Big Apple Diaries
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
In Big Apple Diaries, a heartfelt diary-style graphic memoir by Alyssa Bermudez, a young New Yorker doodles her way through middle school—until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack leaves her wondering if she can ever be a kid again.
It’s the year 2000 in New York City. For 12-year old Alyssa, a biracial Puerto Rican girl, this means all kinds of new challenges: splitting time between her dad's apartment in Manhattan and her mom's new place in Queens, navigating the ups and downs of middle school, harboring an epic crush on a new classmate, and figuring out how to be a "real" Puerto Rican. The only way to make sense of it all is to write and draw her thoughts and worries into her diary.
Then life abruptly changes on September 11, 2001. After the Twin Towers fall and so many lives are lost, her concerns about gossip, crushes, and fashion feel distant and insignificant. Alyssa must find a new sense of self and purpose amidst all of the chaos, and find strength to move forward with hope. This moving graphic memoir is based on Alyssa Bermudez's own middle school diaries.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bermudez (My Singing Nana) makes her solo debut with this humorous and sincere graphic novel memoir chronicling her middle school years in New York City. Drawing on her own childhood diaries, recollections with former classmates, and a friend's "special 9/11 diary with poems, reflections, and news articles," the telling opens on Sept. 7, 2000. It's 11-year-old Alyssa's first week of seventh grade at St. Ignatius, a Catholic school on 84th Street—the burgeoning artist struggles to balance schoolwork with hopes of popularity, and feels socially constrained by her parents' rules. Utilizing a palette of blacks and blues, as well as lively, fully illustrated diary entries, Alyssa shares her interior life as a shy and artistic half–Puerto Rican, half-white tween with divorced parents. Entries include everything from lighthearted comedy (a disastrous eyebrow mishap) to nervous excitement (her first romance) and—most powerfully—poignant reflection (the aftermath of 9/11). Combining eye-catching layouts with frank vulnerability ("Tomorrow I will be in the vast unknown space of my future"), Bermudez puts her whole heart on the page, and the love she holds for her younger self can be deeply felt in every entry. Ages 8–12.
