The Best We Could Do

 Reviewed by Nadine, gr. 12 -- Jan. 2018

I chose my graphic novel because I thought it would be an easy read and Ms. Burleson, the teacher-librarian, spoke highly of it, selling it very well. It is an illustrated memoir about a young refugee’s journey from Vietnam to her current life in California. She touches on the history of her parents and their tragedies and hardships during the period of French occupation and the Vietnam War. She also narrates the fond memories shared between her and her four siblings and tells the stories about the hardships with complete honesty. 

 

I enjoyed my graphic novel from start to finish. It took me only two hours to read and was aesthetically pleasing with beautiful illustrations and a good balance of text and pictures. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of humor.  It made the serious and heartbreaking stories much more bearable to read about.

I would recommend this book. It was a very quick and easy read while also managing to pack a huge amount of factual information. It’s also a touching and relatable story about family hardships and coming-of-age, told beautifully with illustrations from the author herself.