| Title | : | Shake Girl |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401223362 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401223366 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2008 |
Shake Girl Reviews
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This may be hard to get your hands on, but it will be worth it. How many truly social justice-oriented books, let alone graphic literature, exist?! This is a story, based on interviews with a girl who sold shakes and ... just to not create spoilers for you... suffered, and the story needs to be read for sharing this international problem for women...but also, this book was produced by a group of graduate students, some of them talented artists, some.. learning, who collaboratively produce different aspects of this woman's story.... awesome school project, awesome literary/oral history/feminist project. I give it 5 stars for its conception and the story more than the art, which is uneven, naturally, but still very good...
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Shake Girl is a marvelous and moving piece of art; a humble story of a girl living in post-Khmer-Rouge-regime Cambodia. The story leads up to a bitter reality, before leaving us with a sense of hope. The artwork in the graphic novel is simple but speaks volumes. It is a heart-wrenching tale that affects the reader with a message that spreads farther than simply the source material.
The story is a quick read, with dialogue backed up by descriptive art. The drawings are lyrical and flow easily from panel to panel. The narrator speaks plainly. She is barely fourteen when the story starts, but already struggling to support her family. Through her eyes, we see Cambodia unfold in front of us; the good and the bad. She is a terribly beautiful character, and Johnson does a great job of showing us her beauty as well as the deep conflict of a society healing from genocide and massive corruption.
Shake Girl highlights the beauty of Cambodia, but never lets you forget about the corruption laid in the wake of the Khmer Rouge. Johnson makes it possible to comprehend. He doesn't lay blame, not on one person or on one thing. Recognizing that it is a multilayered problem brings his story into reality.
Shake Girl is unforgiving. One panel, one page, can instantly bring a reader down to the level of the narrator in her lowest moments or raise you up during her happiest day.
Shake Girl is profound, and anyone looking for a realistically emotional account of living in Cambodia during the 90’s should check this book out.
By Therese Lacson -
This is a tremendous read. The arranger/editor went on after this to win the Pulitzer. It's amazing that such a clear, but subtle story came through with so many different hands. I particularly enjoy the evocative cover. It's a quick read, and free online (as other reviewers have noted):
http://www.stanford.edu/group/cwstude...
Take a look! -
Fantastic, haunting, and deeply moving. It's available free online:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/cwstude... -
The novel follows shake girl coming of age as a young woman and "karaoke dancer" and her treatment at the hands of "Frankie," the rich and powerful man who at first seems the answer to a better life.Shake Girl herself is enthusiastic and imaginative, frequently slipping into hopeful musings that are represented visually in the book. In the early sections, Shake Girl's passion is wrapped up in dancing, and as she dances she pictures herself in fancy costumes.Shake Girl goes from a simple dress in one panel to elaborate dancing gear, complete with headdress and bangles, in the next. One of the most interesting visual moments in the book occurs when Shake Girl, having been imprisoned in a hotel room by her supposed lover, writes a letter and throws it out of her window in the form of a paper airplane. What makes the book so intresting and fun to read are the pictures and the way they are detailed.
