Boxers & Saints

Bibliographic Information
Title: Boxers, Saints
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Type of Media: graphic novel
Publisher: First Second
Copyright Date: September 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1596439245
Genre: Historical Fiction
Curriculum Ties: Chinese history and culture
Interest Age: 12-18


Plot Summary
This story is split into two volumes through parallel viewpoints. In Boxers you follow the life of a Chinese peasant named Bao who lives within a village which is plundered and destroyed by outside people who claim to be missionaries. Then an uprising starts to form to fight back against the intruders so Bao chooses to join them.
Within Saints we meet, Vibiana, a Chinese girl who never had a place within society, that is until the missionaries took her in under their wing. They gave her a place to call home and people who cared for her. As the rebellion is starting to grow she is faced with the choice of fully changing to the Christian faith or abandoning the only people who have ever cared for her.

Critical Evaluation
This graphic novel is a piece of work which Yang masterfully wove together. It not only covers a difficult topic but in a way that so strongly depicts two conflicting sides of the same story. It is so rare to find a plotline which truly encompasses an entire issue because it is impossible to see all of that from one character. Yang chose to separate out the stories instead of writing them side by side because it makes the flow of the graphic novel much more friendly. Boxers and Saints are well done graphic novels with a lot of depth to them.

Reader's Annotation
Ever wondered how people who live through the exact same event can describe it so differently? Yang does a marvelous job of depicted the opposing views of two young Chinese people in this award winning graphic novel.

Author Biography
Gene Luen Yang began making comic books in the fifth grade. He has since written and drawn a number of titles. His 2006 book American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album - New. His 2013 two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints was nominated for the National Book Award and won the LA Times Book Prize. Gene currently writes Dark Horse Comics' Avatar: The Last Airbender series and DC Comics' Superman. The first volume of Secret Coders, his middle-grade graphic novel series about computer coding, illustrated by Mike Holmes, will be available September 2015.

Gene Luen Yang. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Luen-Yang/e/B001JP26JI/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Book Talk Ideas

• Chinese History
• Self Identity vs Communal
• Different viewpoints of single event

Possible Challenges

•  Violence

Defense File

Have the library's selection policy and the Library Bill of Rights ready to hand out

Access to honest reviews from trusted sources

Know the awards, if any, the book has earned

Understand the material so you can explain the use of the book as a good talking point for serious and sensitive issues

A lot of times people just want their concerns heard, so make sure you listen

If they are still persistent be able to offer them a reconsideration form

 
Reason for Inclusion
Unique graphic novel written from two opposing viewpoints but both with characters you will love. How can both sides seem so right? This is why this story by Yang was a must include for me.