TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY by Kevin C. Pyle

copyright date: March 2012

primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up)

Despite the fact that the teacher in me sees so many lesson possibilities in Kevin C. Pyle’s graphic novel Take What You Can Carry, you should read it simply for the grace of its stories. 

The artwork is as striking as the stories it tells.  Using artwork in two different colors and styles, Pyle tells the stories of two teenage boys living years and miles apart.  And yet, he communicates the universality in their experiences. 

One boy is a Japanese American forced to move into an internment camp during WWII.  His family struggles to maintain their dignity and sense of peace under unbearable conditions.

The other is a rebellious boy with an attitude whose reckless behavior causes him to wind up in trouble with the law.  To make amends, he finds himself completing community service hours in the most unlikely place. 

I found myself reading and rereading pieces of these stories.  I am finding with graphic novels that there is always more beyond the surface story.  I wanted uncover the truth in the tales of these two boys.  Although there are two stories here, they really become one if you dig deep enough.

Take What You Can Carry tells a story I want to carry with me for a long time. 

Reading Threads:

Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick

Handbook for Boys by Walter Dean Myers

Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick

Thin Wood Walls by David Patneaude

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki