American Born Chinese by Gene Luan Yang

This complex graphic novel won the Printz Award for Young Adult literature last year, a first for a graphic novel. I have to say, it is extremely well done. The graphics are clear and engaging, the dialog strong, and the themes powerful. I don’t think this is a graphic novel for the younger set, however. As much as I enjoyed the book, I can’t honestly say I fully understood it. Some of it was a lack of full understanding of Chinese cultural traditions, and some was simply that the book is a tad abstract. There are three storylines, separate at first but clearly intertwined by the end. First, there is the monkey-king legend (one of my favorites from Asian mythology). Interspersed with that are the stories of Jin, an American-born Chinese kid trying to assimilate into a culture which still views him as alien; and the story of Danny, an all-American kid trying to come to terms with a 1940s film-style stereotypical Chinese cousin. Without giving too much away, I will caution readers that none of the stories take place within the same timeframe, and close attention should be paid to monkey-king’s abilities as they might be reflected in the other stories. In the end, this isn’t so much a story of cultural assimilation as it is about learning to accept your inner nature as you grow up. I liked the book and would strongly recommend it to teens who are able to take in the messages of disparate visual images, but for older folk, you may want to stick with more linear graphic novels, such as “Pedro and Me” by Judd Winick.