This is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang.  It is a very attractive design.  I haven't seen this book at my local comic shop, but I have seen it at Barnes & Nobel in their graphic novel section.  I've picked it up a few times, flipped through it and put it back down.  I've come close to picking it up, but never quite did. 

I've read a lot of good reviews of this book lately so I decided to give it a try.  I realize that I've been mainly reading super hero comics, or if not superhero still comics put out by the bigger companies.  Years ago I hardly picked up a comic published by a major company.  It's not that I have any bias against a comic by whoever puts it out.  It was just at that time there were no comics put out by the big two (and the others right below them) that I cared about.  I was reading mainly the smaller independents and black & white comics.  I still love comics in black and white, I think it's a medium that gets the short shift by most comic books fans. 

I like super hero comics but there is so much more out there.  Stuff that I've been ignoring to an extent lately.  Comic books can do so much more than just show a fight between a hero and villain.  And this book proves it.

It's a great book.  He takes three different storylines and in the end makes them merge together and make sense.  What you might think is just a tale of a young boy of chinese parents trying to live and survive in American and what he goes through at school is so much more.  He adds elements of fantasy and humor that make this book one of a kind.