whewtaewoon 's review for:

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

3.0

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I was assigned this book, and its partner Saints to read for my YA media class. I read the duo technically backwards, having read Saints then Boxers, but honestly it doesn't matter. To get a full understanding of the story, I highly recommend reading both stories, but I do not think it is at all necessary to read them in 'order' to understand them. This graphic novel is a historical fiction novel set during the Boxer Rebellion in China. The main character is Little Bao who becomes a leader of the Boxer Rebellion, and the story is told from a third person point of view. We are with Little Bao from the time he's a young child playing with teeth, to the time he's leading an attack on a Christan strong hold. In this story we get an interesting look at this rebellion from the point of view of the Chinese who saw Christians as evil. I thought this book was especially interesting as an American because we don't always get a look at ourself from the other side. While reading this book, I often felt that I understood why these rebels felt the way they did, and why the reacted the way they did. It also shows that neither side of this story is innocent. Both parties committed some pretty terrible acts, and Boxers doesn't try to hide that.
I read this book in just under an hour, and it was a very fun read. I highly recommend this book to everyone, but as I read this book in my YA class I want to stress that I think this is a great book for young readers. If you have reluctant readers I would suggest manga and graphic novels in general, but I really enjoyed this one.