Yu Pei-Yun (Author), Zhou Jian-Xin (Illustrator) translated by Lin King - THE BOY FROM CLEARWATER: BK 2

 

 

‎Beautiful and Artful Graphic Novel Published by Levine Querido (May 7, 2024) in Paperback and Hardback. 

An accessible, timely account of Taiwan’s struggles for democracy and human rights as experienced through a personal lens.

After his imprisonment in Green Island, Kun-lin struggles to pick up where he left off ten years earlier. He reconnects with his childhood crush Kimiko and finds work as an editor, jumping from publisher to publisher until finally settling at an advertising company. But when manhua publishing becomes a victim of censorship, and many of his friends lose their jobs, Kun-lin takes matters into his own hands. He starts a children’s magazine, Prince, for a group of unemployed artists and his old inmates who cannot find work anywhere else. Kun-lin’s life finally seems to be looking up... but how long will this last?

Forty years later, Kun-lin serves as a volunteer at the White Terror Memorial Park, promoting human rights education. There, he meets Yu Pei-Yun, a young college professor who provides him with an opportunity to reminisce on his past and how he picked himself up after grappling with bankruptcy and depression. With the end of martial law, Kun-lin and other former New-Lifers felt compelled to mobilize to rehabilitate fellow White Terror victims, forcing him to face his past head-on. While navigating his changing homeland, he must conciliate all parts of himself – the victim and the savior, the patriot and the rebel, a father to the future generation and a son to the old Taiwan – before he can bury the ghosts of his past.

About the Author

Yu Pei-yun graduated from the Department of Foreign Language, National Taiwan University and holds a doctoral degree in Human Science from Ochanomizu University, Japan. Currently teaching at the Graduate Institute of Children's Literature at National Taitung University, she is devoted to the studies of Children's Literature and Culture. Yu also writes, translates, critiques, curates exhibitions about and plans the publication of children's literature.

Zhou Jian-xin holds a master's degree from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Children's Literature at National Taitung University.

Lin King is a writer and translator from Taipei, Taiwan. Her work has appeared in publications including Boston Review, Joyland, Asymptote, and Columbia Journal, and has won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She translates from Mandarin Chinese and Japanese to English, and her translation of Yang Shuang-zi's Taiwan Travelogue is forthcoming from Graywolf Press.

Jaclyn Moriarty - The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

Welcome to the third book in the series The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty. It has already been published by Levine Querido (23 March 2021) in the US. However, the book was first published in the author's native country (Australia) by Allen & Unwin last year (2020). The UK version will be published by Guppy books this coming September (2021). I'm really looking forward to seeing the UK book cover which will be very different from the one above. 

This series is one of my personal all-time favourites. The author is the Queen of Australian children's books as she has written some absolutely stunning stories. This series is so quirky and original that it is an absolute delight to read. The depth of characterisation and the way the storyline connects all the books in the series together is a real work of art. The humour is written cleverly at many levels from deadpan, to truly outrageous. 

The story is another master class on how to keep the reader engrossed without knowing where the plot is going to take you. It's both simple yet deceptive, uplifting, and moralistic. The storyline explores the personal feelings of the characters. We really get to know some of the new characters and find out more about the older ones which is really interesting. 

Imagination and creativity are other amazing attributes to both the book and series. The story is set around Katherine Valley Boarding School which helps to weave the magical story to life with social interaction and keeps you on your fantasy toes. 

This is a book that needs to be explored again and again. It's a very MEMORABLE READ full of mayhem and craziness which is all told in an authentic voice that you will not be able to get out of your head for some time. I would read this book in the order of the series, so if you are in the UK you have time to read the first two books now. However, wherever you are in the world, I would urge you to take a look at which books have been published near you and buy copies today without delay. You will not be disappointed, dear reader.  

Here is the synopsis below for this book.

Esther is a middle child, in her own mind a pale reflection of siblings who are bright, shining stars. Her mother doesn't show the slightest bit of interest, no matter what Esther does. Still, she's content to go back to school, do her best, hang out with her friends, and let others take care of things. 

But her best friends aren't AT school when she gets there. Why didn't they tell her they wouldn't be coming back? Why were they silent all summer? But stuff like that happens. And it's bad luck that her new teacher makes Esther the butt of all kinds of jokes. Mrs. Pollock is rumored to be an ogre--and maybe she IS one. Could be. 

Then things go from unfortunate to outright dangerous. The mountains surrounding the school--usually sparkling with glaciers and lakes, alive with Faeries, and sheltering a quaint town with really great bakeries--are now crowded with Shadow Mages, casting a noticeable pall, and clearly--to Esther--signifying something very dark and threatening. As the people she might have depended on to help are either strangely absent or in hiding, it's left to ordinary, middle-child Esther (just Esther) to act. But she'll have to burst out of the box of mediocrity she's been but in, and do something absolutely extraordinary.