I Remember Beirut by Ziena Abirached
This graphic novel is a recollection of the author's memories from living in Beirut as a child during the Lebanese War. This is a collection of memories illustrated in simple yet bold black and white drawings. It includes maps that help bring the memories to life by showing the overall setting and urban geography of where she and her family lived. Because there are many memories of daily life from how they shopped and went to school, and the limited movement they did, I got a very good sense of what life was like for them.
The optimism she observed in the adults around here despite their situation comes through and I could see how her situation was normalized in this way. I also found it interesting how one memory leads to another, from the man who drove the neighbourhood kids to the closest stop the bus would come to to his one very long fingernail (with the illustration showing one of the ways he used it) to Florence Griffith Joyner's fingernails. This book flows wonderfully, and I found it insightful.
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