Noodle Pie

It’s Andy’s first trip on an airplane when he and his dad travel to Vietnam to meet all his relatives. Talk about culture shock! Everyone calls him by his Vietnamese name instead of Andy and he is stunned to discover the family restaurant. For Andy and his dad, a former refugee returning for the first time, Vietnam is full of surprises. Somehow though, it also becomes the place for learning how to see things in a whole new way.

Vermonia #2: Call of the Winged Panther

The epic quest to save Vermonia continues! Four friends set out to find their true warrior spirits in a graphic tale featuring fabulous manga artwork.Doug, Jim, and Naomi continue their quest to save their friend Mel and the world of Vermonia from the clutches of evil General Uro. After defeating Sassella, the Stone Monster who turns everything she touches to stone, the three friends, along with the help of Rainbow and Fly, journey to the Telaam village. Meanwhile, Jim must answer the call of his spirit guide and protector, Suiran, the Winged Panther, by defeating the sea monster Ickhaby. Once released from his spell, Suiran grants Jim his protection and his powers of flight through the gift of a charmed bracelet. The friends reunite in the village of the Telaam, where the Seer Hanata, keeper of the Vermonia tarot cards, divines the future fate of the four young warriors from Blue Star and predicts a difficult yet promising path to rescuing Mel and returning Vermonia to the peaceful rule of Queen Frasinella.

The Big Wave

Kino lives on a farm on the side of a mountain in Japan. His friend, Jiya, lives in a fishing village below. Everyone, including Kino and Jiya, has heard of the big wave. No one suspects it will wipe out the whole village and Jiya’s family, too. As Jiya struggles to overcome his sorrow, he understands it is in the presence of danger that one learns to be brave, and to appreciate how wonderful life can be.The famous story of a Japanese boy who must face life after escaping the tidal wave destruction of his family and village.

Five Ancestors #6: Mouse (5 Ancestors)

In seventeenth-century China, orphaned ShaoShu, who can squeeze into small spaces, puts his life in danger when he becomes a spy for a young band of warrior monks known as the Five Ancestors and bravely infiltrates evil Tonglong’s camp.

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner

As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmother’s traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled “delicacies” of mainstream America capture her imagination. In Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen’s struggle to become a “real” American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story.

Mongolia: Vanishing Cultures

Two nomadic Mongolian children listen to stories of the past from their father and yearn for their own horses, creatures essential to their way of life.

Not My Fault

Written from the perspective of the schoolyard, this simply illustrated tale stimulates thought on issues of responsibility. When the classmates of a young boy who has been bullied all deny blame for the incident, they offer many common excuses why they declined to step in on their peer’s behalf. The familiar, first-person narration of the young characters begs the question, Does it really have nothing to do with me? The story closes with a series of powerful images of global strife, making the connection between simply not stepping in to help someone and standing by while wider atrocities go on.

Featured in Volume II, Issue 2 of WOW Review.