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The Nightingales

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by Cassy Lee In a small town in Oregon in 1985, Emil Wilson’s father made a decision to take in a coworker named Jim and his two dogs who had been evicted from their home. The family is told that Jim is dying of cancer, but it soon becomes apparent that he is a gay man dying of AIDS during the early years of the epidemic, when the disease remained poorly understood and was surrounded by fear, stigma, and misinformation. While Wilson’s mother is not pleased about bringing a stranger into their home, his younger sister, seventeen-year-old Lou, approaches Jim… Read More

Surviving the City Series

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by Angélique Roy   Surviving the City is a three-volume young adult graphic novel series set in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is written by Tasha Spillett, an Afro-Indigenous educator, public speaker, and scholar of Cree and Trinidadian descent, whose passion is to advocate for Indigenous women and women of colour and to create supportive, joyful worlds for children within her work. All three volumes are illustrated by Natasha Donovan, a Métis and white illustrator from Vancouver known for her work in children’s literature and graphic novels. The series follows two teenage best friends, Miikwan, who is Anishinaabe, and Dez, who is… Read More

American Born Chinese

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By Aaradhana Natarajan   To read Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese is to be thrust back into the tail end of the 20th century. Published in 2006, Yang’s graphic memoir takes the struggle to fit in and find acceptance as a “perpetual foreigner” comes to vivid, dynamically illustrated life using visual language of 20th century sitcoms and cartoons/comics.  Yang never shies away from the fact that prejudice is learned, and self-consciousness is taught. We are party to his characters’ emotional journeys – one of whom, the eponymous ABC Jin Wang, stands in as an avatar for the author’s own… Read More

Shrink – Story of a Fat Girl

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by Rachel Kurtz   In her graphic memoir Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl, Rachel Thomas vividly illustrates her experiences as a self-identified “fat” woman and situates her story in a compelling historical cultural context. Together these perspectives challenge a range of stereotypes about women who are defined by medicine and society as “overweight” or “obese.” Through Thomas’s story, we see her struggles in both social and in medical contexts. Being labeled as “obese” causes her to feel badly about herself and go on an extreme diet and exercise regimen. Perceptions about her size also interfere with getting adequate medical… Read More

Shubeik Lubeik

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By Caitlin Plovnick Content warning: violence, suicidal thoughts, discrimination Shubeik Lubeik (“your wish is my command”) is a clever and moving three-part fantasy set in a world where genie-granted wishes are a regulated resource. Mainly taking place in modern day Cairo, Shubeik Lubeik is rich with background details that show evidence of cheap wishes gone wrong, often in the form of mutations, or tacky materialistic wishes for the wealthy, such as flying cars and dinosaurs. The story follows three individuals who have the opportunity to make a 1st-class wish: the rarest, most expensive and most reliable type of wish available…. Read More