Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
YA Nonfiction

I loved Marjane's recounting of her life in Iran as the Shah was deposed and she discovered her own family's place in the puzzle of her country. Her black and white drawings are wonderful, especially when they became stylized like a design on the floor of a mosque. And her sense of humor helped me see her as a girl rather than a symbol. (I especially liked when she and her classmates played games with the veils they were ordered to wear, because they had no idea why they had to wear them.)

The book can also be heartwrenching, as when Marjane's classmate talks about the emptiness after her father's death, Marjane's realization that a neighbor's family was blown up during a bombing, and her struggles after her uncle is tortured and killed. We see young Marji grow from a young girl with hopes of being a prophet into a young woman who must leave her country to save her spirit.