Halfway There: A Graphic Memoir of Self-Discovery

Gr 7 Up–Graphic titles gone aural are their own literary art form. Mari’s exploration of her biracial identity gets an enhancing layer of emotive expression with a full cast, led by Matsui-Colby, who shares Mari’s mixed Japanese/white background and narrates with measured clarity and vulnerability. Mari, who moved from Tokyo at age five to the United States, returns at 19 “knowing exactly what [she] was looking for.” Labeled “half”—and similar variations—all her life left her “destined to have an identity crisis.” Struggling in Japan to master Japanese, she’s again “hafu,” deemed too American and not Japanese enough. More lost than ever, she succumbs to isolation and depression. Reaching out for help via her grandmother (patient and kind Hidaka) and starting therapy (with empathic Ellsmore) places her on a journey to feeling whole.