Borders by Thomas King (Illustrated by Natasha Donovan)

Content Tags: Indigenous, Cultural Identity, Citizenship

Google Books: "From celebrated Indigenous author Thomas King and award-winning Métis artist Natasha Donovan comes a powerful graphic novel about a family caught between nations.

Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other. 

Borders explores nationhood from an Indigenous perspective and resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice, and belonging."

This is a short, but very impactful graphic novel about the impact Borders have on the people whose land was stolen to create those Borders. This is a quick read with beautiful images and a very important story and perspective being shared. 

Did this book remind you of any other books?

This book kind of reminded me of "They Called Us Enemy" by George Takei, another graphic novel. Although the stories aren't exactly the same, it had a similar feeling to me of the heartbreak of someone else assigning labels to you that aren't accurate to who you truly are based on their own fears, prejudices, or demands for power and control. I highly recommend reading both of these graphic novels.

What were your impressions on the author's style? 

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but the ones I've read have usually included text bubbles to describe actions whereas in this one the actions depicted in the artwork spoke for themselves. I liked that element to the story telling and imagery.