Drama Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Telgemeier, Raina. Drama. New York: Scholastic, 2012. ISBN: 9780545326995.

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Seventh-grader Callie is enthusiastic about being in charge of set design for her school play, but the relationships among her theater friends are complicated and confusing. Can the cast and crew pull it together before the curtain falls?

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS 
Raina Telgemeier's easily readable, highly dramatic, graphic novel Drama introduces tween and teen readers to a creative seventh grader who is trying to work her way up the ladder of her middle school theater program. Not an actress, Callie thrives on creating and managing set designs for the school play (52). She also appears to be at a critical juncture in her adolescence and is often looking for romance with boys in her class. As she floats from crush to crush, she experiences plenty of heartbreak and disappointment. 

Although Telgemeier does not dive into defining the children's cultural and racial diversity in the text, she does illustrate a multicultural middle school experience for Callie. All of Telgemeier's drawings are vivid in color, and not just in the background. She spends a lot of time focusing on creating artistic identities for each character, who represent children from several different cultural backgrounds. 

Lively and vivacious, Callie's new friend Justin lands a role in the play. Justin is gay and has come out to his brother and his friends, but not at home. He also tells Callie that his twin brother, Jesse, is not gay, but thrives in a quieter academic environment because he is more of an introvert. Callie, who is a strong, independent girl, becomes fast friends with both boys because of their common interest in musicals. 

One area of concern for me related to stereotyping, particularly surrounding Jesse and Justin, was that even know Telgemeier does not identify cultures to the reader, Jesse communicates a pressure to get outstanding grades: "He still wants me to be the obedient son, and next year, when we're in high school, I'm sure I'll have to disappear into the books again, forever" (32). This kind of academic pressure made me wonder if in her mind Telgemeier was assigning stereotypes of an Asian American overachiever to Jesse. Putting the book's primary setting in a school theater atmosphere also made me worry that the book might be helping to assign a label of stereotypical school activities for gay students. 

As with any junior high, there are emotional ups and downs at Eucalyptus Middle School. Hormones seems to be raging as one of the girls, Bonnie, changes boyfriends frequently. Others engage each other on a friend level, but wonder about romantic relationships with those that they are closest to. 

Telgemeier offers a very positive, friendly introduction to several teenagers coming of age and represents personal sexual discovery as something that doesn't have to be terrifying. 

To children who don't engage with homosexual people, some families might find this topic uncomfortable, but for children who are aware that gay people do exist in the world (who may be their cousin, best friend, or parents) it's nice to see the diversity represented.  

Throughout the book, what is clear, are the hundreds of feelings the students have not only about putting together their play but also learning about how they individually relate to each other and to the larger world. 

4.  AWARDS and REVIEW EXCERPTS
Stonewall Honor Book

From Kirkus Review
"With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer." 

From Booklist
"In this realistic and sympathetic story, feelings and thoughts leap off the page, revealing Telgemeier's keen eye for young teen life." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Because Drama's storyline includes conversations and discoveries about teens and sexuality, it has been challenged in schools and public libraries. In fact, in 2016, it and four other books with LGBTQ storylines made up five of the ten most frequently challenged books in libraries according to the ALA. In public and school libraries talking about or introducing children and teens to sexuality is considered taboo. I'm not sure if it's conversing about people who are LGBTQ that is more difficult for adults or the fact that adult librarians may talk about sexuality with children. 

Regardless, having quality materials that reflect the human experience is expected from libraries. And addressing the elephant in the room that gay people exist is a critical part of opening a window to allow people who are not used to interacting with LGBTQ people to see them as human (i.e. someone's Mom or Dad or grandmother or best friend). 

In this connection, reading banned materials that center on LGBTQ storylines is a great introductory lesson to opening this window or door for students in the classroom or those that visit the library.

The second step is for children to determine and discuss why these books might be banned. What are people afraid of? What are they offended by? How does meeting the complaints of one specialized group negate the needs of another? How does literature push those comfort boundaries for adults where they lobby for books to be censored from children? 

The third step in this connection would be to study the history of LGBTQ rights as well as the current issues of this cultural group. Is it possible, even for children with no experience with this kind of diversity to talk openly and accept one another for who they are?

The Shadow Hero Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yang, Gene Luen. The Shadow Hero. New York: First Second, 2014. ISBN 978-1-59643-697-8. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Author Gene Luen Yang and illustrator Sonny Liew recreate the first Asian American comic book hero Green Turtle who takes to the streets to bring down Ten Grand, the local gangster who had Green Turtle's father killed and extorts money from local Chinese business owners.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this graphic novel for teens author Gene Luen Yang creates his own origin story for Green Turtle, the first Asian American comic book hero in America from the 1940s, and unlike the original, which publishers would not allow the author to visually depict the hero's facial features as Asian American, illustrator Sonny Liew lets his visual representations of many different kinds of Chinese faces fill the book. Thus, defying the old racist portrayals as Asians as slant-eyed, buck-toothed people who all look the same.

This origin story shares some commonality with other superheroes. It focuses on the protagonist Hank, who has wanted to grow up to be a grocer in the city just like his father. Hank enjoys spending long hours working side-by-side with his father and the two are very close. But Hank's mother has other ideas for him. Super ideas. Hank is motivated by his mother's desperation to have something adventurous and amazing in her life to don a green super suit and rid their neighborhood of crime. However, later when a local gangster has his father killed in their store, Hank's heroism is motivated by his need to seek justice on behalf of his father and his community, similar to Batman.

Interlaced through Hank's story, which takes place a half generation or so after the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911 and after his father and mother immigrated (separately) to America, is the underlying influence of four shadow spirits: Dragon, Phoenix, Tiger and Tortoise (1). The myth says that these spirits were born with the birth of China and live in a place between "our world and the next" (1). Their existence is linked to the livelihood of the country and their disagreement on how to help the country thrive after the fall of the dynasty leads to Tortoise hitching a ride to America and his brother Dragon coming after him.

Yang's attention on Hank's mother is a driving force in the book, not just because she encourages Hank to become something more, but because Yang is very forward about the disappointment the mother felt when arriving in America as an immigrant and in fulfilling her duty in honoring her parents' wishes, even though she desired to put space between herself and Chinatown. So often immigration stories are about how moving to America improved lives for immigrants, but for Hank's mother, she felt let down because instead of "color and astonishment" she found a world that was "gray, noisy and rude" (5).

Yang and Liew develop a hero who is very brave and quick thinking -- and still poor enough that he has to get everywhere by borrowed car, bus, and on foot. Even his costume, as the story progresses, becomes less and less, until toward the end of the adventure when he's barely in underwear and a cape, showing that his heroism is more human than super, which is an odd situation, given that superheroes really do exist in Hank's time.

Instead, Hank is a hero for regular people wanting to make a difference in their community. His detective work leads him to find that the evil in his neighborhood is highly connected to the leaders of his city, like the mayor and the chief of police. It's hard to have justice in Chinatown, when those in power have turned a blind eye to people in need.

But the bond Hank feels for his father is strong, and when he stumbles upon the Tortoise Shadow, he is promised one wish. Hank realizes that he could benefit by a superpower and asks to never be shot like his father. Tortoise grants him his wish and shares with him more about his father's life than Hank ever knew.

Throughout the story, it feels like Hank's ability to be accepted as a hero, when he isn't super, is equivalent to being able to be accepted in America, even though he isn't white. Toward the end of the book, his friend Red asks him: "Hank, be honest. Do you really think dressing up in that silly costume will make them accept you? Do you really think it will make you a part of them?" (150). Hank is unsure how to answer. In his heart he doesn't feel accepted into typical American culture, but as he learns on his adventures what makes the other super heroes super isn't really cultural assimilation, he realizes his cultural story doesn't have to be rooted in it either.

At the end of the book Yang gives the history of the original comic book hero and provides pages from one of the original comics. Both elements are great for readers who are interested in the history of comics and literary analysis.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
NPR Best Book of the Year
YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens
CCBC Choice
Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award
ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adults
YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
Booklist Editor's Choice

From The New York Times Book Review
"What America needs is for people to shed the expectations of translation and immerse themselves in other worlds. It's O.K. if you can't pronounce ma po tofu, it's O.K. if you can't pronounce my last name and it's O.K. if you learn about our ways through graphic novels. America has to start somewhere and I'd recommend The Shadow Hero. Soon enough, it'll all be familiar." 

From Kirkus Reviews
"Yang's funny and perceptive script offers clever riffs on familiar tropes and explores themes of identity, heroism and belonging." 

5. CONNECTIONS
The Green Turtle chooses his own costume and name, even after his Mom tries to push an identity on him. Parents can do that some times. They only want the best, but sometimes they miss who their child is telling them who they are. 

Think about your strengths, what would your special powers be? Would you have a shadow like GreenTurtle that was based on a connection to the past of your people? Or is there some aspect of your character that is more likely to suit you? Perhaps, if you're shy, you'd become invisible, or if you like to run you'd be super fast. Or if you have a lot of empathy, you could read others' thoughts!

Take time to think about who you are and then draw a self-portrait of what your superhero outfit would look like. Once you have your look and power identified, think of a challenge in your neighborhood that your superhero could resolve, and then create your own comic book about it. Teachers should have pre-printed empty comic panel papers for students to choose from as well as pencils, colored pencils, or fine markers for them to draw and color. 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lin, Grace. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009. ISBN 978-0-316-03863-8. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Grace Lin retells classic Chinese folktales and myths with her own delightful spin about a girl named Minli and her new friend Dragon as they set off on a mission to find the Old Man of the Moon so Minli can figure out how to bring good fortune to her poor family and Dragon can ask why he cannot fly. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is an exquisite Chinese folktale that leads readers on a wondrous quest with a young girl named Minli who wants to make her mother happy by finding the secret to good fortune.

Living in what Minli feels is poverty as the daughter of two rice farmers, Minli recognizes that her mother is constantly focused on what the family doesn't have. "Ma is right, Minli thought. What a poor fortune we have. Every day, Ba and Ma work and work and we still have nothing. I wish I could change our fortune" (12).

Inspired by her father's oral storytelling, Minli decides that the characters he describes in his stories are real and takes off with her talking goldfish in search of the Old Man of the Moon to answer her question about the secret to good fortune. On her adventure, she meets many other mythical characters including a Dragon, a poor boy with a water buffalo, a king, a poisonous tiger, a brave set of twins, and more. At each turn, Minli hears or remembers stories about the past of the Chinese people. And almost on cue, Lin sets up the current storyline to link the past to the present, usually relating them to a current state of conflict or a suddenly introduced mystery that needs to be resolved by the main characters.

Lin's storytelling is inventive, magical and complemented by her vivid illustrations. Coloring the titles of the ancient myths being told within Minli's folktale and setting them off with a different font are great visual cues for children and help them understand that there is a strong likelihood the story may jump off of the typical timeline, which can be a common storytelling method in some Asian cultures' folktales. Although Minli's story, as the protagonist, is very linear with a clear beginning of her journey, middle, climax, and end, the flashbacks of the myths and how they have influenced the different characters she meets are not.

The power of the story comes not only from Lin's portrayal of Minli as a resolute little girl who loves her family but Lin's own attachment to the characters she creates and the ancient stories they are retelling -- with Lin's own modern twist. "It is a fantasy inspired by the Chinese folktales that enchanted me in my youth and the land and culture that fascinates me in my adulthood," Lin says in her notes at the end of the novel" (298). Lin takes great care in portraying all of the characters in her book as having strengths and flaws, particularly Magistrate Tiger, who may easily be seen by children as the villain in the book for his bossy and greedy ways, but he is not entirely unrelatable to children's real-life experiences with bullies or cranky adults.

Although not focused on modern-day Chinese people, and representing one of the more often published about Asian cultures, Lin's novel on Chinese culture allows middle-grade readers to be captivated by an adventurous and loving storyline that is easy to read and get lost in.

My 11-year-old son read it in four sittings, each time remarking that the chapters were short, even though there were a lot of them, which helped him feel like he was flying through the book. He also enjoyed how the characters he thought were minor in the beginning, came back around and were connected by the end of the story. In many ways, we wondered if Lin was influenced by the Wizard of Oz, or if Frank Baum might have been influenced by Chinese cultural folktales.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon opened a window for my son to peek into ancient Chinese culture through commonly shared stories that were foreign to him. He enjoyed the experience and said that Dragon was his favorite character, because he was loyal and protective of Minli, no matter what magical beast they ran into. He also liked that although the myths within the folktale were telling morals, they were not lecturing children about being thankful for what they have. In essence, they were asking children to recognize they have power and can make positive changes not only in their lives but in the lives of the people they love, even though they are young and/or poor.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Newbery Honor Book
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature


From School Library Journal
"The author's writing is elegant, and her full-color illustrations are stunning. Minli's determination to help her family, as well as the grief her parents feel at her absence, is compelling and thoroughly human." 

From Booklist
"With beautiful language, Lin creates a strong, memorable heroine and a mystical land. Stories, drawn from a rich history of Chinese folktales, weave throughout her narrative, deepening the sense of both the characters and the setting and smoothly furthering the plot." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Each character in Lin's book, past and present, is connected in some way. In fact, the Old Man of the Moon and his red string connects generations of people in China.

How are the students in your classroom connected? If you start with a large roll of yarn, can you go around the room finding ways that each person is connected in life by their similarities outside of school? 

Have the first child hold the end of the yarn and announce something about themselves. If it is similar to someone else in the room, students should raise their hands, and allow the first student to call on someone, pass the yarn, and allow that student to announce something different about their lives. Play can continue around the room and include the teacher to show how we have more in common than we might think. 

Grandfather's Journey Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Say, Allen. Grandfather's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. ISBN 0-395-57035-2. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Author Allen Say depicts how his grandfather's identity was split between his love for his homeland in Japan and his adoration for America, particularly California, in this touching autobiographical picture book. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
An older picture book from the early 1990s, Allen Say's work is timeless as an extraordinary visual representation of his grandfather's journey to and travels around the United States. The story and images show the emotions he felt during his decision to immigrate to California. "The more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places, and never thought of returning home" (13).

Say's watercolor images feel as if he based them from pictures from his grandfather's photo albums. He captures real light and color in American sunsets, fields of wheat, and desert rocks. On his trip, as a young man, his grandfather dressed in American clothing, which expresses how important it was to him to fit in culturally. What is cultural assimilation and what are the challenges balancing two cultures for immigrants? This is a narrative that immigrant children in the classroom may understand and identify with in ways that typical American children may not immediately understand. How many children would try to wear the clothing of other cultures when they traveled abroad? Where would such fashion even be available to purchase in their area? Why, in the illustrations, do none of the people smile -- Japanese or American? Is this a shift between days past and the modern era that is plagued with selfies? Did any of the students notice how dressed up Say's family is at all times? Are these photos of special times that warrant dressing up, or does his family dress nicely every day? These are questions that might give children a moment or two to think about more than just how immigrants are people who travel to live in new lands.

The act of discovering another country and falling in love with it while remaining faithful to one's birthplace is a noble theme and shows an influence from grandfather to grandson and the importance of family connection throughout generations. The portrait of Say, as a child, with his grandfather standing on walking stones in a Japanese garden, is touching. Say focuses his text on how his grandfather's oral stories about America inspired him to also make the journey across the Pacific. "When I was a small boy, my favorite weekend was a visit to my grandfather's house. He told me many stories about California" (24). But before Say was able to make his journey he had to experience some major emotional losses. One assumes from the illustration that World War II was a large influence on his childhood. Although he does not call the war by name, he illustrates a total destruction of the city where he lived in Japan by showing children among piles of gray rubble.

At 16, Say went to California, also dressed in American clothing. Say says he feels the same division between Japan and California that his grandfather felt. "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other" (31).

This division represents to me something that is missing in today's political understanding of the immigrant experience. To be torn between two physical places is both a positive and a negative. One's understanding of humanity in a global sense is increased through travel and experience in different cultures. But one's sense of home or presence of self might come into question based on life experiences in another place.

In a perfect world, one would not have to choose between the family of origin and the family they create. One would hope in a global world, families would be able to stay together and travel freely to see each other.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Caldecott Medal
Bulletin Blue Ribbon
ALA Notable Book
Boston Globe/Horn Book Award
Booklist Editor's Choice
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

From School Library Journal
"A personal history of three generations of the author's family that points out the emotions that are common to the immigrant experience." 

From Kirkus Reviews
"Lovely, quiet — with a tenderness and warmth new to this fine illustrator's work." 

5. CONNECTIONS
It's too often that children are read to and see illustrations without understanding how illustrations are created. In Say's book, he uses watercolors, which are relatively easy for most schools and libraries to come by. This could make a lovely pre-grandparents', mothers' or fathers' day activity. Encourage children to bring a photo of their favorite relative to school (a print out if possible, so it doesn't accidentally get ruined). Talk about the colors in their photographs and have them draw out a replica of the photo on drawing paper and then use watercolors to fill the image. Some might choose to copy the photo completely, others might take a modern approach and use brighter, more vivid colors to express their emotions about the person in the photo. If a photo isn't available, have mirrors in the class, so children can work on self-portraits. These photos will make excellent room decorations and gifts and will allow children much needed creative time in the classroom.