Birdsong’s I Will Be Fierce!-and with a general love of middle-grade graphic novels.

Magical realism dragon landscape art