Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

*Starred Review* In his first novel for young adults, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1987) proves himself to be a powerful, adept storyteller for teens. Rico, a Cuban American teen growing up in Harlem in the late 1960s, is tired—of working extra jobs to help his family; of the chaos and tragedy at school, where students are so inured to violence that, when classes close after a shooting, they behave “like it was suddenly a holiday”; of being hassled for his light skin and hair. When his parents threaten to send him to a military school in Florida, he runs away. Together with his best friend, Jimmy, who has just kicked a heroin habit, Rico hitchhikes to Wisconsin, where Gilberto, an older-brother figure from Harlem, has bought a farm that he shares with several hippie college students. In an unwavering, utterly believable voice, Rico details his midwestern year, in which he adjusts to rural life, falls in love, and pursues his comic-book-writing aspirations. Most of all, though, he searches for a sense of self, ultimately realizing that “where you are doesn’t change who you are.” Frank, gritty, vibrant, and wholly absorbing, Rico’s story will hold teens with its celebration of friendship and its fundamental questions about life purpose, family responsibility, and the profound ways that experience shapes identity. Grades 9-12. --Gillian Engberg

*taken from Amazon.com*

Book Specs:

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Atheneum; 1 edition (September 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 141694804X
ISBN-13: 978-1416948049

I read this book as an assignment, and we all know what kind of attitude that can invoke. When I honestly saw the cover I was a little confused. I was a picture of a white kid with his back turned looking at graffiti! And of course, as I read the book I found that I fell into the typical person that makes Rico so upset. (turns out he isn't white) Definetly a book for the older grades - not something you would find me teaching in a 9th or 10th grade classroom.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

As alienated kids go, Jin Wang is fairly run-of-the-mill: he eats lunch by himself in a corner of the schoolyard, gets picked on by bullies and jocks and develops a sweat-inducing crush on a pretty classmate. And, oh, yes, his parents are from Taiwan. This much-anticipated, affecting story about growing up different is more than just the story of a Chinese-American childhood; it's a fable for every kid born into a body and a life they wished they could escape. The fable is filtered through some very specific cultural icons: the much-beloved Monkey King, a figure familiar to Chinese kids the world over, and a buck-toothed amalgamation of racist stereotypes named Chin-Kee. Jin's hopes and humiliations might be mirrored in Chin-Kee's destructive glee or the Monkey King's struggle to come to terms with himself, but each character's expressions and actions are always perfectly familiar. True to its origin as a Web comic, this story's clear, concise lines and expert coloring are deceptively simple yet expressive. Even when Yang slips in an occasional Chinese ideogram or myth, the sentiments he's depicting need no translation. Yang accomplishes the remarkable feat of practicing what he preaches with this book: accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

*review pulled from Amazon.com*

Book Specs:

Graphic Novel
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition (December 23, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312384483
ISBN-13: 978-0312384487

This was the first graphic novel that I have read. I have to say that I did enjoy reading the novel, and it exceeded any expectations I might have had. I remember first saying out loud, "Oh the first book I have to read this semester is a comic!" but this book was much much more. If you haven't ever read a graphic novel I suggest you try one on for size - and this one isn't a bad one to start with.