The Brothers

by Sheelue Yang, Le Nhat Yu

Genres: Children's
Pages: 32
Rating:

Synopsis:

In this Hmong folktale, two brothers venture into a remote jungle, hunting food for their hungry family. But the jungle is full of dangerous wild animals. The older brother vows to keep his younger brother safe . . . or die trying. With clever text and easy-to-follow panels, Discover Graphics: Global Folktales are perfect for graphic novel fans new and old.

I read Sheelue Yang and Le Nhat Yu’s adaptation of a Hmong folktale, The Brothers, because I’d recently read a couple of things about Hmong traditions but really knew almost nothing, and this happened to catch my eye on Comics Plus. I’m not a big reader of children’s books in general, but I think this was well done? It has a bit of an explanation about how to read graphic novels like this at the front, and at the back there’s some discussion questions to help kids talk over the story with their parents.

The art and colouring is pretty good, and it was all well laid out and easy to read. The story itself has a bittersweetness to it, and I think if parents do read it with kids, it’d be good to be ready to have a conversation about loss, given the twist of the story.

I did see it coming, since it’s not that unusual as a story twist, but I thought it was told well (and would probably come as more of a surprise to a kid).

Overall, interesting read!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)