Characters: Glory Flemming (protagonist; 17 year-old piano prodigTitle: Chopsticks, A Novel
Author: Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
ISBN: 9781595144355
Characters: Glory Flemming (protagonist; 17 year-old piano prodigy), Frank Mendoza (protagonist; 17 year-old artist)
Setting: The Bronx, 2009 (and flashbacks)
Theme: Life only works when you choose it for yourself, and talent is not passion.
Genre: Graphic novel; Young Adult
Golden quote: “‘Are you there? / It happened again. We’re coming home. / Are you there?’ ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMclm... / are you thinking of me?’ ‘always’”
Summary: Chopsticks -- a unique incarnation of the graphic novel, comprised of photographs, and text messages and postcards -- opens with a news alert and crime scene images of a missing girl. The book sets the stakes high then moves backwards, depicting what led up to the disappearance.
Audience: 13+
Curriculum ties: This book would work nicely as a companion piece to The Catcher in the Rye or The Bell Jar, possibly even Speak if the reader / instructor were interested in a stretch. Students in orchestra, band, or AP Music Composition might appreciate it also, as would art students in courses such as digital animation, digital photography, drawing & painting, and creative writing.
Awards: N/A
Personal response: This is a story told in moments and in images, and though it took me several false starts with the first twenty pages or so over a span of several weeks, once I continued on I fell in love. Chopsticks is an unconventional love story in that it skips over the characters falling in love -- Frank moves in, there is a note passed, and then they’re together. Like the hidden chapter numbers embedded into the images of the story, Chopsticks tells its story quietly, with pieces left out and leads buried. Relying heavily on image and tone to propel Glory’s story forward, even for a graphic novel it seems sometimes to be light in text, but what it truly is is an intimate story alive with angst and yearning and artistry and passion. There is something very grounded and earthy about this book as the reader flips through the human artifacts of letters and notes and clothing items and postcards and paintings -- everyday items testifying the story they cumulatively tell. Chopsticks jumped out at me from the bookstore bookshelves, but it took me months to finally read it, maybe an hour to really luxuriate through it and investigate the youtube links and the hidden messages, and no time at all to fall in love with it and rate it as one of my favorite graphic novels. Though it is light in text it is satisfyingly weighty in emotion and urgency, all the while maintaining an ethereal quality, reminding me somehow of a Sofia Coppola film. Definitely worth the time it takes to read, and will stay with you for much longer than that....more
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