Jason Shen, 17, wants to leave his small town in Canada and return to China, where he and his mother lived until four years ago. His white high-school teachers do not know how smart he is, and his classmates jeer at him. Driven to join the crowd of potheads, he bonds especially with his Native American classmate, Charles ("Chief"). Narrated in Jason's wry, first-person, present-tense narrative, Yee's slim novel packs in a lot. The story is comedic in scenes of Jason's cultural confusion and realistic about racism, both toward the immigrant kid and also within his own family (Jason's aunt thinks "those Native people are the worst"). Desperate after the police catch him buying drugs for his friends, Jason thinks of suicide, but he finds help in surprising places. The clipped dialogue perfectly echoes the contemporary scene, the harsh prejudice felt by both the new immigrant and the Native American, and their gripping friendship story.

Materials; directions for drawing people, animals, and objects; the difference between gag cartoons, comic strips, and comic books, plus a section on writing humor are all covered in this clear introduction to the art of cartooning. Though it may not answer all questions, the upbeat tone, creative exercises, and lots of example illustrations will inspire budding artists. Ind.

Seventeen-year-old Jason is having a hard time adjusting to life as a new Chinese immigrant in a small Ontario town. His parents have split, and he must work long hours in his mom's deli to help out. Lonely and disenfranchised, he's made no friends, save the potheads he gets stoned with, and is often the butt of school bullies' jokes. Then he meets Chief, a First Nations teen whose life is much harder than his own. When Jason is arrested for marijuana possession while making a buy from his dealer and Chief's sister dies from an overdose, the two loners lean on each other to make it through. Like other Orca Soundings titles, this novel discusses high-interest topics like drug use, racism and bullying at a comprehension level that is comfortable for reluctant readers. Yee, the author of several works for teen readers, employs a spare writing style that is well suited to this format. Interested readers may also enjoy his similarly themed short-story collection What Happened This Summer (2006). (Fiction. 12-14)

Gr 7-10 An immigrant from China, Jason, 17, struggles with his father's betrayal of his mother when he left her for another woman and the underlying sentiments of racism in a small Canadian town. Smoking pot is his way of coping, and, because of this habit, he finds himself with a new group of friends. While he is happy that some people have accepted him, he also feels that he has fallen in with the wrong crowd. The exception is Chief, a First Nations boy who can identify with some of what Jason experiences as a minority. They both must make life-altering decisions when Jason gets charged with drug trafficking and tragedy befalls Chief's family. While the book should be a draw for reluctant readers, the brevity of the story leaves little room for character development or resolution. Those looking for titles covering similar issues with a broader emotional range may prefer Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese (Roaring Brook, 2006) or An Na's A Step from Heaven (Front St., 2001). Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library