Brownstone by Samuel Teer & Mar Julia. Versify, 2024. 9780358394747. 318pp.
Fourteen-year-old Almudena has never met her Guatemalan father, Xavier. When her mother gets a chance to tour with a dance production, she drops Almudena off to spend the summer with him. Xavier doesn’t speak much English at all, but it’s better than Almudena’s Spanish. And she’s super confused about what it means to be Guatemalan. But in helping to restore Xavier’s broken-down brownstone, with more than a bit of translation assistance from his girlfriend, she and her father start to form a bond. Almudena also gets to know the neighbors and the Latin American neighborhood, and to form friendships despite some of the teasing she endures.
This is a lovely story that spans only three months and ends with a real sense of community. My favorite minor character is Tomaz, a young man with a brain injury who acts like he’s in an anime-inspired fighting video game. He even expects prizes! (He’s a nice dude, though some find him a bit scary.) Queralt, Almudena’s friend who runs a nearby bodega, is a close second. Throughout Teer’s writing is superb, and Julia’s sequential art is so great it just kind of disappeared into my brain as I read the book. (Worth noting: I absolutely love the way they draw Almudena’s hair in the book, though it makes me miss mine.)
It’s no surprise that this graphic novel won the Printz Award last January.
