Review: Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez. Illustrated by Gabriela Epstein
Quick Info:
Book type: Comic Book
Target age: 8-12 years old
Recommended age: 9+ years old
Plot: Five students are stuck with one another for community service at their school and although they are very different everyone around them seems to see them as just a group of Spanish-speaking kids. While doing their community service they find someone who truly needs their help and decide to work together.
Review:
This book was a great look into immigrating as a child and also being a second-generation immigrant. Some of the characters seem to want to wash away their culture and be seen as “American” while others have undying loyalty to their home country. Either way it is interesting to see how they characters change throughout the book and how the kids all become friends in the end. This book grapples the concept of feeling invisible due to a language barrier since most of the time people don’t want to put in the effort to try to communicate.
Opinion:
I really loved this book and recommend it to kids ages 9 and older. While this is a middle grade book I feel like it has some themes older kids might also relate to. I made sure to look at both the foreground and background for anything that might have been considered unIslamic/iffy content. My only grievance is the fact that the kids helped a grown woman they just met in secret without letting a trusted adult know; I worry that children who read this book might attempt to copy what they view in the story. Eventually the adults in the book find out but no one really warns the kids of how the situation could have been dangerous and instead applauds them. Thankfully the woman in the story was not dangerous but that isn’t always the case. Be sure to have a conversation about stranger danger!
Content:
Mild rude language (shut up, calling a kid garbage, nicknaming a teacher “the grouch” and calling said teacher a witch)
Name calling (dumb, jerk, weirdo)
Racial micro-aggressions
The five kids end up banding together to help a homeless woman living in a van with her young daughter near the school and while the gesture is heartwarming the children do lie about helping her to the adults in their lives for a while before it gets exposed. The woman ended up being a genuine and kind individual but a “stranger danger” conversation with your child would be important.
Excerpts:
Excerpts from books are a glimpse of the content that is found and are not every instance of un-Islamic and/or “iffy” content.
Context:
Mild micro-aggressions are sprinkled throughout the story as many people call all Spanish-speaking kids “Mexicans” or assume things of them due to their racial background. The principal assumes the main characters will get along due to them having “a lot in common” and characters assume George to be fluent in Spanish.
Context:
Before they become friends, the characters insult one another a once or twice in the beginning of the story by calling each other dumb, weird or a loser.
Context:
The teacher, Growser, is generally rude to the students and is constantly insulting the main characters’ lack of English. They make fun of her by calling her a witch and rude.
