Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children's Books, Blazer and Bray, and NetGalley for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao with color and art assistance by WeiWei Xu

Gao has crafted a lighthearted and deeply insightful graphic memoir that will resonate with readers for a lifetime. Evolving from a web-comic titled, "The Wuhan I Know", that addresses anti-Asian racism and Wuhan, she narrates her coming of age story immigrating from China to Texas at the young age of four. She navigates the struggles of family life, school life, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic as a daughter of Chinese immigrants, a queer person, and a Wuhanese American, sharing her perspective about the Wuhan that no one talks about.

The warm color palette, with a balance of light and shadow, blends in with the speech bubbles and captions to capture the nostalgic mood while still being in the present moment and to tug the reader's heartstrings. From Chinese culture to pop culture references, these add significant touches to the illustrations to build up the characters' growth, personalities, and values throughout the narrative. What I love most of all was the emphasis of names and how they can bring up thoughtful discussions about identity and celebrating where we come from.

It was an absolute pleasure to read a graphic memoir with so much heart and reflection.

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao is an autobiographical graphic novel currently scheduled for release on March 8 2022.

After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name. Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Messy Roots is a skillfully drawn and written autobiography. The struggles are unique to the author, as everyone's specific circumstances and takes on life are, but still relatable to a wide range of readers. I did find the time jumping slightly confusing or jarring on occasion, but that is honestly the only complaint I have about this book. I love learning about other peoples experiences and perspectives, and this book let me get a glimpse at moments I have never experienced while also capturing some of the family dynamic issues that I have felt. She captures her struggles with identity and fitting in with insight and humor, acknowledging her own missteps and misunderstandings and showing how she and her perceptions changed and grew. The honesty and ability not to take herself too seriously made the read especially engaging. I enjoyed her storytelling and was invested in her story, and look forward to seeing her do wonderful things in the future.

Messy Roots is a wonderful read for middle grade and older readers. I think it would be a great discussion starter for families or classrooms.

This graphic memoir is excellent! Laura's story spans from early childhood into young adulthood. Readers will follow her as she deals with changing schools, trying to fit in, coming out, and attempting to meet her parents' expectations. Part of Laura's story also touch on the hatred that has been shown to Asian Americans throughout the pandemic.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of this to review! Graphic novel is definitely my preferred format for consuming nonfiction, and this just shows you why! Gao seamlessly weaves this memoir about her life, hitting all of the right emotional notes. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll definitely relate to many of the moments Gao has growing up.

The art style in this also lends itself well to the story. There are some absolutely gorgeous landscape panels, but there are also extremely emotive panels, too. The writing and the art seem to go hand in hand, crafting a memoir fully showing Gao's experiences as a Chinese immigrant in the United States. I also enjoyed the way that Gao put various pop culture references throughout; one of my favorites was the sequence when they go to college. It hits on her experience as an immigrant, but puts a unique spin on it.

Putting the end in the context of the COVID pandemic also shows what many Asian Americans have been going through since the pandemic started. Especially in 2020, when no one really knew what was happening. Gao's conversations with their parents were emotional and realistic, as everyone feared for one another. 100%, I think this should be in all libraries so those that haven't had to go through these experiences can better understand them.

All in all, this graphic novel was well paced, well illustrated, and well written. If you're looking for something along the lines of Almost American Girl by Robin Ha, this is definitely a great one to pick up!

This was such a great graphic novel! I loved the art style and the story was really interesting too, especially seeing the author grow up and try to understand the different parts of herself. I really recommend it!!

This is a must read. I like many other Americans had never heard of wuhan until the corona virus but our ignorance should never have led to the racism that has happened. I can’t imagine what it’s been like and continues to be like for Asian Americans. This graphic novel highlights what its been like and showcases how us white Americans need to do more. Please read this when it’s published

This book is so so so funny, smart, and beautifully drawn. I read it, and my 11 and 9 year olds read it. We all loved it, and laughed out loud. We recognized our Asian American selves in it. Laura Gao does a great job of telling the story of her life while also teaching you about what it means to be Asian American. It begins with ping pong, talks about food, and portrays the challenges and joys of family. It also chronicles what it means to be from Wuhan during a pandemic that is portrayed as the "Chinese virus." I couldn't love this book more. Highly recommend.

Thank you to the Balzer + Bray and NetGalley for the advanced electronic copy of this book. This graphic memoir describes the author’s coming of age immigrant story with major focus on family and friendships. It reminded me of another graphic memoir, “I Was Their American Dream.” I also enjoyed the art style, which enhanced the reading.

Thank you Harper Collins Children's Books, Balzer and Bray for this important non-fiction graphic novel.
I enjoyed reading the digital review copy and learning about the Wuhanese American immigrant experience.

Messy Roots is delightful. Laura Gao truly demonstrates what it is to be a Wuhanese American, which is the whole point of her memoir. It is truly a beautifully written memoir that can make people learned more of the messy roots of one itself, specifically, if you’re in a place that doesn’t feel like home and you think that you have to make it work. It brings an entire conversation of acceptance and being at peace with who we are, who we are meant to be, what do we want to call home and when is it time for it to come? It goes straight ahead to how can I make my roots work for myself and less for others? I can keep going.

(not publishing post until February 8, 2022)
Publication date: March 8, 2022

My Thoughts:

Messy Roots is a funny, self-deprecating coming of age and coming out memoir of Chinese immigrant, queer, Wuhanese American Laura Gao. Born in the idyllic countryside in Wuhan, "Laura" and her family move to Texas where she literally is the unctious stinky tofu in a land of McDonaldʻs french fries.

Gao does a great job in her memoir of being both a timeless story as well as a timely story. For example, she has the typical immigrant experience of moving from Asia to the heart of America, where even in Texas there are a few Asians in her school, but none of them from Wuhan. She takes on a more American name, plays sports at school (basketball), realizes that she likes girls and comes out to some of her friends and her brother, all the while being afraid to disappoint her parents. That part of her story is timeless.

But when COVID-19 hits, Wuhan and being from Wuhan, even looking Asian becomes a traumatic experience for Asian Americans, and Gao does not shy away from that timely story in this memoir. I appreciate how this soon to be released graphic memoir does not shy away from the difficulty, nor does it show Gao as a victim, but as a strong, resilient artist.

From the Publisher:
After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.

In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for letting me read the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I want to say first that I really appreciate the author's courage in sharing their story of growing up. Clearly, it wasn't easy. This graphic novel is a touching story of a child growing up in a world where they struggle with feeling out of place and unaccepted. They often struggle with their identity, and even their father tells them to blend in with the majority over and over again. Their journey of learning to accept themselves for who they are and where they come from is absolutely powerful. The illustrations fit the graphic novel, often changing in color to fit the mood of the scene. It makes the graphic novel that much more impactful.

Overall, I couldn't put this one down until I finished it. It was a huge eye-opener for me, having never experienced a life like theirs. I can't wait to get this title in my library and share it with the community!

What an amazing graphic novel! I strongly believe it will speak to so many young adults who are working to understand their multiple identities. Messy Roots tells the autobiographical story of Laura Gao. Laura's hometown is Wuhan, China. At a young age, she immigrated to America and spent her middle and high school years in a Texas suburb. Her beautiful artwork and story show her navigating feelings of being an outsider and finding acceptance in new friendships. Her memoir is extremely timely and important due to the rise of hate speech and crimes against Chinese Americans due to COVID-19. Her story also showcases her experiences with parental expectations, anxiety, microaggressions, and being queer.

An amazingly developed and thoughtful story, well worth sharing. This book is an example of how the graphic novel can be used to explore experience and personal story.

This is a fabulous memoir of Gao's childhood and early adult years in the US and going back to visit her family in Wuhan. It's right up there with the best coming-of-age graphic novels, and it will be a wonderful addition to queer and Asian-American memoir. It certainly doesn't hurt that the art is beautiful, the vignettes are really striking, and the overall messaging is hopeful while still being grounded and realistic. And the overarching metaphor of the title is woven in so seamlessly and deeply that it'll stay with me for awhile.

This autobiographical graphic novel follows Laura Gao from childhood to 2020. The story starts in Laura's birth city of Wuhan, China (a city she adores) where she would play with her cousins and spend time with her grandparents. When she was about 4 her parents moved her to the United States. Settling in Texas, Laura felt like a total outsider. No one could pronounce her birth name and everyone teased her. This was when she decided to change her name to Laura. She was one of a handful of Asian students at her high school, and didn't really fit in with them. She was too white for the Asian kids and too Asian for the white kids. Once she made it to college she started to really come into herself - joining the Chinese Student Alliance, taking Mandarin classes to better communicate with her family back home, and even coming to realize that she's gay. Of course, being Wuhanese these past few years has been extremely difficult and interspersed throughout the book are experiences she's faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I really enjoyed this book. The book is oftentimes quite funny and the art matches the mood nicely. The only thing I knew about Wuhan before reading this was that it was the epicenter of COVID-19, so it was really nice to learn more about it and see it depicted in a positive light. It seems like a truly lovely city. I hope there are more books to come from Gao!

This book was a delight that I think is so necessary after recent global events. After the politicization of the pandemic which placed blame for its origins in Wuhan, China, there has been a global uptick in discrimination and violence against Asian people. In Gao's book, not only does she illustrate a more nuanced and less stereotyped Wuhan, but she conveys the difficulty of being at once a part of American society yet not truly. In this often funny and witty graphic novel, the reader watches Gao grow up dealing with common challenges for immigrants in American society. While I feel informed about most of the experiences she's gone through, I appreciated the format, the illustrations, the humor, and the honesty in this piece. It would be a great piece to house on my shelves at school.

This book…

Golly, is it amazing. Laura Gao is such a talent! It’s a charming, poignant story told in such a beautiful way. Laura is honest and vulnerable as she tells us about her experiences growing up in Texas, exploring her sexuality, and figuring out just who she is. And not how others want to perceive her..

I can’t recommend this book enough! It’s absolutely on the top of my favorite books of 2022.

A charming and earnest debut graphic novel, Laura Gao's Messy Roots tells the story of Gao's life from childhood in China to adolescence and adulthood in the US. Weiwei Xu's coloring is spectacular and adds atmosphere to Gao's clean lines. This would be a great addition to a classroom as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel memoir and I think many others will as well. It's funny, poignant, and uplifting. I will definitely recommend it for my school library as I know many students will be able to identify with the main character. For those that don't, it will provide them with a much needed window to learn about the experiences of others and develop empathy.