
Written & illustrated by Emily Bowen Cohen
A girl seeks her identity by secretly visiting her estranged father.
Mia feels torn between her Jewish upbringing and her Muscogee heritage. Struggling to fit in at home and school, she secretly plans a journey to Oklahoma to reconnect with her father. Will this trip help Mia find the missing piece of herself, or will it create new challenges? Her quest for belonging and identity unfolds in a heartfelt graphic novel exploring the ties that bind us to our roots.
In her poignant debut graphic novel inspired by her own life, Emily Bowen Cohen embraces the complexity, meaning, and deep love that comes from being part of two vibrant tribes. Mia is still getting used to living with her mom and stepfather, and to the new role their Jewish identity plays in their home. Feeling out of place at home and at her Jewish day school, Mia finds herself thinking more and more about her Muscogee father, who lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Her mother doesn’t want to talk about him, but Mia can’t help but feel like she’s missing a part of herself without him in her life.Soon, Mia makes a plan to use the gifts from her bat mitzvah to take a bus to Oklahoma–without telling her mom–to visit her dad and find the connection to her Muscogee side she knows is just as important as her Jewish side.This graphic novel by Muscogee-Jewish writer and artist Emily Bowen Cohen is perfect for fans of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. It is published by Heartdrum, an imprint that centers stories about contemporary Indigenous young people.
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