By Christine Mari Inzer
Tuttle Publishing, 2016. 127 pgs. Graphic Novel
When just fifteen, Christine travels to Japan alone to spend the summer visiting family and reconnecting with the country she was born in. Through illustrated journal entries, this travelogue written and illustrated by Christine, takes us through her experiences with planes, trains, food, geisha, sight-seeing, and the various people she encounters. Each page or two feels like its own journal entry, sometimes with photographs included along with the illustrations.
This was a charming and fast read. It doesn’t read like a continuous narrative, but more like disjointed, humorous journal entries. Most pages have pretty simple illustrations with descriptive text, explaining either what’s going on or why something stood out to the author. It was fun to see Tokyo through the eyes of this young Japanese-American. I feel like this was probably a very memorable way for Christine to capture her trip, and it inspires me to do something similar on my own future vacations abroad.
ACS
1 comment:
This is a good read for young adults who may have never traveled outside of the US, or who are planning an upcoming trip outside of the US. It does a good job of underlining differences in culture while still having an appreciation for them. It's also something that many readers will find meaningful as it touches on themes of being young but wanting to emerge into adulthood. I enjoyed this more than most of Lucy Knisley's graphic novel memoirs because I found it more relatable, but anyone who enjoys nonfiction graphic novel memoirs will enjoy this quick read.
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