Hakim’s Odyssey

Hakim’s Odyssey
Author: Fabien Toulmé
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2021-10-26
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1637790139

A remarkable recounting of a human journey through an inhumane world. What does it mean to be a “refugee”? It is easy for those who live in relative freedom to ignore or even to villainize people who have been forced to flee their homes. After all, it can be hard to identify with others’ experiences when you haven’t been in their shoes. In Hakim’s Odyssey, we see firsthand how war can make anyone a refugee. Hakim, a successful young Syrian who had his whole life ahead of him, tells his story: how war forced him to leave everything behind, including his family, his friends, his home, and his business. After the Syrian uprising in 2011, Hakim was arrested and tortured, his town was bombed, his business was seized by the army, and members of his family were arrested or disappeared. This first leg of his odyssey follows Hakim as he travels from Syria to Lebanon, Lebanon to Jordan, and Jordan to Turkey, where he struggles to earn a living and dreams of one day returning to his home. This graphic novel is necessary reading for our time. Alternately hopeful and heartbreaking, Hakim’s Odyssey is a story about what it means to be human in a world that sometimes fails to be humane.

Hakim's Odyssey

Hakim's Odyssey
Author: Fabien Toulme
Publisher: Graphic Mundi
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2022-03-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9781637790083

An account, in graphic novel format, of a young Syrian refugee and how war forced him to leave everything behind, including his family, his friends, his home, and his business. This narrative follows his travels from Turkey to Greece.

What Is Home, Mum?

What Is Home, Mum?
Author: Sabba Khan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2022-03-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781951491178

Sabba Khan's debut graphic memoir explores what identity, belonging and memory mean for her and her family against the backdrop of history. As a second-generation Pakistani migrant in East London, Khan paints a vivid snapshot of contemporary British Asian life and investigates the complex shifts experienced by different generations within migrant communities, creating an uplifting and universal story that crosses borders and decades. Race, gender and class are explored in a compelling and personal narrative, illuminated by an eloquent minimal style and architectural page design.

The Parakeet

The Parakeet
Author: Espé
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 0271090057

Bastien is eight years old, and his mother is ill. She often has what his father and grandparents call “episodes.” She screams and fights, scratches and spits, and has to be carted away to specialized clinics for frequent treatments. Bastien doesn’t like it when she goes, because when she comes home, she isn’t the same. She has no feelings, no desires, and not much interest in him. According to the doctors, Bastien’s mother suffers from “bipolar disorder with schizophrenic tendencies,” but he prefers to imagine her as a comic-book heroine, like Jean Grey, who may become Dark Phoenix and explode in a superhuman fury at any moment. Based on the creator’s own childhood experiences, The Parakeet is the story of a boy whose only refuge from life’s harsh realities lies in his imagination. In his eyes, we see the confusion and heartache he feels as he watches his mother’s illness worsen and the treatments fail. Through his eyes, we see how mental illness can both tear families apart and reaffirm the bonds of love. Poignant yet playful, The Parakeet follows Bastien’s struggle to accept the mother he has while wishing for the mother he needs.

The Trojan War

The Trojan War
Author: Barry Strauss
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007-08-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0743264428

Based on the latest archeological research and written by a leading expert on ancient military history, the true story of the most famous battle in history is every bit as compelling as Homer's epic account, and confirms many of its details.

Blue-Eyed Devil

Blue-Eyed Devil
Author: Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2009-03-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1593763514

Michael Muhammad Knight embarks on a quest for an indigenous American Islam in a series of interstate odysseys. Traveling 20,000 miles by Greyhound in sixty days, he squats in run-down mosques, pursues Muslim romance, is detained at the U.S.-Canadian border with a trunkload of Shia literature, crashes Islamic Society of North America conventions, stink-palms Cat Stevens, and limps across Chicago to find the grave of Noble Drew Ali, filling dozens of notebooks along the way. The result is this semi-autobiographical book, with multiple histories of Fard and the landscape of American Islam woven into Knight’s own story. In the course of his adventures, Knight sorts out his own relationship to Islam as he journeys from punk provocateur to a recognized voice in the community, and watches first-hand the collapse of a liberal Islamic dream. The book’s extensive cast of characters includes anarchist Sufi heretics, vegan kungfu punks, tattoo-sleeved converts in hard-core bands, spiritual drug dealers, Islamic feminists, slick media entrepreneurs, sages of the street, the grandsons of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, and a group called Muslims for Bush.

A History of US: Eleven-Volume Set

A History of US: Eleven-Volume Set
Author: Joy Hakim
Publisher: History of US (Paperback)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-03
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780195327274

Whether it's standing on the podium in Seneca Falls with the Suffragettes or riding on the first subway car beneath New York City in 1907, the books in Joy Hakim's A History of US series weave together exciting stories that bring American history to life. Readers may want to start with War, Terrible War, the tragic and bloody account of the Civil War that has been hailed by critics as magnificent. Or All the People, brought fully up-to-date in this new edition with a thoughtful and engaging examination of our world after September 11th. No matter which book they read, young people will never think of American history as boring again. Joy Hakim's single, clear voice offers continuity and narrative drama as she shares with a young audience her love of and fascination with the people of the past. The newest edition of Hakim's celebrated series is now available in an 11-volume set containing revisions and updates to all 10 main volumes and the Sourcebook and Index.

Vanni

Vanni
Author: Benjamin Dix
Publisher: New Internationalist
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2019-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780265166

In the tradition of Maus, Persepolis, Palestine and The Breadwinner, Vanni is a graphic novel focusing on the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the 'Tamil Tigers', told from the perspective of a single family. This moving, exceptional graphic novel portrays the personal experiences of modern warfare, the processes of forced migration and the struggles of seeking asylum in Europe. Inspired by Dix's experience of working in Sri Lanka for the United Nations during the war, Vanni draws upon over four years of meticulous research, includes first-hand interviews, references from official reports and cross-referencing with experts in the field. Elegantly drawn by Lindsay Pollock, and with a real sense of immediacy, Vanni takes readers through the otherwise unimaginable struggles, horrors and life-changing decisions families and individuals are forced to make when caught in conflict.