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ENLIGHTEN ME

Chan Chau Minh Lê

Award-winning author Minh Lê and New York Times bestselling illustrator Chan Chau team up for a fun and enlightening middle grade graphic novel about one kid's journey to finding inner peace and belonging. Perfect for fans of Measuring Up and New Kid.
When Bình fights back against a bully who makes fun of his Vietnamese heritage, he expects to be cheered as the hero. He defeated the bad guy, right? Instead, it gets him a stern warning from his vice principal and worried parents. Now he's stuck on a family trip to a silent meditation retreat. That means no talking - and no video games! - for a whole weekend. Could things possibly get any worse? However, when a nun gathers all the kids to tell them the Jataka tales - the stories of the Buddha's many past lives - Bình takes a fantastical dive into his imagination and starts to see himself in these stories. Will he retreat further into himself, or will he emerge from the weekend open to change? With any luck, these next few days will prove more enlightening than he thought. Minh Lê is the author of The Blur, the Eisner-nominated Lift, Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), Green Lantern: Legacy, and more. He is also on the faculty of the Hamline University MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books, and has written for a number of national publications, including NPR, HuffPost, and the New York Times. Minh does not meditate as much as he should, but he does savor every moment of life with his wonderful wife and children at their home in San Diego. Chan Chau is a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. They are the artist of New York Times bestselling Baby-Sitter's Club graphic novel adaptations of Kristy and the Snobs and Jessi's Secret Language. Before this, they worked in animation and were featured in multiple award-winning anthologies. In their free time, they love to play video games, read manga, and spend quality time with their found family. They currently reside in Washington state.
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Published 2023-09-19 by Little Brown Ink

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The latest graphic novel from award-winning author Lê uses humor and a middle-school boy's imagination to connect the Buddha's life lessons with his present-day challenges. Chau's illustrations are rich with cultural details of the Buddhist oasis and the video game fantasy world that Binh imagines to help him understand the principles he learns at the retreat and, ultimately, conquer each of his real-life trials.

By visualizing these stories as games, Bình learns how to rely on his intellect, family, and community to navigate everyday challenges. Cinematic digital art by Chau (Jessie's Secret Language) renders pensive, autumnal mountain landscapes alongside action-packed 8-bit-style sequences using dynamic framing and movement. Read more...

Told through colorful, expressive art and video game-influenced storytelling, this graphic novel explores the value of friendship and the importance of community. Regardless of the reader's beliefs, concepts discussed here will be meaningful.

Lush artwork and inspired storytelling combine for an immersive tale about a young Vietnamese American boy's growing appreciation for Buddhism. Read more...

ENLIGHTEN ME is one of Amazon's Best Books of September an Indie Next Pick for September/October! on Kirkus's list of Fall's Essential Middle-Grade Books.

A thoughtful, humorous, community-centered exploration of identity and Buddhism. Read more...

In this sweet and surprisingly soothing comic, Siddhartha Gautama's path to enlightenment and the Jataka tales (fables connected to Buddha's prior forms) are made accessible by framing them through Binh's perspective, with some video-game allusions and nature imagery, talking animals, and spirits. Both readers who are unfamiliar with the religion and those who practice it will enjoy this refreshing, modern Buddhist primer.