Image: Macmillan
Happy Tuesday! I think we will get a bit of a break from the heat here in the northeast today, so please enjoy the day. Teen Tuesday features Himawari House by Harmony Becker. This beautifully rendered graphic novel follows Nao as she spends her gap year in Japan at a Japanese language immersion institute and tries to reconnect with the culture she insisted on shedding when she moved to the U.S. with her white father and Japanese mother. She shares space at HImawari House with four other teens who are studying in Japan. Hyeyoung is from Korea, Tina is from Singapore and two brothers, Shinichi and Masaki.
The novel covers the entire year as Nao navigates feelings of isolation in her search for cultural identity. Her Japanese language immersion classes are exhausting, but that is the language that allows her to connect with her roommates as they bond over meals, sightseeing and long talks about life. The text is mostly bi-lingual, though there are occasions when there is no translation, leaving the reader to figure it out. The art is rendered mostly in blues and the panel placement keeps things fluid.
While the teens in the novel are college age (my students are in middle school), mature teen graphic novel fans will enjoy Himawari House.
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