A Game for Swallows

August 6, 2012
In the tradition of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Lebanese author-artist Abirached offers readers a memory of her childhood in war-torn Beirut. Abirached and her brother are young children, separated from their parents during a particularly violent bombing. The violence brings all the people of Abirached’s apartment complex together, however, and they spend hours together in the foyer, waiting for her parents’ return. Abirached’s b&w inks offer a stark contrast in hard, geometric patterns that make images at once abstract and fully representative of her childhood memories. The characters, despite their cartoonish nature, show a variety of emotions, and Abirached’s gift for pacing makes tense moments appropriately full of anxiety. It is as often the space she leaves empty as the drawings themselves that tell the story—and each detail offered provides insight into the horrors of growing up in a war zone. A winner for young readers and adults alike. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)■

August 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 A casual browser could be forgiven for picking up this graphic novel and not realizing it wasn't Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (2003) until a fair way in. With its childlike visual stylization and stark black-and-white forms depicting the life of a young girl in a Middle Eastern country at war, this screams out for comparison to Satrapi's classic. However, while Persepolis examined the political and religious ramifications on a nation through the life of one growing child, Abirached's tale focuses tightly on people and their deep ties to one another as neighbors gather in the Beirut apartment of Zeina and her little brother while they await their parents' return from across a city under siege. As she puts an accessible face on a foreign culture through her characters, Abirached also distinguishes her piece with striking and unique design work. Her use of heavily contrasted black-and-white spaces, as well as elegant flourishes like crowding an anxious room with ticks and tocks, suggests an impressive new talent following in the footsteps of an established master.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Like Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, [cf2]Persepolis[cf1], this French import presents a girlhood under fire in the war-torn Middle East. Here the setting is 1984 Beirut. Abirached skillfully weaves flashbacks and explanatory asides into the narrative while maintaining one harrowing evening's tension. Stark, dramatic illustrations (mostly black backgrounds with white-outlined characters and features) include repeated motifs that capture elements of the culture.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2012
Comparisons to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis are inevitable; like Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, this book (also first published in French) presents a girlhood under fire in the war-torn Middle East. Here the setting is 1984 Beirut, a city segregated by religion with Christian and Muslim residents locked in unrelenting civil war. The story's focus is a single harrowing night when Zeina's parents, visiting her grandparents a few blocks away, must make their way home through heavy bombing. Neighbors have gathered in the family's foyer -- the safest place left -- to wait out the shelling and hope for Zeina's parents' return. Abirached skillfully weaves flashbacks and explanatory asides into the narrative while maintaining the evening's tension. Despite the oppressive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, much-needed moments of levity shine through as neighbors try to distract Zeina, her younger brother, and themselves by telling amusing anecdotes, re-enacting scenes from Cyrano de Bergerac, baking a cake, and partaking of fine whiskey. Stark, dramatic illustrations (mostly black backgrounds with white-outlined characters and features) include repeated motifs (flowers, dragons) that effectively capture elements of the culture and lend nuance to the high emotions through small changes in expression or detail. A poignant portrayal of a community determined to hold onto optimism and humanity under dire circumstances. katie bircher

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2012

Gr 5 Up-Zeina and her younger brother are growing up in Beirut, where civil war is a part of daily life. To protect against strikes and sniper fire, the family's living space has been reduced to the relative security of their apartment foyer, where a rug hanging on the wall, depicting Moses and the Hebrews fleeing Egypt, figures predominantly as a story background. This account chronicles one day in their lives, as the siblings await their parents' return and neighbors come and spend time with them, building an island of sanctuary for the children during this time of uncertainty. Bold, graphic, black-and-white images are visually and emotionally striking. Excellent use of maps and diagrams provides reference points and enhances understanding of spatial relationships. Unique panel placement includes several sequences of horizontal strips, read as columns. Images portray elapsed time, such as repeated smoking and countdown panels, and control pacing while revealing mounting tension. Excruciating wait time is depicted with cumulative "tic" and "toc" filling successive panels. Circular images of an embracing family contrast with the stark linear images of a war-torn country. Warmth and humor of daily life is shown in baking and storytelling, and wedding-dress close-ups touchingly highlight a mother's worry over soiling the hem, masking her worry over sniper fire. This superb memoir is destined to become a classic.-Babara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, NY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.