Once upon a time in ye olde 2013, in the very blue state of Illinois, Chicago Public School (CPS) officials banned the use of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis in the entire district. 13 years later this feels disgustingly common, a story we’ve learned to tune out, but at the time it shocked the local community and the response was immediate. High school students led a protest, teachers and librarians were up in arms, free speech advocates were taking notice, and it was picked up by news outlets. But information coming from the school district was confusing and inconsistent and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests produced little information or clarity.
Roughly two years later, library graduate student Jarret Dapier, remembering his frustration with the ban and lack of answers, decided to dig deeper for a thesis paper. He interviewed former and current students, teachers, librarians, administrators, and journalists. With little hope of success he sent in his own FOIA request to CPS and was surprised with 42 pages of emails and all the answers he could ask for about the ban and who in the school district was responsible.
Wake Now in the Fire is Dapier’s debut graphic novel and a mingling of those true events with mostly fictional characters based on the students and teachers he interviewed. He follows several high school students (and a few teachers) as they discover the ban and take action. His diverse characters have varied and realistic lives, dealing with all the ups and downs of being a teenager. They struggle with homework, strict parents, and awkward crushes, but also grief, uncertainty, and mental health issues. I really loved that Dapier gave his student characters space to speak and share and develop their, sometimes messy, thoughts in and outside the classroom.
AJ Dungo illustrates Dapier’s narrative with a distinctive and fun graphical style. His clean lines and grayscale color palette are more than able to handle the relatively large cast of characters and complex situations. One detail that I really enjoyed was the use of red only when the book Persepolis is in view in a panel. It’s a nice pop of color that highlights the book’s presence in the lives of the characters.
It feels easy these days to get crushed emotionally by the routine threat of book bans, and I worried a graphic novel focused on it would really bring me down, but Wake Now in the Fire is largely positive. The students are fired up to stand up for their rights to read. The parents, teachers, and librarians are largely supportive. There is visible power in a community that rises against censorship. In his afterword, Dapier draws attention to how things have changed since 2013 with regards to the massive increases in book bans, growing control over marginalized bodies, and the escalating danger of armed government agents. Those comments snapped me back to reality after bathing in some good old fashioned hope during the narrative, but it’s important that our current reality is acknowledged.
The publisher rates this story for ages 14+, which are the ages of the main student characters. There aren’t too many things that would make this difficult for readers under 14, but some issues to be aware of are brief off-screen violence, depictions of mental health struggles in kids and adults, and alcoholism in one of the parents. That parent experiences an on-screen health emergency that his daughter has to respond to in an intense scene. The most stressful parts of the students’ lives are handled well and with grace. This book is a vital addition to a teen, or even an adult collection because it merges history and fiction to tell a compelling story with that crucial element of hope that is so desperately needed right now.
Wake Now in the Fire: A Story of Censorship, Action, Love, and Hope By Jarrett Dapier Art by AJ Dungo Ten Speed Press, 2026 ISBN: 9780593838044
Company Age Rating: 14+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Author and artist James Spooner shares his story of discovering the punk scene as a Black teenager during the late 1980s in The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere.
Spooner moved to a majority White area in California with his White mom (his dad was a Black bodybuilder who lived in Brooklyn) during his high school years. While trying to find where he fit in, skateboarding videos introduced him to punk music, “…the first time I found music that matched my emotions,” (24). The music led him to new friends, a new style and expression, and lent him a veneer of toughness to hide his deeper emotions behind. As the story progresses, James is exposed to the drug scene, white supremacy and Nazi skinheads. He also learns about the Black influence on punk music, intersectionality, and radical political activism.
During a crucial visit to his dad in Brooklyn during winter break, Spooner meets socially involved punks and discovers new bands through them. More importantly, he begins to understand that punk isn’t just about nonconformity and disdain towards authority. Punk is about questioning and disrupting potentially harmful norms, using one’s voice, and collaborating with others to seek social justice and foster inclusivity. “If punk rock was teaching me anything, it’s that us kids have power,” (344). This lesson was vital for the politically and socially focused adult Spooner would become.
The book first caught my eye because of the bold, expressive art. The grayscale illustrations with rich splashes of opaque black are dynamic and character-driven. Lyrics from songs by Black Flag, Minor Threat, Wasted Youth, and other bands populate the pages, with footnotes that include the song and band names. Flipping through and seeing the punk outfits, haircuts, and depictions of teenage life during that time period intrigued me enough to take on the 300+ page memoir. This is a graphic novel with art that tells the story as much as the text does.
This book is great for adult readers, but you don’t have to have any special interest in memoir, punk music, or activism to enjoy it. The universal themes of The High Desert and the wonderful art should appeal to any adult graphic novel enthusiast.
The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. By James Spooner Harper Collins, 2022 ISBN: 9780358659112
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
Creator Representation: Black Character Representation: Black
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, an advocate is one who defends, maintains, or pleads the cause for another. This word functions as both noun and verb—a role that Eddie Ahn plays out unwaveringly in his graphic memoir Advocate. Multifaceted and heroically moving, this debut chronicles the obstacles and episodic milestones that led him towards his present-day role as an environmental justice attorney and policy maker for a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco.
In 2005, Eddie’s story begins while sorting through his grandfather’s family photos and papers. From there, the narrative segues into his humble beginnings at an afterschool program in Oakland’s Chinatown where he taught and mentored youth from immigrant families. His parents emigrated from South Korea to study in the US, settling in Austin, Texas where they ran a retail liquor store. They held high hopes that he would pursue a lucrative career in law. Little did they realize the detours he would undertake after starting law school in San Francisco. From his years as a college student with outstanding loans to his sudden shift in joining a public nonprofit organization (Brightline Defense), coupled by an unexpected turn on San Francisco’s Commission on the Environment where he championed environmental justice causes, Eddie’s primary goal prevailed—to build relationships and foster engagement and solidarity to benefit underrepresented communities.
Each phase of his career and life transitions, captured in varying shades of muted emerald green, light pink, and sea blue, document his steadfast service to the community. Whether serving on a commission in city government, meeting community leaders in underserved districts, or installing air quality sensors in low-income neighborhoods, he strove to enact policies and legal change to tackle racial and economic inequality. He even found time to showcase his artwork on outdoor utility boxes throughout the city’s Richmond district. His earnest narrative voice propels readers through the challenges of upholding environmental justice and community service at the expense of burnout, as well as grappling with microaggressive bouts of anti-Asian hate at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Drawing upon his skills as a cartoonist, he illustrates local communities with fine precision and detail, depicting familiar icons around the San Francisco bay area including local eateries, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) public transit system, City Hall, and residential neighborhoods.
In episodic bildungsroman fashion, Advocate presents an intersectional trajectory of Eddie’s life as a dutiful son, inspirational youth mentor, diligent law student, intrepid environmental justice attorney, public advocate, self-taught comic book artist, and more. Additional front and back matter highlight sketches of scenic locations, photos, and insights that inspired the creation of this stunningly crafted graphic memoir, transforming it into a literary and visual gem for adult biographical collections. Overall, this enduring multilayered story delivers a message of relentless hope and commitment marked by excellence through connecting with others in the spirit of community building and service to the world at large.
Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice By Eddie Ahn Ten Speed Press, 2024 ISBN: 9781984862495
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Korean-American, Character Representation: Korean-American,
Zara and Zeeshan, twin Muslim Pakistanian American siblings, love to spend time on their phone apps. Zara keeps a photo journal of different animal species she encounters and Zeeshan geeks out on space exploration facts by tuning in to NASA videos. While preparing for a family trip to Florida, a series of mishaps, jabbing insults, and mistaken interpretations deprives them of their phone privileges, stirring up heated resentment between the two. Bouts of sibling rivalry abound in Saving Sunshine, a heartfelt graphic novel written by Saadia Faruqi (Yasmin and Ali the Great series) and illustrated by Shazleen Khan.
From the moment their mom receives an invitation to accept an award at a medical conference in Key West, Florida, the fun begins. As they are packing, Zeeshan kicks over Zara’s neatly stacked pile of clothes. Upon arriving at the airport, he accidentally bumps into Zara’s luggage cart, causing her to trip over and fall. Their parents execute the ultimate punishment by confiscating their phones and demanding that they stick together, forcing them to work out their differences throughout the trip. After kayaking to a nearby island resort, Zara discovers a lone, ailing loggerhead turtle whom she names “Sunshine.” Little by little, the two team up to nurture it back to health, gaining a deeper understanding and respect for each other’s hobbies in the process.
Beyond the central sibling conflict, the twins also face microaggressions in various guises throughout the story. Classmates poke fun at Zeeshan’s name. In a flashback from sixth grade, Zara wears a hijab for the first time in school only to become the target of jeers from taunting classmates. They are frequently greeted with the question, “Where are you from?” At an airport security checkpoint, a security guard pulls their father aside for questioning. Their parents handle these discriminatory gestures with respect, aplomb, and resilience.
Charmingly sketched characters and scenic backgrounds fill the narrative panels rendered in a watercolor style complemented by soft pastels. Anecdotal flashbacks and memories colored in sepia tones add insight to the backstories of the siblings, elucidating their childhood escapades in some panels that spread out as a series of overlapping photos. Pop-up notifications containing factoids of the siblings’ specialized interests sporadically appear, enhancing the narrative flow of information. Overall, Faruqi incorporates elements of sibling rivalry, reconciliation, animal activism, and Islamophobia into the plot, making this story an enriching addition to middle-grade collections and reinforcing the enduring message of standing strong and true for oneself and others in solidarity.
Saving Sunshine By Saadia Faruqi Art by Shazleen Khan Macmillan First Second, 2023 ISBN: 9781250793805
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12 NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11)
Creator Representation: Pakistani-American Character Representation: Pakistani-American
If you and your significant other agree on most things, what happens when one big thing comes up that you disagree on? Is being almost perfect for each other enough to happily continue the relationship despite that one Big Thing?
In Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag, Michael Anthony (author) and Chai Simone (artist) depict a relationship between an omnivore and a vegetarian. Michael, our narrator, is an Iraqi war veteran with body image issues. Michael’s girlfriend, nicknamed Coconut, is a vegetarian who gets more involved in animal rights activism and goes vegan. Michael had to turn off his emotions in order to survive war. “But to do it all-deal with the dead, the dying…the sleepless nights, weeks, months, and to save as many lives as possible, we had to stop caring. We had to let it all go and become autonomic machines. Emotionless. Detached…and yet, after everything I’d seen and been through, Coconut thought some videos would…overwhelm me? Change my entire life? Disgust me into action? Get me to stop eating meat?” (p. 16-19). Coconut’s mother’s past damaging criticisms of Coconut’s body and her own caring, selfless nature inform her backstory. Can their otherwise harmonious relationship survive Michael’s veiled—and Coconut’s overt—conversion attempts? I hoped for a certain outcome, but I’ll let you read the book and find out for yourself what happens.
Simone’s art style is colorful and cartoony. Her characters’ facial expressions and body language convey their many moods, ranging from Coconut’s horror and smugness to Michael’s exasperation and befuddlement. She draws supporting characters with care as well. In one scene where Michael is asking event guests what made them decide to be vegetarian, it’s interesting to see how their faces change when he follows that with “What would get you to eat meat again?” (p. 69). Simone’s lettering makes the book easy to read. Michael’s narration is shown in tan blocks of text, with different lettering styles used for dialogue and for each of the protagonists’ handwritten notes.
This is an interesting, multilayered story, not merely a lecture on the harms of industrial animal agriculture. Although the book explores those harms, each character’s backstory and how their past experiences shape their current predicament is more compelling.
This book is for adult readers due to some graphic illustrations of warfare, slaughterhouse activities, and meat-packing plant scenes. There is also mention of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse among veterans. Any library with an attentive readership of nonfiction graphic novels, either memoirs or food-related books, should consider this title for their collection. Check the recommended reading list on pages 168-169 for further resources on veganism.
Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag: A Memoir By Michael Anthony Art by Chai Simone Street Noise Books, 2022 ISBN: 9781951491192
This review refers to the hardbound trade which comprises the first five issues of Animal Castle. It’s marked volume 1 and it is a handsome volume, indeed! I read the first five issues as the individual comics, through my subscription at my favorite comics pusher, so I was curious to see what the compiled edition looked like. This glossy library bound edition shows the richly painted art from the first comic cover and includes a preamble by the author, all the variant covers, and lots of bonus material displaying the original pencils and thumbnails. The cover art wraps around to the back side. It should hold up to many circulations.
This storyline is essentially Orwell’s Animal Farm, yes, but updated and retold in a new chilling way, putting a wider variety of animals in the different roles, and exploring more intimately what each character has to give up to change their brutal conditions. The dictator and general for life, Silvio, is a corpulent shaggy bull with googly stern eyes, Texas Longhorn-type horns, a protruding lip, and large jowls that somehow seem familiar. His hench-dogs are slobbery, idiotic, and brutal, and are rendered in Felix Delep’s lanky whispy pencils. All the animals have amazingly human expressions, and it’s easy to empathize with each. Indeed, many of the scenes are heartbreaking.
The story revolves around a starving young mama cat named Miss Bengalore and her attempts to organize the Castle against the brutality of Silvio’s reign. The Hindi-sounding name is not a coincidence, as she’s shown early in the book what happens to those who speak up and riot. She has all she can handle with her three kittens and her forced work hauling stones all day to Silvio’s commanded building of a wall fortress, but, one night, she sees an old gray rat, a traveling storyteller named Azelar, do a performance about, “a little man, a fakir who fights against a king and an empire….” Is Azelar’s appearance a coincidence? Or does he have more to teach the Castle animals? When the old rat is injured trying to escape the guard hounds, Miss B. rescues him. Can he convince Miss B. and the other animals to work towards a better life away from Silvio’s grasp?
The story pacing kept my interest and the colors are muted and appropriate for a difficult story like this. The lettering is very small, so I needed my cheaters to read it. Even though this story is based on Animal Farm, this is not a story for middle graders. There is considerable violence as well as adult situations, even though those are animal-portrayed adult situations. In a country where some try to ban mouse-nakedness, librarians should be aware that this comic discusses very hard political issues, and the brutality is explicitly portrayed. I suggest putting this title either in the adult area or young adult.
Animal Castle, vol. 1 Vol. 1 By Xavier Dorison Art by Felix Delep Ablaze, 2022 ISBN: 9781684970032
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Before opening the cover of the graphic novel, I knew that this was a true story, a memoir that had been originally told in an animated film for the National Film Board of Canada, but I had no other familiarity with the story or the reaction that it would generate within me. I was perplexed when I immediately recognized the setting of the story—I had been at that camp myself, a gift from an unknown sponsor much earlier and, while I distantly recalled much of the camp experience, I had totally forgotten where it was located until I saw the provided map. Memories came flooding back. Like my earlier experience, the author/protagonist was also attending the camp for the first time and, like this reviewer, was more excited about the accessibly of comic books and time to read than anything else!
The camp, in central Alberta, Canada, is located close to the small town of Eckville which, in the 1980s, became notorious because of its anti-Semitic mayor who also was a grade nine teacher in the local school. For several years the teacher, Jim Keegstra, taught his students that the Holocaust was a hoax. This was eventually halted by a parent campaign that resulted in a law case regarding hate and anti-Semitic propaganda. Keegstra was fired, but what was his legacy in the belief systems of those students? “Believing the curriculum was “incomplete,” Keegstra had been teaching Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in his classroom – that Jewish people had an international plot to control the world and were to blame for everything that’s wrong” (17).
To combat Keegstra’s troublesome legacy, the Alberta Jewish communities invited the students taught by Keegstra to the summer camp for a day of basketball and fellowship encouraging cultural understanding. The reader is privy to the initial worries and concerns of Hart and his fellow campers regarding the admission of these students into the camp and their lives. What follows is an illustration of misunderstandings and beliefs…and the natural healing and changing of worldviews through the game of basketball. The illustrations are simple line drawings, mostly in black and white, with spots of bright colors and backgrounds emphatically aiding in the emotional telling of the story. The perspective of the text and the illustrations is that of the children with the colored panels accentuating the outlandish monsters created by their imaginations and lack of knowledge of each other.
In the author’s note at the end of the book he discusses the effect Keegstra’s trial had on him as a grade 6 Jewish student. “Keegstra was successfully convicted of criminally promoting hatred of Jewish people, which was an important test of Canada’s hate speech legislation” (83). Hart continues to explain that the public debate surrounding this trial, although uncomfortable, forced Canadians and others beyond our borders to seriously consider the dangers of racism, the necessity of critical thinking skills, and the personal responsibilities to stand up against hate.
Although the basketball game took place in 1983, the trial in 1985, and Keegstra’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1996, the issues of racism, anti-Semitism, critical thinking, conspiracy theories and the dangers of hatred are not limited to the past.
I was a mother with two young children when the Keegstra Affair came to light. I lived locally and followed the news faithfully but was never aware of this basketball game until now. This is a story that needs to be read and revisited both the in the original filmic version and this newly published graphic novel again and again. The book includes an introduction, follow up to the trial, study questions, and a glossary. It is a concise and accessible entry to the ease of spreading conspiracy theories, fake news, misinformation, and hatred. Highly recommended for school and public libraries.
The Basketball Game By Hart Snider Art by Sean Covernton Firefly, 2022 ISBN: 9780228103912
Publisher Age Rating: 12+ Related media: Movie to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Middle Grade (7-11), Older Teen (16-18) Creator Representation: Canadian, Jewish Character Representation: Canadian, Jewish
Tommie Smith is the subject of one of the most iconic images from the Civil Rights Era, of two black men holding gloved fists high in a Black Power salute during the 1968 Olympics. In Victory. Stand!: Raising my Fist for Justice, Smith tells his story behind that moment. The graphic memoir, co-written with Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile gives an account of Smith’s life leading to the Olympics, his choice to make the political statement, and the aftermath.
The book opens with a race, specifically the 200 meter sprint finals. Despite a sharp pain in his thighs and a whirlwind of thoughts, Smith leaps at the sound of the starter pistol. We then immediately flashback to his childhood, 1949 in Texas. Throughout the next few chapters, Smith flashes back and forth between the story of his childhood and school years in the segregated South with his iconic race at the ‘68 Olympics.
Smith and Barnes juxtapose his pain and resiliency during the race with the harsh realities of living and growing as a Black boy surrounded by racial injustices. His parents were sharecroppers who were hardworking and kind, but treated in a way that was obviously cruel and unfair, even through the eyes of a young Smith. He talks about the ways he perceived these inequities, and the moment when he first came to the understanding that this was all about race. In college, Smith begins to realize that his voice matters. It is with that knowledge that he makes the decision to run in the Olympics and raise his fist to the sky. The last chapter details the trajectory of his life in the aftermath. Unfortunately, it felt rushed and included details that were not relevant to the theme of sports and the Civil Rights Movement. I also wish that the parallels with the 200 meter race and his life extended further into the story. However, these are small imperfections in an otherwise fascinating book from an important voice from history.
Anyabwile’s illustrations in gray, black, and white, are filled with texture, movement and emotion. Throughout the book, the illustrations add depth to the story. Much of the emotion and drama comes through in the backgrounds with textures, shadows or expansive black. Anyabwile also did a notable job capturing Smith’s growth from child to adult, sublely adjusting looks and style as time goes on.
At pivotal moments in Smith’s life, Anyabwile steps away from Smith’s story to illustrate more striking images reflecting the reality for Black people in America. When Smith’s family eventually moves to Southern California in hopes for a better life, the very next page features a haunting two page spread with a mother and her young children screaming in pain. In the background a Black man hangs from a tree next to a burning cross. Other images include references to such events as the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing and Martin Luther King’s Assassnation. Smith came of age at the dawn of the Civil Rights era, as he was finding himself and his place in the world, these moments and realities helped to shape who he became. Anyabwile deftly illustrates these pages. They are awash with black and expand beyond the panels typical of most pages in the book. These events are monumental and his illustrations reflect their importance.
Victory. Stand!: Raising my Fist for Justice is a notable addition to the graphic memoir genre. It is a definite purchase for my high school collection. Tommie Smith is an important voice from the Civil Rights Movement and I think this book will appeal to a broad range of readers.
Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice By Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes Art by Dawud Anyabwile W. W. Norton & Company, 2022 ISBN: 9781324003908
Publisher Age Rating: 13 and up
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: African-American, Black, Character Representation: African-American, Black,
With every year, truth seems to become more and more subjective. At least that is what many forces want us all to think. In issue after issue, we are driven apart by obfuscation and subterfuge. It’s hard to imagine how we can come together to exist in the same reality sometimes. Author Samuel Spitale believes he knows how to reclaim our reality with his book How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality.
This hybrid comic and non-fiction book looks at propaganda and bias. It is lengthy and detailed. Spitale tells story after story that illustrates how humans seek to reduce complexity and how our brains can fail to recognize certain facts. These blind spots allow us to be manipulated by marketers and public relations companies. He cites a wide variety of interesting research including Daniel Kahneman and his work on human error. The illustrations by Allan Whincup effectively break down some of the more complex ideas into understandable parts. The comics are more on the cartoony side than realistic and that helps when tackling such an intense subject. Graphs, pie charts, and topical quotes spoken by cartoon politicians and economists help relay the information.
The book spends a lot of time on the history of propaganda as well as U.S. political history. It rings true for the most part, but occasionally becomes a left wing polemic. The chapter on what to do about this substantial problem is slight on workable solutions, so readers may be disappointed considering what the title of the book is. Spitale is still describing the problems right up until the conclusion. Previous works on similar topics, like Unrig, had specific proposals and examples of solutions that are being tried around the country. This book could have used more of that.
The publisher states this book is an “illustrated guide.” That is more accurate than calling it a graphic novel. This is a dense book with lots of text. There are illustrations on most every page, but they are not sequential art. This book belongs in an adult nonfiction collection. Only the most interested teens are going to stick with this to the end. This is certainly an important topic, but I wonder, if they had fully committed to telling a story with pictures would the work be more accessible to a larger audience?
How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality By Samuel Spitale Art by Allan Whincup Quirk, 2022 ISBN: 9781683693086
It begins with a knock on the door from the FBI. Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a silent invasion permeated the United States, targeting Japanese American citizens as enemy aliens.
On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was passed, uprooting nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes into internment camps. We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, written by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, with artwork by Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki, chronicles the bold exploits of three intrepid Japanese Americans who challenged the constitutionality of the executive order during their internment.
This epic story begins with a montage of three incidents: An ominous rapping on the door of twenty-two-year-old Jim Akutsu, a civil engineering student living with his parents in Seattle, disrupts their peaceful evening. FBI agents are on the move to round up Japanese Americans into relocation camps. High school graduate Hiroshi Kashiwagi, nineteen, gets pulled over by a cop for staying out past curfew one night in central California. Upon closer inspection, the cop labels him a “Jap spy.” Twenty-one-year-old Mitsuye “Mitzi” Endo, a typist for a state agency in California, receives a letter one day threatening dismissal from her job on the grounds of purported affiliations with the Japanese community and thus, holding allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. This interconnected trio of stories sets the stage for the harrowing events in the Pacific Northwest impacting Japanese Americans subjected to the camps without due process. There they will be tested for their loyalty to the US government.
Meticulously researched and intricately narrated, each story unfolds from the point of view of the internees as well as the US government officials. At Camp Minidoka, Akutsu refuses the draft to serve in the army, for he believes the so-called loyalty questionnaire from the Selective Service to be a ploy to incriminate himself. Signing this oath of allegiance would equate to confessing to a nonexistent allegiance to Japan even though he was already a natural-born American citizen. Kashiwagi refuses to sign the loyalty oath altogether while in Tule Lake, testing the limits of his rights as an American. In Topaz, Mitzi Endo foregoes an opportunity to leave the camp in a strategic move to serve as a witness in a lawsuit against the US government for having imprisoned people based solely on race. Through defiant acts in the form of draft resistance, hunger strikes, and prosecuting lawsuits, the trio stood their ground to uphold their unalienable rights as American citizens.
The narrative flow of each character’s experiences unfolds fluidly, juxtaposing Sasaki’s abstracted and expressionist style of Hiroshi Kashiwagi’s story alongside Ishikawa’s more solidly rendered character designs of Jim Akutsu and Mitzi Endo. Historical documents contextualize the plot with startling and compelling authenticity. Typewritten memos to war relocation authorities, racial profiling signs, front page newspaper headlines, reenactments of speeches and discussions amongst US government officials—these visual details merge seamlessly to create a historical account of the socio-political milieu on the US home front during World War II.
On the eightieth anniversary of Executive Order 9066, We Hereby Refuse adds a critical chapter to the annals of US history and complements all library collections. This graphic novel tackles themes of racism, assimilation, survival, and resilience, centering on the lived experiences of Japanese Americans and their tenacious stand to test the integrity of the American justice system. Theirs is a story that deserves to be told and retold for future generations lest history repeats itself.
We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration By Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, , Art by Ross Ishikawa, Matt Sasaki, Chin Music Press Inc., 2021 ISBN: 9781634059763
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Japanese-American, Character Representation: Japanese-American,
Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis in the entire district. 13 years later this feels disgustingly common, a story we’ve learned to tune out, but at the time it shocked the local community and the response was immediate. High school students led a protest, teachers and librarians were up in arms, free speech advocates were taking notice, and it was picked up by news outlets. But information coming from the school district was confusing and inconsistent and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests produced little information or clarity.
Author and artist James Spooner shares his story of discovering the punk scene as a Black teenager during the late 1980s in The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere.
word functions as both noun and verb—a role that Eddie Ahn plays out unwaveringly in his graphic memoir Advocate. Multifaceted and heroically moving, this debut chronicles the obstacles and episodic milestones that led him towards his present-day role as an environmental justice attorney and policy maker for a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco.
Zara and Zeeshan, twin Muslim Pakistanian American siblings, love to spend time on their phone apps. Zara keeps a photo journal of different animal species she encounters and Zeeshan geeks out on space exploration facts by tuning in to NASA videos. While preparing for a family trip to Florida, a series of mishaps, jabbing insults, and mistaken interpretations deprives them of their phone privileges, stirring up heated resentment between the two. Bouts of sibling rivalry abound in Saving Sunshine, a heartfelt graphic novel written by Saadia Faruqi (Yasmin and Ali the Great series) and illustrated by Shazleen Khan.
If you and your significant other agree on most things, what happens when one big thing comes up that you disagree on? Is being almost perfect for each other enough to happily continue the relationship despite that one Big Thing?
This review refers to the hardbound trade which comprises the first five issues of Animal Castle. It’s marked volume 1 and it is a handsome volume, indeed! I read the first five issues as the individual comics, through my subscription at my favorite comics pusher, so I was curious to see what the compiled edition looked like. This glossy library bound edition shows the richly painted art from the first comic cover and includes a preamble by the author, all the variant covers, and lots of bonus material displaying the original pencils and thumbnails. The cover art wraps around to the back side. It should hold up to many circulations.
animated film for the National Film Board of Canada, but I had no other familiarity with the story or the reaction that it would generate within me. I was perplexed when I immediately recognized the setting of the story—I had been at that camp myself, a gift from an unknown sponsor much earlier and, while I distantly recalled much of the camp experience, I had totally forgotten where it was located until I saw the provided map. Memories came flooding back. Like my earlier experience, the author/protagonist was also attending the camp for the first time and, like this reviewer, was more excited about the accessibly of comic books and time to read than anything else!
Tommie Smith is the subject of one of the most iconic images from the Civil Rights Era, of two black men holding gloved fists high in a Black Power salute during the 1968 Olympics. In Victory. Stand!: Raising my Fist for Justice, Smith tells his story behind that moment. The graphic memoir, co-written with Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile gives an account of Smith’s life leading to the Olympics, his choice to make the political statement, and the aftermath.
With every year, truth seems to become more and more subjective. At least that is what many forces want us all to think. In issue after issue, we are driven apart by obfuscation and subterfuge. It’s hard to imagine how we can come together to exist in the same reality sometimes. Author Samuel Spitale believes he knows how to reclaim our reality with his book How to Win the War on Truth: An Illustrated Guide to How Mistruths Are Sold, Why They Stick, and How to Reclaim Reality. 
