Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam Thien Pham

Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam

Thien Pham

:01 First Second, an imprint of Roaring Book Press. 2023

Food is a focal point in this memoir told in graphic format about Thien Pham and his family’s journey from Vietnam to America. Each culinary memory brings Thien one step closer to fitting in.

The book begins with Thien as an adult, sitting at his desk ready to begin his story by asking himself what is his first memory. We turn the page and we see a boat full of people, refugees, fleeing Vietnam. Thien is five. He recalls being hungry and thirsty until a ship stops and sells them food. Mmmm! Watermelon. But, soon after, pirates attack the ship. Thien’s mother tells him to hold on tight to her. “Don’t let go.” After the brutal attack ends, Thien remembers eating a rice ball his mother had saved in her pocket. “I can still taste that rice ball…the saltiness of the fish…the sweetness of the rice.”

After a stay in a refugee camp, the family finds a sponsor who brings them to sunny San Jose, California where the family works hard in their pursuit of the American Dream.

Each chapter, eight in all, show Thien navigating American culture as he grows. In the last chapter, chapter 8: Rice and Fish, Thien is an adult. He teaches art in a college and is distressed by the news. “-Let’s send them back where they came from! Build the Wall! Build the Wall! Build the Wall! Build the Wall!  When he expresses his sorrow at the hateful rhetoric, his friends and colleagues say that the only way to change the hate is to become a US citizen and vote. The book closes with the naturalization ceremony where Thien and many others from around the world are graced with a special message from President Barak Obama.

“Remember, that in America, no dream is impossible. Like the millions of immigrants who have come before you, you have the opportunity to enrich this country through your contributions to civic society. You can help write the next great chapter in our American story. Together, we can keep the beacon that is America burning bright for all the world to see.” 

Afterwards, Thien registers to vote!

The last part of Family Style is drawn in black and white, has Thien answering questions fans asked about the making of the book. 

Middle and high school students will appreciate the underlying message of accepting people based on who they are inside, especially with today’s current events. “Just find good people. It doesn’t matter where they come from or where they are. Just find people who will go out of their way to make you happy and who you’d do the same for.”

Click here to watch Gene Luen Yang interview Thien Pham at a San Jose local bookshop. 

From 2021: The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker; Marcus Kwame Anderson

The Black Panther Party : A Graphic Novel History
by David F. Walker;
Art, Colors, and Letters by Marcus Kwame Anderson

Ten Speed Press. 2021

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in response to the decades long violence against Black Americans. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was a radical political organization that was “in defiant contrast to the mainstream civil rights movement”

Using the graphic novel format, Walker does an excellent job of explaining circumstances that led to the formation of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, their commitment to supporting the Black communities with their educational and healthcare programs, and their battle to stop police brutality. 

As a response to the 1967 riots in Detroit, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed an 11-member commission to investigate the causes of the riots. The commission was led by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. The commission was tasked with answering these three questions: “What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again? 

On February 29, 1968, the Kerner Report was published. The report was a scathing condemnation of White America. “What White Americans have never fully understood but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, White institutions maintain it, and White society condones it.” Instead of taking the recommendations from the 426 page Kerner Report that could have put an end to the racial disparity against Black Americans, the report was ignored. Instead, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI waged a secret war against The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Sadly, many leaders were brutally and unfairly murdered at the hands of police. 

In his afterword, Walker states, “It is worth noting that, more than 50 years after Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party and draft the Ten-Point Program as their guiding manifesto, every single concern they address is still relevant. Every single inequality, injustice, and form of oppression impacting the Black community in 1966 is still going strong, well into the 21st century. What the Panthers wanted in 1966, we still want now. What they believed, we still know to be true.”

Growing up, the conversations regarding The Black Panthers leaned more towards their violence than highlighting the good things they did, such as establishing important social programs - free breakfast and schools - and their fight to end social inequality. In Walker’s graphic novel history, the marriage of facts mixed with invented dialogue, and Anderson’s art make this a powerful, well-balanced book for high school students on a little known topic.

Interspersed throughout the narrative are 16 bios of Black Panther members, a bibliography, and index.

Without the knowledge of what came before, there is no hope of making our world a better place for all people. 

A First Time for Everything

A First Time for Everything
by Dan Santat
First Second, 2023
Grades 5 and up

Caldecott Medal winner, Dan Santat, has made a name for himself as a talented picture book illustrator and author.  A First Time for Everything is Santat's first graphic novel memoir, and it's brilliant. Based on Santat's experiences traveling to Europe the summer before his freshman year of high school, the memoir captures the, awkwardness, excitement, embarrassment, and joy of coming of age in the late 1980s. 

Readers will identify with Dan, who tries to do the right thing and be true to himself while navigating the complexities of the teen years, friendship, independence and young love. The memoir is a tribute to Gen X with Kodak cameras, mix tapes, network television, and hand written letters. 

The graphic novel format is perfect for Santat's story pairing his talent for illustration with engaging storytelling. Dan takes risks and learns about the who he is and who he wants to be as he travels through France, Switzerland, Germany and England. Flashbacks, presented in black & white, provide insight into Dan's experiences before the trip. While there are some scenes with alcohol and smoking, the events are a glimpse into the teen years of Gen Xers while also contrasting American and European cultures in the 80s. 

A strength of the book is how the story represents the budding romance between Dan and Amy over the course of the trip. Dan's crush on Amy is innocent and realistic as his insecurities cause him to come across as awkward and unsure. Ultimately, Dan uses his drawing talent and his love for tennis and Wimbeldon to win over Amy. A First Time for Everything is highly recommended for middle school and high school readers. It's the perfect mix of humor, nostalgia, teen angst, and self-actualization. 

Bomb: Graphic Novel

Bomb: Graphic Novel
written by Steve Sheinkin
illustrated by Nick Bertozzi
Roaring Brook Press, 2023
Grades 4 and up

The much anticipated Bomb: Graphic Novel hit shelves this week.  I frequently recommend to Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon to students, and the multiple copies we have in my school library are constantly checked out. So I was thrilled to learn that Roaring Brook Press was releasing a graphic novel version of the nonfiction book

Sheinkin pulls quotes and events out of the nonfiction history book to create the graphic novel version. As with the 2012 book, the graphic novel immerses readers in the story beginning with the FBI knocking on the door of chemist turned spy, Harry Gold. The story is told through a series of flashbacks as Gold is interviewed by the FBI. Nick Bertozzi's illustrations use a dark, muted palette to create a somber and serious tone. The illustrations add a sense of excitement and intrigue to the story as Germany, Russia and the U.S. race to develop an atomic bomb to bring an end to World War II. When the U.S. drops bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, pale pink clouds are depicted on the page without words. After President Truman announced that the bombing were successful, the pages that follow show devastation in stark, gray rubble. At the bottom of the page readers learn that 70,000 people died and 100,000 more would die from burns and radiation poisoning in Hiroshima.  As with the nonfiction book, the graphic novel concludes with Robert Oppenheimer visiting the President to share his reservations and regret about the atomic bomb leaving the readers to think about the implications of the scientific development on humanity.

The new format of Bomb: Graphic Novel will attract readers who want to learn about the events that led to the end of World War II, devastated a nation, and ushered in a cold war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It is also likely to be popular with readers who are already fans of the long form Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. 

Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely

Numb To This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting

Kindra Neely

Little, Brown and Company. 2022

Graphic artist, Kindra Neely, is a survivor of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon in October 2015. Her memoir, told in graphic novel format, tells the story of the shooting, and her journey to try and heal from this trauma. Making this ordeal extra challenging is the continued steady stream of mass shootings throughout the United States.

Neely was no stranger to the negative influence of guns. Living in Texas, her school had metal detectors, police dogs, and officiers. “There were a lot of guns. Everybody carried in Texas.” After a drive-by shooting a few houses from where she lived, Neely’s mother had enough. She packed then 13-year-old Kindra into the car and they relocated to her mother’s hometown: Roseburg, Oregon. 

Life improved a lot! Kindra felt safe in her new surroundings. She made friends. The calmness of Oregon allowed Kindra to have the space to find herself and figure out exactly what that meant for her future. 

“Gun violence wasn’t something I was accustomed to. It just wasn’t expected.” Not here in Oregon.

Then, on her fourth day attending Umpqua Community College, a gunman opens fire on campus. Nine people killed and eight people injured. Even before she arrived home that awful day, a national newspaper posts a picture of Kindra and a friend hugging. “I felt so violated. People were going to make their own assumptions about the people in the photo without ever knowing how we actually felt or what it was like. The nation was watching us while were were most vulnerable, but it felt like we were entertainment.” 

The trauma of that day never leaves Kindra. Even when she attends art school in Georgia, the events of that day haunt her. She copes, yet suffers panic attacks. With more and more mass shootings happening, and seeing a video posted by the NRA on how to spin school shootings to their advantage, Kindra finally makes up her mind. It was time to tell the story of mass shootings from the point of view of those who were there.

This is a powerful memoir. Neely went from feeling pointless - someone without feelings - to feeling hopeless - to acknowledging there is a loss with something there to believe in.

Included is an author’s note and a list of resources.

Read an Interview with Neely on NPR

Fever Year by Don Brown

Fever Year: the killer flu of 1918

Written and illustrated by Don Brown

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2019

Grades 4 up

In Brown’s latest informational book told with pictures (a nonfiction graphic novel) tells the story of the flu epidemic of 1918.  By the time the flu was finished, hundreds of thousands of people died. “Graves couldn’t be dug quickly enough.”

It all began New Year’s Day, January 1918. America was hoping for a victory since it had been at war since 1914. (World War One). The first victim was an army cook. In March of 1918, Albert Gitchell, reported sick to Camp Funston. “Soon, more soldiers made their way to the camp hospital, all complaining of fever, sore throat, and headache. More than a thousand fell ill over the next month. Forty-eight died.”

Brown tells the story in three acts, like a three-act tragedy. Act I : January – July 1918; Act II : August-December 1918; Act III : 1919.

As per usual for Brown, the text and his comic style meld perfectly, making the horror of the tragedy more powerful.

Back matter includes an epilogue, source notes, and a bibliography of books, periodicals, and online sources.

A book not to be missed.

I borrowed a copy of this book from my local public library to write this review.

Fearless Females: the Fight for Freedom, Equality, and Sisterhood by Marta Breen

Fearless Females: the Fight for Freedom, Equality, and Sisterhood

by Marta Breen; Illustrated by Jenny Jordahl

Yellow Jacket. An imprint of Bonnier Publishing USA. 2019

Grades 5 and up

In the introduction to this collection of stories about courageous women, Norwegian writers, Breen and Jordahl  say, “Feminism is the opposite of misogyny. And what is misogyny? Well, it’s the notion that the opinions of women are less valid, that their work is less worthwhile, that they do no have the right to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies, that they deserve less freedoms than men, and that they should obey men. This misogyny has long, historical roots and is still very widespread. And it means that millions of women are subjected to violence, sexual harassment, force marriage, and other forms of oppression every single day.” 

Told in graphic format, the book highlights not only the women who led the fight, but frames their work within historic moments. Topics include, “Women’s Struggle Against Slavery,” “Suffering Suffragists” to “the Struggle For Female Bodily Integrity.”

Illustrated in comic form, the combination of text and drawings is very powerful and inspiring. 

Though the book contains no back matter, I do recommend it for library collections. 

I love Breen and Jordahl’s positive outlook for the future of women and feminism. “There will always be those who seek to resist this and return things to the way they were. But these people rarely succeed in the long run. The world is slowly but surely making progress - with the help of feminists and their allies.” 

Let’s hope that’s true. 

As Hillary Clinton states, “In big ways and small, the unfinished business of the twenty-first century is the full equality of women.” 

Celebrating Martin Luther King Day

 This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Award. 

What better way to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, 

than to highlight past reviews on book 

about Civil Rights.

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch
Written by Chris Barton; Illustrated by Don Tate

Because They Marched: the people's campaign for voting rights that changed America

by the late, and great nonfiction writer, Russell Freedman 

Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights
by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace

Carter Reads the Newspaper

Written by Deborah Hopkinson; Illustrated by Don Tate

The Case for Loving: the fight for interracial marriage

By Selina Alko; Illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko

Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: the Sanitation Strike of 1968

by Alice Faye Duncan: Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Muddy: The Story of Blue Legend Muddy Waters

by Michael Mahin; Illustrated by Evan Turk

Turning 15 On the Road to Freedom: my story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March

By Lynda Blackmon Lowery; as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley; 

Illustrated by PJ Loughran

Twelve Days in Maine: Freedom Ride 1961

by Larry Dane Brimner

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

by Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by Ekua Holmes

You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen 
by Carole Boston Weatherford
illustrated by Jeffrey Boston Weatherford

AND...

Turn in Monday, January 28, 2018, 12:00 PM EST for the 

2019 Youth Media Award announcements, including the CSK awards!

The Unwanted by Don Brown

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees 
by Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018
Grades 6-12

In 2016, Don Brown won a Sibert Honor for Drowned City, the nonfiction graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina. Brown's latest nonfiction graphic novel brings attention to the Syrian refugee crisis of present day. What makes this nonfiction book unique is that the Syrian Civil War is still happening as the book hits shelves.

The Unwanted begins in 2011 and illustrates the brutal regime in Syria. Individual rise up and speak against Assad. Groups gather in the streets. "Down with the regime" is painted on walls. The text is the perfect balance of captions containing background information and speech bubbles with dialogue. Muted colors help set the somber tone. Brown does not shy away from the horrific treatment of people in Syria.  Some of the most powerful and darkest pages illustrate the perilous journey by boat as Syrians try to reach Greece. The book ends on a hopeful note with the idea that the future is for the children. Back matter is lengthy and includes a bibliography as well as source notes for the dialogue.

The Unwanted should be purchased for libraries and classrooms to inform teens (and adults) about the conflict in Syria and the ongoing refugee crisis. Books are a powerful way to spread empathy and compassion, and The Unwanted will help put a human face on a terrible conflict affecting thousands of innocent families. Pair with the fiction title, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi.

Algeria is Beautiful Like American Written by Olivia Burton

Algeria is Beautiful Like American

Written by Olivia Burton; Illustrated by Mahi Grand

Translated from French by Edward Gauvin

Lion Forge Comics. 2018 (French edition, 2015)

ISBN: 9781941302569

I used a copy borrowed from my local public library to write this review.

Told in comic format, this very personal book, which is part memoir, part travel journal, part history, French writer Olivia Burton travels to her family’s former homeland of Algeria with the hopes to better understand her family’s past.

Algeria is the largest country in Africa. It’s northern border stretches along the Mediterranean Sea, while the Sahara desert covers four-fifths to the south. In 1830, France colonized Algeria. In 1954, Algerians began their fight for independence from the French which they won in 1962.

Burton’s family was originally from France. They were part of the wave who emigrated to Algeria during French rule. In 1962, her family fled to France since they did not support Algeria’s independence. Yet, their homesickness for their country, its beauty and traditions, was a frequent conversation at family gatherings. 

“My picture postcard image of Algeria when up in smoke when I started high school. I had an amazing history teacher and many friends, mostly from left-learning families, who introduced me to politics…because, you know, my mother never talked about it. In fact, since coming to France, she’d never even wanted to vote. And add to all of that a teenager’s natural urge to questions everything, and suddenly all of those family stories became problematic.” Burton was suddenly conflicted and questioned her family’s role during the French occupation as racist exploiters, fascists, and torturers.

What she discovers about her family and herself while visiting Algeria is the core of this captivating memoir. 

French artist, Mahi Grand does an excellent job with the visual interpretation of Burton’s words. Each frame is very detailed and captures perfectly the beautiful Algerian landscape. All the drawings are black & white, except for a few in color to show that Burton is taking a photograph.

This memoir has nothing to do with America, but those who read it will, hopefully, be able to acknowledge the absurdness of hating people who are “not like me.”

There is no author's note.

By clicking here, you can visit Grand's website to see some of the illustrations.