“Tall Water” is a beautifully illustrated, emotional graphic novel.

It follows Nimmi, who travels to Sri Lanka for the first time to meet the mother she hasn't seen since she was a baby. As she stays at the orphanage her mother works at, she learns about her family's past and about Sri Lana’s civil war.

The story is touching and sad, especially as it builds toward a tragic tsunami that strikes the coast.

Overall, “Tall Water” is a moving exploration of identity, loss, and connection — the novel will resonate with many readers.

This book wasn't what I expected. There were definitely a few missing elements to it, I feel like there could have been more details behind the drawings and the symbolism between the way the book started and ended. I would recommend this book to those who like history and those who like learning about real events.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a digital copy of this book for me to review.

"Tall Water" is a coming-of-age graphic novel that teaches readers about the importance of perspective, empathy, and bearing witness. Nimmi's family is separated by more than just distance as her parents were forced to take different paths during the Sri Lankan civil war. Having never met her mother and having maintained correspondence only through letters and awkward phone calls, Nimmi is reunited with her mom for the first time since she was just a baby and has to confront her emotions of being left behind.

The novel moves quickly and smoothly aided by the clear and beautifully illustrated pages. Unlike some graphic novels, the characters in "Tall Water" feel well developed and complex. While there were times I felt Nimmi's actions were a bit childish for an eighteen year old, the reasons behind her behavior felt realistic.

I would definitely read another of Sindu's books, and I'll be on the look out for more of Dion MBD's gorgeous work!

I enjoyed reading and learning about a place I have never been and a culture I know very little about. The family struggles however are a universal phenomenon and I feel the author handles it well.

3.5 and rounding up. One of the things I like best in graphic novels is gaining a deeper understanding of events and ideas. Tall Water did this both with the war in Sri Lanka and the devastating tsunami. As the emotion grew, I was fully engrossed in the story and the poignant art style. The pacing did feel a little abrupt at times and I wish we'd gotten to explore a little more into Nimmi's personal growth, but overall I liked this.

A heart wrenching and incredibly human depiction of civilians impacted by war and a natural disaster

This graphic novel was a masterpiece in storytelling. At the end, in the author’s letter, she says that the events of the book were based on experiences she and her friends and family had. Every moment of the story felt so real, I had no doubt that it was based on real experiences, even before reading that letter. I loved going on this journey with our main character, 17-year-old Nimmi. My biggest pet peeve when I read books about teenagers is usually that their actions and logic don’t make sense. Of course, from an outsider’s perspective a teen’s logic can be very skewed, but inside someone’s mind, they always have reasons for what they do. From the very first few pages of this book, though, I was struck by how fleshed out Nimmi’s character was. Sometimes I didn’t agree with her choices, but I could see exactly where she was coming from. Her anger, passion, fear, and sadness all made perfect sense to me.

The emotional impact of this graphic novel was intense. I didn’t know anything about the Sri Lankan Civil War before reading this. The depiction of war and natural disaster was so visceral that I am tearing up again just writing this review. It wasn’t gory necessarily, but the suffering came clearly through the pages. It was hard to see, but just like the tagline on the back cover says, you can’t and shouldn’t look away.

There was a tiny bit of wlw romance, and I liked how it was done. There wasn’t a lot of time spent building it up, but it also didn’t feel random. The mother-daughter relationship exploration was also well done. I did wish during a few moments that Nimmi’s Amma’s expression more clearly showed hesitation when she didn’t answer Nimmi’s questions, but the payoff of the reveals were good, so it wasn’t a big deal. The art told the story well enough, but there were just a few moments when the anatomy was off and that took me out of the immersion a little bit. Overall, it was an incredibly raw, realistic, and hopeful depiction of people trying to survive and find humanity during war. This is a very age-appropriate way to help highschoolers build empathy and activism for people going through global crises around the world.

Thank you to netGalley and HarperCollins for the eARC.

Tall Water follows the story of Nimmi as she takes life into her own hands to find out more about herself, her family, and her past by going to Sri Lanka with her father (more or less without his permission). This is part of her heritage, and she wants to feel a better sense of belonging than the life she is living back home in the United States.
This coming of age story is intense and deep, not shying away from the realities of coming to a war torn country that has a deep complicated situation embroiled in it. Having not known a lot of what was going on in Sri Lanka and the civil war that was erupting during that time, it was a huge eye opener on how isolated people would feel once they left these kinds of situations, and how easy it is for others to not care if they or their loved ones were not the ones in danger.
This graphic novel is well written, drawn, and the story it tells is one of love, heartbreak, war, and circumstance can help us feel more connected to the people in our own world.

Tall Water is heartbreaking but also quite tender at times. As Nimmi navigates her feelings around a mother she's never met before, we also see her genuine connection to others around her, from caring for the children her mother watches over, to the budding relationship formed with Sheila, who was initially her guide. I found myself quite invested in Nimmi's connection to her heritage, her parents, and curious how she would navigate her return to America after her time in Sri Lanka. I would certainly read a follow up if ever there was one, and would've loved more development between Nimmi and Sheila, and Nimmi and her mother. The story does not shy away from the horrors of both war and natural disaster, and might be very eye opening for some readers. I thought the art was an effective balance of soft and detailed, able to express connection, fear, and hardship, though I did find the illustration style of the young children a little confusing/off-putting. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the opening pages; Like a still frame from an animation, the images of winged Nimmi portray such a strong sense of movement and atmosphere.

Tall Water was such a beautiful emotional read. A coming of age story that explores reconnection with one's family and homeland through the lens of a natural disaster and a civil war. Though the story deals with heavy topics, it is a book that feels full of love and hope. A really interesting YA graphic novel!

Nimmi has seemingly always felt out of place at home, at school, and in herself. Having so much uncertainty as a backdrop to her life is such a driving force within Nimmi's overall arc in finding all of the truths she can. She wants to discover where she belongs, where she came from, who her mother is--all of her answers are found within her time in Sri Lanka. Told through vibrant, detail oriented art, Tall Water explores the complexities of impossible decisions and circumstances, as well as how those specifics are difficult to process even with explanation. Nimmi finding out why her relationship with her mother unfolded how it did doesn't make it any easier to comprehend. Even in her sleep, Nimmi yearned for authentic connection with her mother and their arc together felt really grounded.

There were points where Nimmi's dialogue and behaviors felt a bit too immature for her age, but she is charting such incomprehensible circumstances so reverting to childlike behaviors is believable in a way. I appreciated the duality of the reality of war and the propaganda that's spewed about it. This graphic novel's greatest asset is delving into the actuality of war through the lens of an outsider seeing it for the first time. Nimmi's learning facets when the audience is and I have no doubt that readers will not only want to learn more about Sri Lanka but also themselves in the end.

What a beautiful book. The artwork was stunning. Set in Sri Lanka during the 2004 Tsunami, this is a heart wrenching story about what happens to family during war and natural disasters. It was a sad yet also heartwarming story.

In Tall Water, 16 year old Nimmi desires to have a relationship with her mother, The problem is, Nimmi's mother is in war-torn Sri Lanka and her overprotective father refuses to allow Nimmi to visit. However, Nimmi is stubborn and knows she must find a way! In addition to her relationship challenges with her family, Nimmi also develops and deals with relationships with other characters. I really love that the author allowed us to get to know and love several side characters over the course of the story. However, the book isn't entirely focused on relationships...a major disaster changes everything and Nimmi must grow and change and she helps with relief efforts.

Overall, I think that Tall Water is an important story and is very well written. I loved that although Nimmi was dealing with a lot in her personal life, she wound up also needing to deal with larger issues that impacted other people as well. This book has so many great characters in it and I think will really help draw readers into the story.

I know very little about Sri Lanka, and this book is set in the recent past with very specific political context with which I was not familiar. The illustrations are lush, and Nimmi's family story is complex and engaging. Her parents' relationship is something of a mystery to her, although we're never really told what she *thought* before the revelations in this book. Nimmi is forced to confront her assumptions about her mother and the region where she was born, since she left when she was a baby and has no firsthand memories of either before this story begins.

Perhaps it's a limitation of the medium, but there were a few places that felt a little rushed or incomplete. In part, that may have been a function of the art style, since the individual children in the orphanage Nimmi visits are hard to distinguish from one another visually. All of my comments are quite small, though I did have some questions that makes me wonder about how someone with greater knowledge of the region would interpret certain choices that were made here.

The core relationships were beautiful, though, and I'm going to have to look more into the history now. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this beautiful book before its release.

Tall Water is a graphic novel about a Nimmi, a Tamil American who longs for her mother. Growing up in the US with her father, Nimmi hasn’t seen her mother for over 16 years. Through a physical and personal journey, Nimmi is reunited with her mother. But how can Nimmi begin to understand the mother who abandoned her yet is raising children in an orphanage? 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Tall Water!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for me to review!

The art is GORGEOUUUUUUS in this one!! Great colour palette throughout, with soft art that gave me Studio Ghibli vibes. There are some serious themes alongside one girl's search for meaning in her mother's distance and also a side foray into her own queer identity, all told around a devastating tsunami. Realistic without being overly graphic.

I loved it!! Beautiful work all around.

This was a carefully researched and beautifully illustrated documentation of events in Sri Lanka both before and after the tsunami that devastated South Pacific countries in 2004. The characters were complex, and the story took a careful look at journalism, telling one's own truth, and the tragedy of war and disaster in Sri Lanka. I was drawn in by the beautiful drawings, and though I wished this book was longer because there is so much story to be told, I am so glad the author chose to focus on one family and their dynamics.

I hope to read more by SJ Sindu, she is a very talented author. I recommend this book for schools and libraries.

5 stars

I absolutely love Sindu's writing, but based on what I've encountered so far, I did not anticipate a YA graphic novel. This - though serious in its themes - was a pleasure to encounter.

Nimmi is in her teens and facing the impending challenge of college admissions, a birthday, and a reminder that her mom is more distant (in all ways) than she'd like. She's determined to get to know her mother, who lives in Sri Lanka (Nimmi does not), and she takes drastic measures to try to make that happen.

The book is set in the thick of violence, and Sindu does not shy away from this. The depictions are appropriate for older teen readers, but they are there, so I'd suggest a quick content check for all prospective readers simply to make sure they're in the right headspace to encounter all of this. There are scenes of war-related violence and Mother Nature's wrath, and both reflect reality, difficult as they may be.

I really appreciate a book that not only comes through with engaging characters and plotting but also that has a lot to offer in a cultural and historical context that will be new to many. I'm looking forward to sharing this one with students (and recommend it highly to prospective readers of all kinds) for many reasons.

This was absolutely gorgeous! I had a beautiful time with this and it was such a hard time putting it down. I adored this story and will be checking out this author again

Tall Water was a beautiful story that takes place in the days before and after the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka. Nimmi is a strong lead who is looking to find her direction in life as she prepares to go to college but also wishes to meet the mother she never knew. I loved being able to learn more about the civil war that occurred in Sri Lanka.

I found the growth between Nimmi and her mother to be moving and I loved how it contrasted where her mother work.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Tall Water by SJ Sindu and illustrated by Dion MBD is a YA graphic novel with light speculative elements exploring the Sri Lankan civil war through a biracial teen’s return to her home country. Nimmi is a high school senior aspiring to follow in her parents’ footsteps and become a journalist. Her passion for the conflict in Sri Lanka has made her butt heads with school officials and contributed to her feeling isolated. When her father’s press access to Sri Lanka is finally reinstated, Nimmi takes the chance to finally see her mother again and return to the place she was born.

Before picking this up, I was not only unaware that Sri Lanka had a civil war so recently (the conflict ended in 2009), but that it was so violent and that it had lasted 26 years. I was also unaware of the December 26th, 2004 tsunami that impacted half a million people. I love it when kidlit explores historical conflicts, especially more recent ones that many people might be too young to have been aware of or that never really got talked about on the news, because it is so important for us to know our history so we can make more informed decisions when we want to contribute to activism to help mend the harm done. SJ Sindu and Dion MBD do not shy away from the realities of the civil war and there are depictions of violence, discrimination against Tamil people, families being torn apart, and death, but it was what happened. Those stories deserve space.

The main thrust of the story is the complex relationship between Nimmi and her parents. Her father is a white American who met her Tamil Sri Lankan mother eighteen years before and the two formed a romantic relationship but never married. This made it exceedingly difficult for Nimmi’s mother to get a visa after Andrew and Nimmi came to the US when Nimmi was a baby (with Nimmi’s mother’s full knowledge and permission). Nimmi’s contact with her mother is limited by the technology at the time (2004) and the complications created by the civil war. While it is frustrating that Nimmi’s father was very resistant to bringing Nimmi to Sri Lanka when his press pass was reinstated, you learn very quickly why he was concerned and that he has no hard feelings towards his sort-of life partner (it’s complicated. It’s never stated if they are still in a relationship but given that the two are still single and their reunion, it’s possible that they are still emotionally committed to each other).

The art uses a lot of soft colors and a more limited color palette, which makes red really stand out every time it’s on the page. I think that was such a smart choice because I was shocked at how vivid blood was and the red of the Red Cross, which one of the characters is a member of. Red is the color of violence, but it’s also the color of an organization that SJ Sindu says has done a lot of good in Sri Lanka. Dion MBD’s use of color and color theory makes for a beautiful book and helps push the complex themes forward.

Content warning for death, emaciated children, violence, and racism

I would recommend this to fans of works with biracial leads exploring their heritage and fans of YA graphic novels looking for works focused on recent conflicts