Skip to main content

Review: Uprooted

Image
By
Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back
By Ruth Chan
New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2024. Comics. 285 pages.

In 1993, Ruth's parents tell her that her dad has found a new job, and so they will be moving from their home in Toronto, Canada back to Hong Kong. Ruth is apprehensive about the move. She loves her friends and life in Toronto, she isn't confident speaking in Cantonese, and her older brother is staying in Canada -- at a boarding school, so he can finish his senior year. Adjusting to life in Hong Kong is predictably difficult for Ruth. School is harder, the city is bigger, and she struggles to make friends. Meanwhile, her father is busy traveling throughout China for his new job, leaving Ruth without their nightly chats, and her mother is busy with her social life, now that she's back in her home country. How much can one 13-year-old be expected to endure?

Graphic novel memoirs have become a mainstay of the children's comics section, and this one will be especially popular. Ruth's story of migration is highlighted by memories from her parents of their own immigration from Hong Kong, and the family story of leaving China during the Sino-Japanese War. Filled with emotional depth and stories of perseverance, this story could easily feel really heavy. But Ruth Chan, who is well-known for her humorous picture books, adds a sense of laugh-out-loud humor that makes for a really complete feeling memoir. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Finding Lost

By
Finding Lost By Holly Goldberg Sloan New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Fiction. 208 pages. Middle schooler Cordy, along with her mom and little brother, Geno, are still learning how to adjust to their life after “The Accident,” a tragic boating accident that cost their father’s life. When Cordy is walking home from school one day, she finds a little stray dog who the family nicknames Lost, and as he joins their family, he helps them rediscover all of the beauty that life has to offer. Holly Goldberg Sloane delivers a heart-warming and poignant novel about loss, family, and perseverance. This was a well-written novel that could appeal to a wide range of readers. Any middle schooler will be able to relate to Cordy’s experience of dealing with change, and those who have experienced a similar loss will be sure to find solace in this beautiful story.
Post a Comment
Read more