Age 16
Description
Best Books of the Year, The Globe and Mail
Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2024, Ms. magazine
A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about how mothers and daughters pass down鈥攁nd rebel against鈥攕tandards of size, gender, race, beauty, and worth.
Guangdong, 1954 Sixteen-year-old Mei Laan longs for a future of freedom, and her beauty may be the key to getting it. Can an arranged marriage in Hong Kong be the answer to all her problems?
Hong Kong, 1972 Sixteen-year-old Lydia wants nothing more than to dance and to gain approval from her mother, who is largely absent and sharply critical, especially about the way she looks. Maybe her way to happiness is starting over in Toronto?
Toronto, 2000 Sixteen-year-old Roz is grappling with who she wants to be in the world. The only thing she is certain of is that if she were thinner, things would be better. How can she start living her life, instead of just photographing it?
When Roz鈥檚 estranged por por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, three generations are now under one roof. Delicate relationships are suddenly upended, and long-suppressed family secrets begin to surface.
Award-winning creator of Living With Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before, and affect those that come after.
鈥淢oving and emotional.鈥� 鈥擵ictoria Ying, Harvey Award鈥搘inning author of Hungry Ghost
鈥�Crucial.鈥� 鈥擠eb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
鈥�Beautiful.鈥� 鈥擣iona Smyth, illustrator of Sex Is a Funny Word
Content Warning: body image, disordered eating.
Reviews
鈥淎GE 16 is a needed reminder that we are all echoes from wartimes and generations past, a crucial addition to the AAPI graphic memoir collective. Painful but kind, holistic without stretching too thin, this book will live in my head for a long time.鈥�
- Deb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
鈥淎GE 16 tells a modern teenage story鈥攖he anxieties and joys of friendship, prom dresses, and university applications鈥攚hile being grounded in a complex, compelling intergenerational narrative that spans decades and continents. Rosena Fung鈥檚 energetic cartooning brings this emotionally powerful tale to life. Layered, thoughtful, and important, but also a sheer delight to read: I can鈥檛 praise AGE 16 enough!鈥�
- Andrew Woodrow-Butcher, The Beguiling Books & Art
鈥淸A] moving and emotional graphic novel [that] shows us how our history can come to define us, and how we can choose to change.鈥�
- Victoria Ying, Harvey Award鈥搘inning author of Hungry Ghost
鈥淭his beautiful triple-timeline story will top critics' lists, and young adults' bedside reading piles!鈥�
- Fiona Smyth, illustrator of the Stonewall Honor Book Sex Is a Funny Word
鈥淩osena artfully captures the pain and joy of this age. From beginning to end, this story is just brimming with heart.鈥�
- Tillie Walden, author of Spinning
鈥淎n absolutely brilliant exploration of intergenerational trauma, body image, and the struggle to find out who you are. It鈥檚 poignant and profound but also full of delightful offbeat humor. I no sooner finished reading Age 16, then I turned back and read it twice more.鈥�
- Jeffrey Canton, Children鈥檚 Book columnist, The Globe and Mail
鈥淸T]he emotional weight of each of the teens鈥� lives at a tender age is captured with authenticity and realism . . . Getting to see three lives unfold in different locations and times is a gift Fung eloquently unwraps in this graphic novel that increases the visibility of AAPI stories in books for teens.鈥�
- School Library Journal, 05/24
鈥淸A] poignant tale of generational strife, rebellion, and self-acceptance.鈥�
- Publishers Weekly, *starred review, 04/18/24
鈥淎n affecting story of family estrangement, body shaming, and the journey to self-acceptance.鈥�
- Kirkus Reviews, 04/15/24
鈥淚n creating empathic art, Fung alchemizes painful personal history into an empowering homage 鈥榯o help us realize we鈥檙e already who we鈥檙e supposed to be.鈥欌��
- Booklist, 05/01/24
鈥淲ith its unique multigenerational approach, Age 16 expertly tackles perceptions of weight, self-worth and parental conflict.鈥�
- BookPage, *starred review, 07/24