Continental Drifter by Kathy MacLeod

4.11 AVERAGE

bigkidbookworm's profile picture

bigkidbookworm's review

5.0
emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

booksmellz's review against another edition

4.0
reflective medium-paced
With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. Most of the year she lives in Bangkok and goes to the International School. But then, during the summer, her family travels twenty-four hours straight to get to a tiny seaside town in Maine. Even though she looks forward to eating all the food she can’t get back home, Kathy doesn’t feel like she belongs with the New England kids either. Kathy just wants to find a place where she belongs.

This graphic memoir not only captures the uneasiness of being eleven, but also being a biracial/bicultural preteen at a summer camp. Kathy struggled with fitting in both in Bangkok, where she was too American and in Maine, where no one looked like her and she didn’t always understand the pop culture references. 

The art of this novel fit well for the audience as it was but simple but beautiful.

Overall, this graphic novel is perfect for those who may also feel like they just can’t fit in and those who set expectations high for an event (ex. Summer camp) and it falls short of what they thought.

Winner of Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Children’s Literature (2025)
alisong906's profile picture

alisong906's review against another edition

4.5
emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

bookwormgardens's review

4.5
emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

bookaunt's review

5.0
adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
msyoung72's profile picture

msyoung72's review

5.0
Thanks to #netgalley for an advanced reader copy! I'm always looking for high-interest books for my high school students. And when they have authentic biracial/bi-cultural/AAPI representation? Even better. This book was so good at illustrating (figuratively and literally) the struggle of biracial and bi-cultural children. As the parent of a biracial child, I try to find representation of this wherever I can. This book was funny, sad, frustrating, and beautiful. I just recommended it to our librarian for purchase.

karinreads's review

3.5
medium-paced

lehow's review

3.0
emotional reflective medium-paced

jennmonk's review

4.0
emotional inspiring medium-paced
kaitlyndana34's profile picture

kaitlyndana34's review

5.0
emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced