Frontera

This stunning account of a fictional teenager crossing the Sonoran Desert for Arizona was written for young adults aged 13 through 17. Mateo makes the dangerous journey back home to the United States through the Sonoran Desert with the help of a new friend, a ghost named Guillermo in a supernatural borderland odyssey. Mateo grew up in Phoenix but his family was deported back to Mexico in the summer before his senior year of high school. All he wants in life is to be able to take his SAT test and finish high school. It is the debut graphic novel of Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo.

As long as he remembers to stay smart and keep his eyes open, Mateo knows that he can survive the trek across the Sonoran Desert. That is, unless he’s caught by U. S. Border Patrol. Just a few moments after Mateo sneaks across the border fence he is caught. However, he is able to escape but at a huge cost. He loses his backpack and gets lost in the desert. Mateo also is ill-prepared for the unforgiving heat. Enter the ghost, Guillermo, who leads him through the desert.

While a border crossing story is usually an ugly one, the magical realism brought by the ghost gives the novel a light feel. The colorful artwork contributes to this. It has been rendered in a four panel comic strip style a d colored with bright colors.

I think the book would be helpful for teens to understand what is happening on our southern border. It is definitely a must read! 5 out of 5 stars.

Family Style

Thien Pham's debut graphic novel is a moving young adult memoir about his search for belonging in America. Thien left his native Vietnam at age five and together with his family emigrated to the U. S. His family spent several years in a refugee camp in Thailand before getting permission to travel to America. The family struggled both in the camp and in California where they began their new lives. 

Thien's first memory isn't a sight or a sound. It's the sweetness of watermelon and the saltiness of fish. It's the taste of the foods he ate while adrift at sea as his family fled Vietnam. Through each chapter of their lives, food takes on a new meaning. Strawberries come to signify struggle as Thien's mom and dad look for work. Potato chips are an indulgence that bring Thien so much joy that they become a necessity. Behind every cut of steak and inside every croissant lies a story. And for Thien Pham, that story is about a search - for belonging, for happiness, for the American dream. The story ends on a happy note with a fortysomething Thien becoming a U. S. citizen and registering to vote. 

The author originally published this memoir serially to Instagram. His artwork is done in traditional six-panel comic strip panels and he used Procreate to do the drawings on an iPad. The drawings are colored with a muted brown palette. If you loved Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese and Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do you will want to read Family Style.

5 out of 5 stars.

Ephemera

Ephemera is a melancholy graphic biography that portrays the author's struggle to handle her mother's mental illness. It poignantly blends memoir, magic realism, and graphic medicine with ethereal artwork. From the early days of her childhood, Brianna had to get used to her mother being physically absent from her life to being psychologically absent. Her mother never got well and Brianna accepted as much of her mother’s behavior as she could. I thought it odd that none of the characters had names. However there was only author Brianna, her mother and her father. There wasn't much dialogue either. The story took place in a garden, a forest, and a greenhouse. The story drifts among a grown woman, her early memories as a child, and the gossamer existence of her mother. 

I was sad after reading this book. It was highly recommended by reviewers so I obtained a copy of it. I wish I hadn't, though, because it is a story with no happiness whatsoever.

3 out of 5 stars.

Arca

In this dystopian comic thriller, planet earth is burning up but the rich and powerful have a plan to save humankind. When society fell apart, a select group of billionaires had an escape hatch: a rocket aimed at the nearest habitable planet, a ship equipped with many of the luxuries of life on Earth—why survive if you can’t survive in style? Their every need is tended to by teenagers who are willing to act as slaves in return for the promise of a new life. This is a good story. But, like so many stories, it is not true. Inside a great, sealed survival chamber, one slave, a teenage girl named Persephone, discovers that the promised future of comfort is a myth. And with that knowledge, she must fight for her survival against the billionaires, who would gladly kill her to protect the hidden truth.

Arca is an entertaining story with a fast pace and plenty of twists. Our heroine Effie, nickname of Persephone, has three months left serving the rich inhabitants of Arca before graduating to a Citizen when she turns 18.  As a Citizen, she will be served instead of serving. She begins training her replacement but begins to wonder why she has never seen on the ship any Settlers who have graduated. Effie knows she can't ask too many questions to her superiors but discusses the issue with her Settler friends. They have been told that the spaceship is heading for Eden and that it has been flying in space for several decades.  Effie finds proof that the spaceship has been traveling for 157 years and secretly starts looking for where these graduated Settlers are living on the ship. She is constantly being monitored and this makes her quest dangerous. Effie would be severely punished, maybe killed, for her efforts to find the answers to her questions. 

Arca is a page turner and even though it is a graphic novel, I recommend it for all readers.  It has an extensive plot that many will enjoy. 5 out of 5 stars. 

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr  explores the fine line between living and dying in Mumbai through the lens of magical realism. Humanity is on the verge of discovering immortality. As a result, the avatar of Death is cast down to Earth to live a mortal life in Mumbai as twenty-something Laila Starr. Struggling with her newfound mortality, Laila has found a way to be placed in the time and place where the creator of immortality will be born. Will Laila take her chance to stop mankind from permanently altering the cycle of life, or will death really become a thing of the past? This 2021 5-part series was written by Ram V and Filipe Andrade. 

Our Laila has died several times during her time on earth as a mortal. Each time she has had contact with Darius, a child who was expected to bring immortality to all upon his birth. In the beginning, Laila wants to kill Darius when he is born so that death can continue. However, something keeps her from killing him, a humanity that she did not know she possessed. The reader watches Laila as she grapples with the emotions of mortals. 

During the series we see Hindu mythology as a theme. There are characters such as the funeral bird, a talking cigarette and a Chinese temple. These characters are fun and give the series a light feel. The artwork is colored with bright hues that also contribute to the hilarity of the story. With each issue of the comic the reader gets a full story but they all fit within the plot of a larger story.

Highly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars. 

The Great British Bump Off

The Great British Bump Off is John Allison's newest comic series. Parts 2 through 4 will be published throughout the next few months with a paperback of all 4 of them coming out in November 2023. It is a graphic murder mystery that takes place on the set of the Great British Bakeoff tent. 

When Shauna Wickles enters the Bakeoff, she expects that she will delight the judges, charm the nation and meet a few friends along the way. She did not expect to be an amateur sleuth investigating the poisoning of a fellow contestant. It is up to her to figure out who the killer is while avoiding elimination from the contest.

The comic is as delightful as a British traybake. The cast of characters is diverse. There is the retired grandmother, Shauna, a choir director, street musician, dental technician, meteorologist and a pharmacist to name a few. Some contestants are pleasant while others are "competitive."  This is a goofy rendition of the British TV show that female readers will definitely like. It might be too sacharine sweet for superhero comic readers though. 

I loved the comic and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars. I am looking forward to the release of part 2 next week.