Starred Review Malaysia-born, LA-dwelling Khor introduces the "two Americas" that were their obsessions growing up: a Los Angeles "full of beautiful people and sunlight and open roads" where 10 years of living has also added "lots and lots and lots of traffic," and a landscape defined by Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, in which the Joad family desperately pursues the American Dream. Khor takes that "feeling of desperately searching for something better, for a new start," and adapts it to their own "pilgrimage" as immigrant and artist traveling historic Route 66 he part of America that my brain finds more American than anything else." Traversing from LA to Chicago in their 2010 Honda Fit will require their "tiny adventure dog," Bug, and the kindness of multiple friends and strangers en route, captured in whimsical full-color detail. The end-of-the-road realizations are (surprise!) not what they expected, but the rewards course! e many. What lingers longest is Khor's four-panel epilogue, revealing their trip was taken six months before the 2016 elections; in magnifier-necessary micro-font, the penultimate panel confesses, "This comic feels like a record of a time when a brown girl could drive America fearlessly." Khor, with Bug's support, refuses to "let those jerks keep us down" encouragement to all to also keep going.

Artist Khor recounts their spring 2016 road trip from Los Angeles to Chicago in this graphic memoir.Growing up in Malaysia, Khor knew two versions of America: "The first was Los Angeles, full of beautiful people and sunlight and open roads," and the other was the America in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, "filled with dusty roads and big hopes." After living in the States for 10 years, they and Bug, their "tiny adventure dog," embark on a journey along historic Route 66, hoping to better understand the American dream. Through bright, expressive watercolor illustrations, Khor portrays the memorable locations they pass through, including a former gold-mining town in Arizona where several Hollywood films were shot; Amarillo, Texas, which has become a haven for refugees; and kitschy attractions including dinosaur statues and the Blue Whale of Catoosa. They detail both the amusing (going to the bathroom outdoors) and emotional (loneliness and exhaustion) challenges of being a traveler. Khor's pilgrimage is as much an exploration of themself as it is of nostalgic Americana. Their travels inspire them to share insights into their path to atheism, their anger with xenophobia and racism—which are provoked when they find a motel labeled "American owned"—and the meaning of "home." Many of Khor's observations will resonate with those who have questioned national identity and the sense of belonging.An informative graphic travel journal that offers important perspectives on being an immigrant and American identity. (Graphic memoir. 12-18)