This section is kind of random, but sometimes those paths are important.
I have been working my way through two articles about underappreciated or different comics, most of which have been disappointing.
These three are all from those lists, but were better than some of the others:
Mech Cadets by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa
Everyday Hero Machine Boy by Irma Kniivila and Tri Vuong
Umma's Table by Yeon-Sik Hong
When we get to the internment books, they are mainly shorter and designed for middle readers. These first two books could also very much be for middle readers, with robots and adventure.
Umma's Table is not. (It was from a different article than the other two.) It is about a young family dealing with aging parents and budgets. There were things that frustrated me with some of the protagonist's choices, but I could never not feel a sense of understanding that it is hard.
Stone Fruit by Lee Lai is also very adult.
There are still fractured families. That is largely due to issues of gender and sexuality, at least for Bron. For Ray, sometimes resentment and frustration builds between siblings and takes effort to unravel.
It is not so much about aging, but the times they share with Ray's niece Nessie act as a reminder of how much complication comes with maturity.
It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger
I continue keeping up with George Takei:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/09/spotlight-on-george-takei-apahm-2024.html
This book fills in a lot of the blanks from his previous bio, To the Stars.
From it, I have to assume Josie (whom I worried about) knew he was gay all along and was fine with it. There is no assurance that she got her own happy ending, but I see a strong tendency to protect others' privacy. I respect that.
Takei's family's internment is not treated as much here; that was covered in They Called Us Enemy, which will be the selection for this year's #OneBookOneCoast:
It was really well done, and important to remember. That brings us to some other not quite children's books on that topic:
The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael O. Tunnel and George W. Chilcoat
I am an American: A True Story of Japanese Internment by Jerry Stanley
The Children of Topaz focuses more on a class, with I am an American focusing more on a person.
It's important to remember things that were done so recently that people who experienced them are still alive. It's important to keep that perspective, because we keep doing things like this over and over again.
Which leads to one other thing...
Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling
In my long study of award-winning works related to Latin American heritage, I happened to read this one just last night.
I had already read a children's book about the Mendez vs Winchester case about school segregation. What I had not picked up on is that the reason the Mendez family was near a school they were not allowed to attend was that they were renting the farm of an interned Japanese family. The Munemitsu children had been allowed to attend the school.
Our racism isn't always logical or consistent. It is always wrong.
We can do better, but it will take facing the past and the present with honesty.
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