Not simple

Ian is on a quest to find his sister. As his travels across the U.S. take their emotional toll, he is joined by a reporter who faithfully records the teen's struggles to find his family, planning to turn the hard-to-believe but true story into a novel. Ono's powerful book has little in common with what many people think of as manga. Her almost-cartoonish character designs do feature gigantic eyes, but by stripping bare her art and using only the simplest of lines, she allows the full emotional impact of her story to punch readers full force. There are weighty issues at work here incest, abusive families, alcoholism, child prostitution, disease, death but Ono never goes for graphic details. She allows the story to unfold in a random manner, flipping back and forth in time, that is all the more effective for its subtlety. Readers may need some patience getting through this, but those looking for harsh tales of real life will be rewarded for their time. Pair with Adam Rapp's Punkzilla (2009) for booktalking or book clubs.--Wildsmith, Snow Copyright 2010 Booklist

Ten years after shonen and shojo manga took American teens by storm, we are seeing more diverse titles beyond ninjas and panty flashes. Drawing on traditions from the 1960s gekiga (Japanese for "dramatic pictures") movement, this slice-of-life story itself comes in slices for readers to assemble into a coherent picture. And an ugly picture it is. Waifish Ian and his Boswell, the American writer Jim, sit at the center. Jim claims to be writing a piece about Ian, perhaps an article, perhaps a novel. Through multi-layered flashbacks, we learn first about Ian's tragic death (presumably) and then about his earlier trips from his native Australia to England and thence to America, searching for his sister and more broadly for emotional home and connections. As the slices tumble out, clues accumulate unexpectedly about Ian's wildly dysfunctional family. Oddly, Ian seems consistently sweet and able to inspire affection and trust in strangers, if not among his own relatives. VERDICT With deceptively simple art that decries the title, this comes out a small classic of sidewise storytelling coupled with oddly likable, if mostly unsympathetic, characters. For older teens and up.-M.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.