#IMWAYR: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Sunhead!

Hi hi, everyone! This last week was so busy, and this next week may be a smidge better, but not much. But the weekend has had some lovely opportunities for rest—and reading! I'm excited to share about everything today. So let's do it!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Young adult · 2012 · Re-review (see my original review)

Book 1 of 2 (This book · Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World)

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· · · The publisher says: · · ·

Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself.

But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.

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One of the problems with being so overly excited about books on my blog is that, when the rare once-in-a-lifetime book comes around and you really want everyone to drop everything and read it, it's a little bit of the boy who cried wolf. "Yeah, yeah, once-in-a-lifetime read, you said that last week...and the week before...and the week before that..." What can I say, I'm overly enthusiastic. But maybe this will convince you—my love for this book has stood the test of time. I read it three years ago, and it spurred me to write a long, maybe-slightly-too-detailed review in which I gushed as much as I could possibly manage. (Honestly, glad I did!) And then now, when I was asked in my in-person book club if I could recommend anything for us to read, I didn't hesitate—this was my pick. They loved it, I loved it again, and I felt like I needed to throw it at literally everyone I know so they too could feel the kind of healing that this book provides.

I was Ari three years ago when I read this book, and I'm still Ari. I'm still that kid who was having giant existential thoughts early in life. I'm still that kid who gets sucked into swirling, difficult feelings. I'm still that kid who seems to put words to everything in his head, and honestly, those words often sound like poetry, and they are beautiful, as narcissistic as it sounds for me to say that out loud. I'm that kid. Ari is that kid. If Ari existed, he would get me. He could look in my brain and read my thoughts and have it feel totally familiar. I'm not sure if it's alarming, beautiful, or both that a fictional fifteen-year-old understands me better than just about everyone on the planet except for maybe seven-odd people. But it's the absolute truth.

This book is absurdly hard to review, and frankly, Ari tells his own story better than I possibly could, so please just go listen to him or check out my old review if you're unconvinced. But I will say one thing. I think in this book, Benjamin Alire Sáenz has created a roadmap for how to heal, and how to show up for the ones you love. Ari, Dante, their parents, even characters like Gina and Susie—they are capable of changing the lives of other human beings, without having to become some idealized version of themselves. There are moments in this book, particularly between Ari and his parents, that are unrealistic only because I have never seen them happen in real life—but not because they're impossible. They are completely possible. If we listen to ourselves, and acknowledge just how much we know about the feelings of ourselves and others, we can do things that are tailored to exactly what someone else needs in that moment. We just have to ignore the doubting voice in our head that we couldn't know what that person needs—or, worse, that it would be wrong to love someone so much. Let yourself love someone that much. Let yourself go to extraordinary lengths for the people you care about. And let yourself feel that love, even just a little, when it comes back at you. Love the people you love the way Ari's parents love him, or the way Ari loves his parents, or the way every character in this book loves every other character. Please. I think human survival literally depends on it.

Sunhead

Written and illustrated by Alex Assan

Young adult · Graphic novel · 2024

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· · · The publisher says: · · ·

In this queer coming-of-age teen graphic novel by breakout talent Alex Assan, high schooler Rotem feels herself growing apart from her friends in a million inexpressible ways. But an unexpected connection with another student makes her feel more herself than ever before. This incisive and stunningly gorgeous debut is perfect for fans of Bloom and Gender Queer.

Rotem is a Sunhead, a fan of the international smash hit Sunrise series of books and films. She’s obsessed with the story’s love interest, Edmund, and no one else gets it. But all that changes when she befriends Ayala, a shy classmate and avid book lover who’s as swept away by the romance as she is. The two become fast friends, but as their deep connection grows stronger, Rotem starts to wonder: What exactly draws her to this story?

Alex Assan’s debut, Sunhead, is an earnest coming-of-age graphic novel that explores how the stories we love help us understand our friendships, our relationships, and ourselves.

· · · · · ·

I recently promised that I would read four graphic novels during August, in an attempt to get back into one of my deepest passions. And wow, Sunhead set the bar high. I didn't know much about this book besides its synopsis before I started, but I got a sense fairly quickly in that Alex Assan is a far more talented graphic novelist than...honestly, many other graphic novelists. (I hate to draw comparisons like that, but it's true!)

Kirkus Reviews described this book as "Cozy, but too slight to leave a strong impression." And I'm a contrarian, so I'm going to debate that take. Sunhead isn't slight, it's subtle. It's not lacking in depth, but the depth is hesitant to reveal itself to the reader. So you have to remember to slow down, and absorb the scenes. And when you're finished, you have to turn back to some of the scenes, because they take on a whole new meaning in light of what you've learned by the end. The internal logic of this book is far more tightly woven than it looks at first glance, and it earned my faith as a reader—even in the moments when I didn't understand something, I always assumed Assan had a reason for it, just one I hadn't discovered yet.

I adore Rotem as a character so much. Mostly because she has huge feelings—she gets so excited about books that she could practically jump off the surface of the Earth and end up on the moon. (Which is relatable!!!) And sometimes she gets angry, or stubborn, or moody, or she cries, because sometimes life is hard. And although she's young and makes mistakes in how she interacts with others, I have no doubt that she has the most empathic heart—she moves through the world so intuitively, and there are moments when she is capable of such kindness. Rotem, like so many of us, isn't done growing and changing, but that doesn't mean she won't win your heart, both as the person she is now, and the person she will grow into.

In an interview with his publisher on Instagram, Alex Assan writes, "I'm really interested in teenage obsessions. I think teen girls' interests especially are often wildly misunderstood, and I wanted to explore that." There is something so powerful about this. We are so judgy when other people (or ourselves!) are drawn to popular media, and there is an element of misogyny that makes this all the worse for girls. (When I was younger, I had absorbed so much media rhetoric about Taylor Swift that I wasn't interested in her at all—until I listened to her music, and realized how much she had to offer.) It's pretty obvious that the book Rotem is obsessed with, Sunrise, is her world's version of Twilight, which is so often maligned and diminished as a story. But so many people love it. Why?

Well, something this book, Sunhead, makes clear is that books provide us a space to better understand ourselves. I know that, with every book I live in, I find myself a little bit more. And every time Rotem re-reads or talks about Sunrise, she finds herself a little bit more too. And then her friendship with Ayala (who is such a wonderful character, by the way) adds on to that, by giving her a real-life space where her self-exploration-by-way-of-reading is valid, and understood. Rotem and Ayala both love Sunrise for a reason—and they may not know exactly what that reason is, but it's there subconsciously, and they both know that they share that reason, and that therefore, they understand each other. Without words or even conscious awareness, Rotem and Ayala tell each other so much through their conversations, and even their moments without words. And again, I seriously encourage you to go re-read some of their conversations once you get to the end—the two of them are talking about more than you might think.

The universe of Sunhead is so beautiful and rich. Rotem and Ayala live in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the warm colors and city details within every panel make the story feel safe and welcoming. Amidst a bustling backdrop of school and weekly food markets and people walking down the street, our characters encounter the realities of human life, one by one. Health conditions, intelligence and what that really means, and choices about how to spend the time we are given in this life. This story exists in a context that is at once simple and complicated, infinitesimal and infinite. And it makes for a rare book that is both a complete comfort read, and existentially enlightening.

And to seal the deal, Alex Assan (as noted) is a brilliant graphic novelist, my gosh! There is pitch-perfect dialogue, and panels that feel like photographs with meaning in every pose and expression, and ironclad plotting that makes the story feel almost like a dull roar coming to a specific pivotal realization. And Assan also makes several brilliant technical choices with the art that I'm still so obsessed with. You know how in some comics, when characters are drawn as really far away from the "camera," their designs get simpler, and they may lose their eyes or other details on their body? Well, Assan uses this tool to convey meaning—sometimes, when characters are relatively physically close to the "camera" but are emotionally far away, from themselves or each other, their eyes disappear too. They become impossible to read, to us and to the characters of the story. It's subtle, as he never uses the effect when the characters are the subject of the frame—but it's there, and it's brilliant.

I also love how Assan marks the beginning of every scene by splitting the panel into tiny little "fade-in" panels. Creating panel boundaries within a single image is something I've really only seen in The Magic Fish, and Assan uses it for less purposes here, but he uses it so well—it creates a "boom-boom-BOOM" that lets us know a new scene is "starting-starting-STARTED."

And the last thing I love is that the last several dozen pages of the book mark a visual shift, in terms of how panels are laid out on the page and how visuals are used, that reflects a change in Rotem's life. Most of the book feels like self-exploration, like savoring every moment as the seconds move. But here, the book begins to rush, and things begin to happen without the space inside of them to live and breathe and wonder. Things become a blur. It's so fascinating.

Sunhead is exactly what I needed to read right now. It's an inherently kind, warm, delightful story, without eliciting painful emotions from me in a way I can't handle at this time. But at the same time, this story is deep. It asks big questions about why we are drawn to stories, and what we can know about ourselves and each other even if it isn't said, and how we find our way through the barrage of new feelings and experiences that is growing up. This story is built around love and self-discovery, and Alex Assan and Rotem are the guides we need for this journey. So I hope you'll join me in walking down this path with them—please pick up a copy of this story.

The Kidlit Lovers' Meetup!

I am happy to share that we have a date for the third Kidlit Lovers' Meetup! It will be:

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

4 - 4:45 PM Pacific / 5 - 5:45 PM Mountain / 6 - 6:45 PM Central / 7 - 7:45 PM Eastern

As always, this is a chance for folks to meet other book bloggers and readers, and talk about books, blogging, reading, and more! I'll have discussion questions prepared to keep the conversation going. And it's designed to be very low-stress—even if you're as chronically introverted as I am, my goal is for you to still feel welcome and enjoy yourself!

You can RSVP for the meetup here, or learn more about the meetups here. Feel free to email me at completelyfullbookshelf [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions.

I really hope to see you there!

Random thoughts:

I downloaded an incredible to-do list app available for Apple devices, called Things. And I feel like it's already making me more productive and less anxious. It's so minimalist in appearance that my to-dos look almost deceptively simple—which becomes exactly the push I need to start tackling them, one by one. At the same time, it's so powerful, and it works so well with how my brain works—I can sort all the things I need to do in every area of my life, and add detail after detail after detail, and then draw from those lists to decide what I need to accomplish today. I'm sure this app won't be a miracle cure for procrastination and anxiety—but it's helping. I highly recommend it.

I also found my old 20Q—have you ever heard of it? It's an electronic toy from the 2000s that you play 20 questions with. You pick your item, it asks you 20 yes-or-no questions and you press the button for "yes," "no," or "sometimes," and it tries to guess your item. And it's freaking brilliant—I stumped it on my fourth try after it won three in a row! It used to entertain me so much when I was little, and it's still really cool now.

That's all for now—enjoy your reading this week, and see you soon! ✨✨