Welcome to the Lazy Sunday Comic Book Club, first edition!
For research and pleasure while creating my own books, I read a lot of graphic novels for young readers. As part of the Oakie Dokie Comic Book blog, starting...now, every weekend I will share my favorite book from the week.
Follow and read along! I hope today's entry inspires you to pick up and plunker down with a copy of When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed.
Based off of Mohamed's life story,When Stars are Scattered is a poignant remembrance of his experience as a Somali refugee. I love stories about brothers! I have one, so I especially enjoyed the story's central relationship between Omar and Hassan. Omar is the older brother, forced to mature before his age and take care of his younger brother who only speaks one word, "Hooyo." To discover what "Hooyo" means, go and read the book, of course :)
The story follows Hassan as he strives for the seemingly impossible dream of immigrating to America. Metaphorically, he is a grain of sand in a desert, where the fulfillment of his dream is as likely as the grain being found once thrown. But he doesn't let the odds stop him. He doesn't cower at the prospect of school in English when he hardly knows a word. He learns, when seemingly defeated by the reality of his situation, the best perspective is perseverance through patience.
I'll try not to make these entries too text-heavy because why read my review when you can just go and read the book already 🙃? To end this first entry and encourage you to go and read, I'll close by sharing one of my favorite pages from the book below.
Happy reading,
Josh
