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Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young Adult Fiction | 33382001461873 | YA FIC Glock | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
An unforgettable graphic memoir by debut talent Sophia Glock reveals her discovery as a teenager that her parents are agents working for the CIA.
Young Sophia has lived in so many different countries, she can barely keep count. Stationed now with her family in Central America because of her parents' work, Sophia feels displaced as an American living abroad, when she has hardly spent any of her life in America.
Everything changes when she reads a letter she was never meant to see and uncovers her parents' secret. They are not who they say they are. They are working for the CIA. As Sophia tries to make sense of this news, and the web of lies surrounding her, she begins to question everything. The impact that this has on Sophia's emerging sense of self and understanding of the world makes for a page-turning exploration of lies and double lives.
In the hands of this extraordinary graphic storyteller, this astonishing true story bursts to life.
Author Notes
Sophia Glock is a cartoonist who lives and draws in Austin, Texas. She attended the College of William & Mary and the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, Buzzfeed, and Time Out New York. She talks to her sister every day.
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--In this graphic memoir, Glock looks back on her teenage years. Fifteen-year-old Sophia is used to starting over: She's lived in nine apartments and attended eight schools in six countries. Now a high school junior in Central America, Sophia reads a letter from her older sister Julia to their parents, and the puzzle pieces click into place as she realizes that their parents are spies. She continues to keep their secrets, even as she copes with adolescent growing pains: navigating friendship, wanting independence from her parents, failing to hide a crush. She also confronts bigger challenges, such as the death of a classmate and effects of Hurricane Mitch (which remind her of living through a coup d'état in another country). Yet as an American, Sophia is sheltered from the tragedies she sees and is somewhat troubled by her privilege ("It was like being there…but not really there at all"). The palette--largely pale, orange-tinted pink and lavender-gray with occasional splashes of red or deep shadow--subtly reminds readers that this story is being told in retrospect. Fittingly, Sophia ends her story by "starting over. Again," this time with her arrival at college. Sophia and her family are white. VERDICT A rare peek behind the curtain into life as the daughter of U.S. intelligence officers, this is a story full of secrets that expertly unfold one by one. Highly recommended for teen graphic novel collections.--Jenny Arch, Lilly Lib., Florence, MA
Publisher's Weekly Review
Glock's subtly crafted, emotive graphic memoir explores themes of belonging, identity, and loyalty in a highly specific context: teen life as the child of CIA spies. Sophia and her American siblings, cued white, have grown up in series of Central American countries but "haven't lived anywhere long enough to be from there." Their parents have mysterious jobs that require high security homes, and they're vague about the reasons behind strict rules and regular moves. As Sophia's older sister leaves for college and Sophia begins to parse the reasons behind her parents' reserve, the teen tires of seclusion and starts keeping secrets of her own as part of her budding independence. Sophia's disillusionment unfolds in hues of purple and peach against a backdrop of hurricanes and a military coup. Packaging meals for hurricane victims, she hears about mass graves, juxtaposing her actions' impact against the scale of the churning world around her. She wonders, "Does someone keep secrets because they're a spy? Or do they become a spy because they know how to keep secrets?" Moving to the U.S., she starts over anew, still a fish out of water, but with a newfound sense of her own resilience. Ages 12--up. Agent: Molly O'Neill, Root Literary. (Nov.)