The Magic Fish

Fairy tales meet contemporary coming out stories in this enchanting, heart-warming graphic novel. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen is going to be a great addition to collections everywhere this fall! I read an uncolored ARC from the publisher, but I an already tell it’s going to look stunning in full color.

Tein is a 13-year old Vietnamese-American boy struggling with his own sexuality and communicating with his mother, who came from Vietnam and has struggles of her own. They bond over fairy tales, stories that Tein reads aloud to her of princesses and magic fish and stories we recognize as Americans but with interesting twists and turns. This is, as the author says, a “small story” but it is poignant and touching and explores different cultures and how fairy tales cross culture and time and space. Some of the illustrations reminded me of Prince and the Dressmaker, my legit fave, so I loved to see that and think it’s going to be stellar in full color!

If you want a good, easy graphic novel that you’ll fall into, I cannot recommend this enough.

The Magic Fish is on sale wherever books are old October 13, 2020.