Tina’s Mouth: an Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap Illustrated by Mari Araki YP FIC KASHYAP

Read through the pages of Tina Malhotra’s existential diary, a high school assignment to answer the all-consuming question: who am I? Well, for Tina it’s complicated.  She’s a non-religious East Indian-American, she’s looking for a use for her mouth, she’s in love with the father of existentialism Jean Paul Sartre, and she’s about to learn more about herself and life then she ever thought possible in one year. 

Think a high school, demented, profound, slightly profane, edgy, existential Diary of a Wimpy Kid with a totally awesomely out there female protagonist and you start to see the appeal of Tina’s Mouth.  The book is marketed as a good companion to the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (YP FIC SATRAPI or DVD PERSEPOL), but it really is quite a stretch.  Both are about young women coming of age and both are quite good, but that’s the only comparison point.  Mari Araki makes a great artist for the book.  The designs are simple and you can really believe the book is written and drawn by an artistically-inclined, inward-seeking teenage girl.  That leads to some of the books weaknesses.  Tina’s views on life, love, friendship, and cliques are witty and feel honest, but hardly groundbreaking or original.  The fact that this feels like it is a honest look at high school means that much of the ground covered has been covered (and sometimes better) by plenty of YA novels.  The saving grace is that this is a graphic novel diary and that elevates the occasionally unoriginal material to something fresh and new.  Not for all comic fans, but if you want something funny and unique in your comics this is a good, quick read.

Check our catalog for Tina’s Mouth here.

The Girls They Left Behind by Bernice Thurman Hunter

Seventeen year-old Beryl keeps a diary while World War II is going on. She lives in Canada and works at several factories waiting for her male friends and her cousin to come home from the war. This book provides a realistic narrative of how it must have been like to live during the war. At one of Beryl's jobs working at De Havilland she was make a forelady although when the war was over and she had to give up her job and go back to school. She was concerned that she would not be able to type fast enough in order to meet graduation requirements! If you have grandparents or elderly relatives that might remember living during WWII this is a good book that you can read together. YP FIC HUNTER

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

This story in written as a journal by Catherine, an interesting and entertaining character living during the Crusades. Catherine is kind of a sour-puss...but in a likable way. She does not want to be forced into marriage to nasty, sexist old guys but have adventures instead. This book shows you what life would be like living as a teenage girl in the 1290s...yuck! Moore library also has the audio version of this title and the narrator is awesome! Listen to it...AD YP FIC CUSHMAN