Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library | TEEN GRAPHIC LEE | 31330009310453 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Amesbury Public Library | YA GRAPHIC NOVEL IN | 32114002773407 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Burlington Public Library | YA LEE GRAPHIC | 32116003969173 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Carlisle - Gleason Public Library | TEEN GRAPHIC LEE | 32117002210262 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library | YA/GRAPHIC/LEE | 31482003079608 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Georgetown Peabody Library | YGN LEE | 32120001428265 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Groton Public Library | YA GN LEE | 37003701979230 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Groveland - Langley-Adams Library | YA COMIX LEE | 32121000956868 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library | Y GRAPHIC LEE | 30470002105764 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Haverhill Public Library | YA/COMIX/LEE D | 31479007159394 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Ipswich Public Library | YA GN 921 LEE, DEB | 32122003023771 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Lawrence Public Library | FIC LEE YA GRAPHIC NOVEL | 31549004987466 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Littleton - Reuben Hoar Library | NEW! YA 92 LEE | 39965002434727 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library | YA B LEE (GRAPHIC) | 32124002137685 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library | YA B LEE, D. GRAPHIC | 31548003486892 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library | Y GN LEE | 32126001904379 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Newbury Town Library | YA LEE GN | 32127001357584 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Newburyport Public Library | YA GRAPHIC LEE | 32128004151602 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library | TEEN GRAPHIC LEE | 31478010224203 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... North Reading - Flint Memorial Library | YA GRAPHIC LEE | 31550002600796 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Rockport Public Library | YA B GRAPHIC LEE | 32129002575784 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Rowley Public Library | YA GN LEE | 32130001063186 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Tewksbury Public Library | TEEN GRAPHIC B LEE | 32132003373522 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... West Newbury - G.A.R. Memorial Library | YA GN-GN LEE | 32135001588926 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library | YA B LEE (GRAPHIC) | 31990005241620 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Wilmington Memorial Library | TEEN GRAPHIC LEE | 32136003573718 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A debut YA graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl's coming-of-age story--and a coming home story--set between a New Jersey suburb and Seoul, South Korea.
Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Korea to the United States, she's felt her otherness.
For a while, her English wasn't perfect. Her teachers can't pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes--especially her eyes--feel wrong.
In high school, everything gets harder. Friendships change and end, she falls behind in classes, and fights with her mom escalate. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health plummeting, resulting in a suicide attempt.
But Deb is resilient and slowly heals with the help of art and self-care, guiding her to a deeper understanding of her heritage and herself.
This stunning debut graphic memoir features page after page of gorgeous, evocative art, perfect for Tillie Walden fans. It's a cross section of the Korean-American diaspora and mental health, a moving and powerful read in the vein of Hey, Kiddo and The Best We Could Do .
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Korean American illustrator Lee chronicles their life growing up in a predominantly white New Jersey neighborhood in the early 2010s via this insightful debut graphic memoir. Jung-Jin, who goes by Deborah or Deb, immigrated to the U.S. with their family when they were three years old. Since then, they've dealt with microaggressions from teachers and classmates, intense educational pressure from their mother, and frequent feelings of isolation, which only increased upon entering high school. When their mother's expectations turn Lee's love of the violin, their only safe space, into another academic stressor, they quit. After surviving a suicide attempt, Lee starts attending therapy sessions to help manage their anxiety and depression, and begins weekly art classes in N.Y.C.; both changes provide necessary refuge from life's mounting pressures. Nuanced, frequently wordless illustrations rendered in inky grayscale tones are jam-packed with background details that artfully convey the passage of time and Lee's growing anxiety. The creator portrays their complex mother-child relationship through candid dialogue, using the pair's language differences--they often communicate using a mix of Korean and English--to depict their varying interpersonal barriers. An emotionally tender, viscerally illustrated look at one teenager's struggles with identity and mental health. Ages 14--up. (Mar.)
Horn Book Review
Lee deftly chronicles their tumultuous high school years through elegant cartooning, presenting a difficult story with sincerity, compassion, and grace. An immigrant from Korea, Lee goes by Deb rather than Jung-Jin and feels like "a non-American...and a non-Korean. Forever in between." Numerous examples of macro- and microaggressions both in high school and in flashbacks reinforce the anxious teenager's sense of self-doubt; interactions with peers at Korean summer school are not much better. Further complications include a strained longterm friendship, stress over double-eyelid surgery, and conflict with an emotionally abusive mother. Although a new friendship serves as a source of stability, it eventually becomes unhealthily codependent. A suicide attempt leads to further exclusion by classmates, but through art, therapy, and self-forgiveness, Deb tenuously forges a path. Some Korean text is untranslated; brackets indicate English translations of Korean speech. The digital art is rendered entirely in matte gray-blue but never feels dull thanks to Lee's use of photorealistic backgrounds, lighting effects, and intricate textures. Ambitious page layouts play a major storytelling role; Lee constantly shifts the size, shape, and arrangement of panels to control pacing, set tone, and guide readers' eyes. Back matter includes an author's note chronicling the graphic memoir's development. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Poignant images and text capture the emotional challenges faced by a Korean American teen in New Jersey. Artist Lee looks back on fraught high school years of longing to fit in. But Lee was withdrawn and socially awkward and suffered frequent microaggressions. Orchestra, formerly a refuge, got more competitive; Lee gravitated toward drawing rather than practicing violin. Having immigrated at age 3, Lee felt neither Korean nor fully American. Anxiety led to intense clinginess, making friendships a struggle. Home was no safe haven--Dad was warmly sympathetic, but Mom is shown as demanding and prone to out-of-control rages. Lee's fragile mental health plummeted, leading to a suicide attempt, but fortunately, therapy sessions allowed space to reflect on a difficult, lonely childhood, and weekly art classes in New York City offered hope and a place to feel seen and understood. Later, a trip to Korea helped Lee move toward acceptance and forgiveness. Confusion and pain are depicted through artful, largely digitally created grayscale images that evoke ink wash and pencil sketches and convey Lee's growing hopelessness. The panels vary dramatically in shape, size, and perspective, bringing readers in for intense, intimate close-ups and pulling back to offer a broader overview of events. The mother-child relationship is especially well portrayed, nuanced, and resonant. Befitting a memoir that addresses transgenerational language barriers, some conversations include Korean phrases that are not translated into English. A raw, relatable memoir exploring mental health and immigrant experiences. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
ldquo;About a fifth of my life was spent working on this graphic novel," debut creator Lee reveals in their author's note. What began in 2018 as a "weekend project--a four-page comic on Twitter about transgenerational language barriers"--transformed into "a much-needed, over five-year therapy session that I can carry in my hands." So, too, will lucky audiences be able to admire and empathize with Lee's autobiographical coming-of-age challenges as a young immigrant. As a little girl, she left Korea for the U.S. as Lee Jung-Jin, eventually morphing into Deborah Lee. She always felt trapped: "I'm both non-American . . . and non-Korean. Forever in between." She remembers a kind and gentle mother long ago, but as a high-school teen struggling with grades, friendships, and expectations, Lee also recalls that same mother turns monstrously abusive while her father becomes ever more ineffectual. Her music, once beloved, is no longer a salve, but perhaps art might reignite her passion--unless she just can't survive the pressures of everyday life. While Lee's narrative will be especially resonating to a generation too often struggling against self-harm amid suffocating social pressures, their breathtakingly meticulous panels in grayish blues and white will be what elevates their work to masterpiece status.