Plot: A girl named Marjane, which escaped her home country of Iraq and moved to Austria. She had no family and no friends. She was only 14 when she left without any family. She left “A religious Iran for an open and secular Europe” (Satrapi 1). She was supposed to live with her mom’s best friend, but things went bad and she found her self living at a religious boarding school with no friends. Now she is stuck alone in an unfamiliar country and she misses her parents. All throughout this book, Marjane, finds herself getting into trouble and gets more and more depressed as it goes on. Another thing that was great about this book was that it has a lot of twists and turns that are much unexpected.

Commentary: I thought this book was the perfect sequel to its first book. It was great to see what it was like to live in Iraq during a time of war and depression. Marjane Satrapi, the author and the main character really goes deep in and explains what had happen to her in 8 years of her life. As I got deeper into the book, I learned a lot about life at that point in time. It was great to have the different emotions in different parts of the book. One part you will laugh and the next two pages, you will cry (well maybe not but you know where I m going…). So all and all, this was a fun book that I could read again. Oh and did I mention that it was all comic strips? Reviewed by Shaun in 2006

Plot: It isn’t really a true event, but it is as if the character in Iraq, fighting in the war. I hadn’t ever really heard of this genre, but just by its name I figured that I could define it. In this case, the war in Iraq is real, thus the realistic part, and the main character is false, thus the fiction half of the coin. This book wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be, and I wouldn’t call it a “good read”, but it’s not something that I wouldn’t recommend for someone. I gave this book a two out of four stars, so a 50% if you will. I gave this pretty low rating because I didn’t think that it was a very intriguing book. The book “The Long Road Home One Step At A Time” is about a guy named B.D. B.D. is a lieutenant in the army and he is leading his squad in Fallujah. While they are moving to their next destination via humvee, they are hit with RPG fire from the Iraqis. The humvee is demolished and B.D. is without a leg. One of his soldiers, A guy named Ray, keeps encouraging him to keep on fighting, and telling him that he won’t die today. He has to get taken away on a Med Chopper to come down and bing him to the nearest surgeons that aren’t on hostile territories. He’s not the only one to suffer from this loss.

Commentary: This is an alright story about how B.D. and his family trying to overcome adversity, and become reunited as a family. To me, if G.B. Trudeau had made this book longer and add in some of the things that happened before the RPG,(Rocket Propelled Grenade) then this book could’ve potentially scored an amazingly high score that is almost impossible to get; 4. Trudeau’s unique style of writing make this an almost awkward book to read at times. He tries to mix comedy with drama, which can work, but in this book not so much. Sam, his daughter, seems like she doesn’t really get what’s going on, yet she doesn’t really make any effort to understand. She’s always saying a really ridiculous thing that makes you laugh yet it’s right after something serious has happened. Ray is B.D.’s officer and he doesn’t really have that big of an impact, but at the same time this book wouldn’t happen without Ray. B.D. is a lieutenant and once he is back with people that are shooting at him, he turns into this pretty funny character. I saved the best for last in terms of characters; Zonk. Zonk is the “Nanny” of the house. I cant say that he does much around the house, but he sure does supply a laugh whenever he says something. He is always thinking in a box the size of a pebble. He never reaches outside that pebble. This book wasn’t phenomenal like some of the ones that I’ve read in the past, but I would still recommend it to people. This book didn’t really interest me that much, but it was a quick read so I was able to fly through it. Again, 2 out of four stars, but overall, not bad. Reviewed by James in 2007