Big Apple Diaries
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In Big Apple Diaries, a heartfelt diary-style graphic memoir by Alyssa Bermudez, a young New Yorker doodles her way through middle school— navigating crushes, friendship, fashion, and identity, as well as the world-changing consequences of September 11, 2001.
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.
But, when a terrible tragedy strikes, Alyssa must find hope and strength within herself.
Fortunately, Alyssa's family and friends are safe, and through the shared love and support of her people and community, Alyssa discovers she can overcome anything... even middle school.
This honest, moving graphic memoir is based on Alyssa Bermudez's own middle school diaries before and after September 11, 2001.
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.
