Gain Take What You Can Carry Compiled By Kevin C. Pyle Shown As Interactive EBook
modern day story with the white boy was pointless, How can any storyteller ever draw a comparison between someone stealing to survive versus someone stealing for kicks and giggles The false equivalency here is astounding and even a little bit insulting to the audience.
I get the point the author was trying to make, but it came off as yet another story where the little white kid learns a valuable lesson from the wise old Japanese man.
Barf.
Would have been a MUCH better book if it was all about the kids in the internment camps.
What a way to waste an interesting premise graphic novel on American concentration camps by focusing more than half of the story on some random kid committing crimes for fun.
I think we all know if the modern day kid was Japanese, Latino or Black there is NO WAY he would have been let off so easy.
I would have even preferred more epic scenery over that kid whining and moaning over nothing, His white privilege showed from start to finish, In fact, the little historical bits at the very end were more interesting that the actual graphic novel, which is just sad.
Glad it was incredibly
short and that I flew through it in less than two hours, Graphic novel telling the coming of age tale of two boys in very different times, By intertwining their stories, a greater lesson about how little we know about each other and what weve been through or are going through.
Quick read and such a lovely way to present a wonderful reminder that theres a lot to learn if we only make ourselves available to it.
A great way to get kids thinking about how history impacts us today, Simple but powerful illustrations. Ok, I don't know if this is a spoiler, so I'm putting things behind curtains, . . I think this book is about .
It tells the stories of two teenage boys one of Japanese descent living in WWII California, one of apparently Caucasian descent living in an anonymous suburb.
One of the boys ends up in an internment camp in rural California, the other falls in with a rough crowd in his suburb.
The internment story is all in browns, and is wordless, We see what life was like in those camps, The suburban story is rendered in blues and mostly depicts kids getting into trouble in construction zones and gas stations.
It is a reflective story perhaps too reflective for a teen audience, I found myself wondering how the two stories were connected, .
This might get picked up by a kid who was already interested in the internment camps, but there's not a major hook for the modernday story, and the wordlessness in the internment section might be perceived as a lack of hard information.
And although I appreciate it more now that I'm reflecting on it to write this review, overall I found it literally forgettable.
I read it less than a week ago, and when I saw it in my inbox waiting to be reviewed, I thought that I still needed to read it.
Which is never a particularly positive sign, I wasn't a big fan of the art style of ken's side, I found it to be a bit confusing since the drawings were blurred slightly and had no text.
I understand why that technique was used, but I didn't really enjoy it, ah, this was . a thing. First, I think the decision to make the internment camp scenes silent was a WRONG one, what ended up happening by doing this is making the story about the white boy in the "present" more important, or at least more in the viewer's eye since the past scenes you just look at quickly and move on.
The art style is not impressive enough that you wan to linger in the moments of silence and the effect is that we have an unbalanced story, toward the wrong side! I honestly wasn't sure what the author was trying to do here.
Overall, a good concept kinda wasted,
”Its weird with some stuff, Or moments, really. Even though they are entirely under your controlthey somehow arent, It feels like once you starttheres only one way things can go, Even if its the wrong way, ”
Take What You Can Carry is a stunning work of art connecting two lives through time and history.
A reading experience with emotional and visual power,
The action and timeline flashes back in forth betweenin a JapaneseAmerican internment camp in California and aChicago suburb.
Mr. Pyle presents each world with its own style and color, A rich, dark natural brown brings the camp alive with depth and motion, Truly astonishing what an artist can do with one color and shadows, The world ofis depicted in light, soft shapes and blues, Both beautiful to the eye in their own way,
Our story is told in few words, The subtle, sparse style is moving at times, but a bit confusing in others, There were a couple of times I had to stop, back up, and say“So what is going on here” Especially the camps story, which disappointed mecrushed my heart actually.
I am a history geek, so to see history in a young adult graphic novel made me very happy.
Plus the internment camps are a sad piece of American history that needs to be seen and discussed more.
History may be in the past, but it is never gone, History leaves a mark. Scars we need to talk about, But the story here came off as unclear and fuzzy at times unfortunately, I hope it inspires readers to look deeper though and research the subject, I know I did. :
A strong graphic novel with important subjects that may show readers what is importantwhat can be stolen, taken, and forgiven in life.
Two stories told simultaneously one of a teen boy in trouble and another of a teen whose family gets sent to an internment camp for JapaneseAmericans during WWII.
Hm. Found this while weeding my home library, I think I might've had a different opinion had I read it when I bought it back in.
Now, with WNDB and ownvoices I know that's falling out of favor, I have serious questions, I'm not sure that the parallels totally workwhite boyhella amount of white privilege, It felt unfinished. Two stories that didnt mesh at all, The artwork didnt mesh either, Murky, impressionistic art for the story such as it was of the internment camp, combined with cartoon style art for the modern day story made for a disjointed reading experience.
Hard to drum up sympathy for the modern characters, and very difficult to figure out what was happening in most of the internment camp panels hard to even distinguish who the different characters are.
Are we supposed to equate the cavalier theft of chewing gum with the theft of basic living necessities to survive in the camps Was this the authors intention Because that cheapens the Japanese experience.
Do not recommend. I too was uncomfortable with the parallels drawn between what JapaneseAmericans had to do to survive during their unlawful internment and some white boys stealing for fun.
This is an odd book to review because it's about second chances, but the circumstances and the weight of each story is intensely different.
In one side we have a story of Japanese people in Concentration camps in the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the other we have a kid that's kind of messing around to land on the wrong side of the tracks.
although I can see the intention of drawing parallels and how luck and someone giving a break was the difference, it still felt odd.
Then I checked reviews and saw this as a recurring theme, The issue most people myself included have is that the stakes are not equal, this isn't apples and oranges, though it is a good piece to bring a proper discussion of theft, its consequences, second chances, and to a great degree, the existence of white privilege and racist attitudes and tendencies in the US.
It was an interesting read but beyond being a conversation starter, not sure if this is a MUST read for me or if I'd revisit it.
So, this is really quite good, but I think me expectations were far bigger, It's a touching story about two seemingly unrelated yet interlinked lives, But I was expecting to feel a lot more emotion, Eh. Drawn in an interestingly nice, shaky Mike Judgey style, with a similar tone/setting, though less lush and humorous.
Character development is less than complete "oh, I'm a kid that steals stuff, . . cuz I just get bored," but the wordlessness of the Japanese internment camp story was actually pretty effective the smallness of one kid in a big world, and the importance too, communicated through people bustling and scrambling through crowded and empty spots alike.
In the end though, and perhaps this was the intention, it didn't amount to much, Which is fine, I suppose, But the forgetableness of the characters and the lack of real dilemma or pathos make for a just ok book, rather than a great one.
A crossgenerational coming of age tale that highlights how the choices we make can have profound reverberations through the years.
Two teenage boys from very different place and time discover a bond over choices made when facing adversity a very powerful narrative a GN Bildungsroman that will have you remembering the 'wrong turns' you took when you were very young.
WHY I READ IT:
I'm a sucker for graphic novels, When I learned that TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY was a graphic novel about the historic Japanese internment, I immediately purchased it.
I thought of how I could pair it with FAREWELL TO MANZANAR or use it as an introduction to such an unfathomable period of American history.
SUMMARY:
The novel focuses on two strands, as suggested by the cover:the life of a Japanese family forced to move into the Manzanar camp as depicted in brown illustrations and NO DIALOGUE ampthe rebellious life of a teenage boy who has moved into a new town and suburban neighbor as depicted in blue illustrations WITH dialogue.
Kyle, the rebellious teen, keeps pushing boundaries to impress his new friends, even going so far as to steal from a convenience store.
When Kyle must atone for his actions, he realizes he has more in common with the store owner than he initially realized.
COMPLAINTS:
The title of this book basically gives away the connection between the two plot strands, and I found the back cover of the book to be more illuminating than some of the illustrations.
For instance, I don't recall ever discovering Mr, Himitsu's first name being Ken while reading the book, Also, nothing about the illustrations suggest that Kyle is living in thes, as the back cover claims "Never four decades later, another boy also begins a new life.
" I thought the action was taking place in the present day, thes, Finally, this book did not have page numbers, which was super annoying, I really wanted to like this, I liked the art and the color contrast between eras, But I didnt feel any sympathy for the white kid who stole from the store and didnt really see his connection to the internment camps except the store owner was at the camp.
I also really feel like the scenes at the internment camp needed dialogue or words of some kind.
I missed some of the things that were happening in those scenes because I had no context, Which makes me sad because those felt like the important scenes, .