"I have a confession to make." Uh-oh. But no worries, the news is actually good. Wonderfully touching even: "I think I am in friend-love with you." No weirdness or discomfort, please. "I just so desperately want for you to think that I am this super-awesome...
Although I've been devoutly agnostic most of my adult life, I will admit that I get the occasional, random message from the higher-powers-that-be: understanding doesn't always come with these missives, more like nudges that I need to listen better. I keep trying ...
After yesterday's SuperMutant Magic Academy, here's a Jillian Tamaki bonus for non-kiddie readers. It's lucky #7 in rebel San Francisco-based publisher Youth in Decline’s Frontier, "a quarterly art and comics monograph series," as described on the company's website. "Inspired in part by South Korea's SSE Project...
Canadian Japanese cousins Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki have become quite the award-winning dynamic duo in the graphic industry with their bestselling collaborations, Skim (four Eisner nominations) and This One Summer (a 2015 Caldecott Honor). Both titles have been intensely honest, openly revealing, as well as uniquely engaging examinations...
Daughters of the Samurai profiles three remarkable women who influenced modern Japanese history Set aside ample time: You won’t welcome intrusions while reading this unprecedented, true story featuring young Japanese girls who arrived stateside without language or cultural training, and matured into three of the most...
Sona's sister is getting married: "There is so much to do. Even I have a job!" Sona exclaims with excitement. Relatives from India have arrived, and so many more friends and family have all gathered, "turning our house into a festival." Amidst the ongoing hustle-bustle...
Juna and Hector are best friends as well as apartment neighbors. They share regular "kimchi jar adventures," filling the large, clear jar with "colorful rocks and small bugs." One day, Hector is no longer with his grandmother downstairs; while Juna was out, Hector left to...
So when's the last time you took screen shots of book pages and sent them to friends and family because you wanted to guffaw in virtual company? Once upon a time, my middle brother and I would have long lasting giggle-fests triggered by what might not have been...
Lest you're tempted to dismiss this as just another gender-bender version of a familiar tale, banish that thought immediately! Yes, our hero bursts forth from a peach to become the child of an until-then childless older couple, and yes, her name is Momoko – literally...
Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of betrayal? I thought – hoped? –...
Patty Takeda moves in with her mother for the two weeks before her wedding. On the third day in her old room, she's woken by the sound of the doorbell, and is alarmed to hear her mother Lucy use the word "Inspector." Just a few blocks...
The wait is just about over: Book Six hits shelves in just 11 days. Yes, almost two years have passed since Book Five pubbed, but creator Kazu Kibuishi has hardly been resting on his mega-bestseller laurels: that he was the artist chosen to give the legendary...
So maybe I'm getting older faster, but oh my goodness, I'm surprised this trilogy is rated for kids – ages 12+ and grade 7+! Fair warning from this parent: the violence is graphic, the body count immeasurable, and by the end, most of the main characters...
It begins in mostly black and white ...
Okay, I confess the cover put me off from opening the book for months (well, actually, years); I recently compromised by choosing to go aural and was surprisingly delighted to spend almost eight hours with narrators Laural Merlington and Emily Durante (who take turns reading as mother and...
Please correct me if I'm wrong here: The Japanese American imprisonment has been the focus of many, many titles for audiences of all ages, via fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories, plays, graphic titles, picture books, and more, but I believe Mariko Nagai's Dust of Eden...
'Sprawling' barely begins to describe journalist/editor Leslie Helm's ambitious family history that spans nearly a century-and-a-half, three continents, and the titular five generations of a German Japanese American family with current branches spread throughout the rest of the world. Prompted by the death of his difficult...
Spare, lean, restrained, dare I say ...
