Family Style by Thien Pham (Level Up illustrator) is a moving, insightful graphic memoir that shares the Vietnamese refugee experience through food. At five years old, Thien Pham and his family fled Vietnam for Songkhla refugee camp in Thailand, where they waited for passage to the U.S. Pham doesn't remember much from that treacherous trip, but he does remember the rice ball his mother gave him. Pham's early life in the U.S. is recalled through the food he associates with the time, such as the potato chips that marked the day when his family became "officially American."
These food memories are cyclical, beginning with Vietnamese dishes, like bánh cuốn, then moving to American ones, like steak and potatoes, and returning to the rice and fish from his first memory, showing the influence of both cultures on Pham's life, but also the struggle of feeling in-between cultures. Pham's impactful text is paired with evocative digital woodblock-style illustrations in panels outlined with a thick black line and arranged like a storyboard. An enlightening and hopeful memoir. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader