Naruto is Not for Me.

After reading American Born Chinese and Naruto, Volume 1, I feel I have some experience with reading graphic novels. I can say with one hundred percent certainty I enjoyed American Born Chinese the most.

In American Born Chinese, all of the text was in balloons and tiny captain boxes. I liked this because it was easy to follow. The balloons were easy to understand because they pointed to who was speaking.

I had some confusion while reading Naruto. The balloons used in this novel were not as easy to understand. Sometimes, I did not know which character was talking. Eventually, towards the end of the book it became clearer to me as I began to recognize the characters and what they were most likely to say. Naruto also had some text not in balloons. During different sections of the story, the author would jump in and start talking about his success with drawing the characters. I thought this took away from the story because it was an interruption. There were some great sound effects in Naruto though. Although, I must admit, I did not understand some of them because characters were either standing if front of the words or they were in Japanese.

I found the characters in both novels to be interesting. I could relate better to the characters in American Born Chinese. I feel that this book dealt with many of the issues children and teens deal with. Being left out, embarrassment, and young love were all themes. I liked how the book used color ink. This helped me easily identify characters throughout the story. The illustrations in this novel were great. I thought the ones of the school seemed very realistic and were able to paint the picture of the story along with the words. The actions of the characters are internal and external. The characters had a problem, but then acted out externally to try and solve it.

In Naruto, the characters were sometimes hard to identify because they were in black ink. In the beginning, I was a little bit confused with this. This story took place mainly in a school and outside. Some of the pictures were great, while others were not clear in what they were supposed to be. A lot of the action in this novel was external. The main conflict at end, where Naruto was trying to get a ball, was the part that drew me in the most.

American Born Chinese used panels with gutters in-between them. Most of the panels had a think black border surrounding them. Naruto used paneling with think black borders as well. In this novel, the panels are of different sizes on each page. There are also gutters on some of the pages.

I feel that most of the pictures in American Born Chinese were close-ups. The majority of the pictures were of a character from the shoulders and up. But, there were also pictures using just about every other shot. Naruto has some close-up shots as well, but there is more longshots than anything else.

I found the mood of American Born Chinese to be fun and enjoyable. I would not mind reading more books by Gene Luen Yang. The stories were rather simple in the beginning, but they became more difficult as the reader continued on and found out all of them were related. There was some foreshadowing in this novel and I feel it teaches some great morals.

I did not feel the same about Naruto. I did not personally like any of the characters, so I felt disconnected from the reading. All of the characters were fighting for power, but none of them were likeable. I feel that this story started out more complex and then became easier to understand as the reader continued. I feel the material in this novel was more sexually explicit.

I enjoyed getting the opportunity to read some graphic novels because they are not something I would have initially picked up for myself to read. I can see how they are addicting for students because they are so quick and fun to read.