Halina Filipina

Halina Filipina: A New Yorker in Manila

By Arnold Arre 

Tuttle Publishing, 2022. 208 pages. Graphic Novels

Halina Mitchell is half-Filipino, half-American. She's also a native New Yorker--sophisticated, beautiful and confident. On her first visit to the Philippines, she arrives in Manila to reconnect with relatives only to encounter a world of surprises that turn all her assumptions on their head. With the intrepid film critic Cris as her guide, she discovers a Manila that few others get to see! 

This is a fun twist on your standard romantic comedy. The illustrations are engaging and Halina’s joy and interest in discovering part of her identity in the Philippines is portrayed well. I really enjoyed that the author, who is a Filipino comic book artist, kept lots of Tagalog sprinkled throughout the book, some translated, some not, with context clues from the imagery to guide our translations. It adds a layer of authenticity to the story telling, and gives a more immersive experience for the reader. 

If you like Halina Filipina, you might also like: 

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An Age of License is Cartoonist Lucy Knisley's comics travel memoir recounting her adventures in Europe in Scandinavia. It's punctuated by whimsical visual devices; peppered with the cats she meets along the way; and, of course, features her hallmark--drawings and descriptions of food that will make your mouth water. But it's not all kittens and raclette crepes: Knisley's experiences are colored by anxieties, introspective self-inquiries, and quotidian revelations -- about traveling alone in unfamiliar countries, and about her life and career. 

Palimpsest

By Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom 

Drawn & Quarterly, 2019. 151 pages. Biography/Graphic Novels 

Thousands of South Korean children were adopted around the world in the 1970s and 1980s. More than nine thousand found their new home in Sweden, including the cartoonist Lisa Wool-Rim Sjèoblom, who was adopted when she was two years old. Sjèoblom's unaddressed feelings about her adoption come to a head when she is pregnant with her first child. When she discovers a document containing the names of her biological parents, she realizes her own history may not match up with the story she's been told her whole life.

RBL