Tina's Mouth

In the tradition of Persepolis and American Born Chinese, a wise and funny high school heroine comes of age.

Tina M., sophomore, is a wry and endearing observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy. ("The name makes it sound fancier than all the public schools in the area. You'd really think the Prince of Wales attended.") And of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. ("Just so you know, my parents have never tried to lock me into a child marriage.") She's on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an "existential diary."

Keshni Kashyap's smart and funny graphic novel packs in (existential) high school drama—from Tina's getting dumped by her smart-girl ally to a kiss on the mouth (Tina's mouth, but not technically her first kiss) from a cute skateboarder, Neil Strumminger. And it memorably answers the pressing question: Can an English honors assignment be one fifteen-year-old girl's path to enlightenment?