Kampung Boy, by Lat.  First Second, New York, 2006.  978-1596431218 (First published in Malaysia in 1979.)

Summary: The story of a boy growing up on a rubber plantation in Malaysia, from birth to about age 12, when he leaves for boarding school.

Analysis: Delightful! All the random details of life are explained in a cheerful, childish scribble, while touching on larger world events (like the tin mine near their plantation and government-sponsored food at school) that the narrator is too young to know about yet. He happily (and occasionally not-so-happily) describes the food they eat, the various ways he and his friends catch fish, Arabic school and various Muslim lifecycle rituals, and trips into town.

Illustrations: Pen-and-ink cartoon drawings -- the style is cartoonish, but the layout is like a more standard picture book, with full-page scenes and text at the bottom. Adults and children are both drawn in a rounded, freehand style, with young children especially being resiliant, bouncy little balls. The book itself is small but longer than it is wide, evoking children's picture books rather than traditional comics.

Rating: 5Q/5P

Curricular connections: 5-7th grade unit on multicultural studies, or high-school unit on globalization or Southeast Asia. It has environmental themes as well, but they're touched on only briefly.

--SLH