I am putting together a gift basket of the best graphic novels for young adults. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui kept being suggested as a book I should add... so I read it. It is a remarkable and timely story of what it means to be a refugee in search for a better future.
Great quotes from the book:
“To understand how my father became the way he was, I had to learn what happened to him as a little boy. It took a long time to learn the right questions to ask.”
“This - not any particular piece of Vietnamese culture - is my inheritance: the inexplicable need ad extraordinary ability to run when the shit hits the fan. My refugee reflex.”
“Má leaves me but I'm not alone, and a terrifying thought creeps into my head. Family is now something I have created and not just something I was born into.”
“Every casualty in war is someone's grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, brother, sister, child, lover.”
Get this book for the young adults you know. It is filled with empathy.
This graphic memoir is doing the work of helping readers see that "the other" is a human. It's more than a story of one family's journey from Vietnam and the obstacles they overcame. It's so much more. It's relevant today - a time where immigration and seeking asylum is on the forefront of so many people's minds. We see firsthand why someone might make the tough decision to leave behind everything to start a new life and the incredible sacrifices they must make to provide a better life for their families.
