Unaccompanied
By Tracy White
Black & white YA nonfiction graphic novel docu-comic about seeking asylum
Street Noise Books, June 20, 2023; 168 pages
Subrights Info
- Translation rights available via Street Noise Books
- UK/ANZ rights available via Street Noise Books
- Film/TV rights available via Janna Co.
- Merchandising and commercial rights available via Janna Co.
Life at home is so unbearable that these kids will risk their lives and face colossal challenges to escape to the United States and find safety. This book tells the true stories of five brave teens fleeing their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guinea, on their own, traveling through unknown and unfriendly places, and ultimately crossing into the US to find refuge and seek asylum. Based on extensive interviews with teen refugees, lawyers, caseworkers, and activists, Tracy White shines a light on five individual kids from among the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who enter the US each year. In stark black and white illustrations, she helps us understand why some young people would literally risk their lives to seek safety in the US. Each one of them has been backed into a corner where emigration to the US seems like their only hope.
Reviews
“Spare, striking, black-and-white illustrations portray five teens fleeing dangerous situations and making hazardous journeys to the U.S. . . . This fast-paced, relatable work is informative and enlightening, treating its subjects with respect. Powerful text and images honor young people’s suffering and strength.”
This book might appeal to fans of When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohammed and Victoria Jamieson, Unwanted: Stories of Syrian Refugees by Don Brown, The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario.
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Author Bio
Tracy White began publishing her work for young adults online in 1996. She is an adjunct professor teaching comics at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently writing and drawing about the “everyday” things that teens experience, using her storytelling to bring people together through the sharing of common emotions. Her autobiographical series Traced was twice nominated for a best web comic Ignatz, and became a TV series for Oxygen. Her book How I Made it to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story (Roaring Brook Press, 2010) was on YALSA’s Great Graphic Novel for Teens list, ALA’s list of recommended graphic novels for teens, and was a Bank Street Best Children’s Book and a CCBC choice in 2011. How I Made it to Eighteen is used in school curriculums and at mental health facilities as a narrative medicine tool. Tracy also conducts workshops in libraries and schools for tweens and teens on how to tell their own stories. Tracy is a native New Yorker. She is married and still lives in New York with her husband, three children and three cats. She eats three squares of very dark chocolate every day, and likes odd numbers. Visit Tracy at https://www.traced.com/workshops/.
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