Age 16
Description
“Moving and emotional.” —Victoria Ying, Harvey Award–winning author of Hungry Ghost
“Crucial.” —Deb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
“Beautiful.” —Fiona Smyth, illustrator of Sex Is a Funny Word
A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about how mothers and daughters pass down—and rebel against—standards of size, gender, race, beauty, and worth.
Guangdong, 1954 Sixteen-year-old Mei Laan longs for a future of freedom, and her beauty may be the key to getting it. Can an arranged marriage in Hong Kong be the answer to all her problems?
Hong Kong, 1972 Sixteen-year-old Lydia wants nothing more than to dance and to gain approval from her mother, who is largely absent and sharply critical, especially about the way she looks. Maybe her way to happiness is starting over in Toronto?
Toronto, 2000 Sixteen-year-old Roz is grappling with who she wants to be in the world. The only thing she is certain of is that if she were thinner, things would be better. How can she start living her life, instead of just photographing it?
When Roz’s estranged por por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, three generations are now under one roof. Delicate relationships are suddenly upended, and long-suppressed family secrets begin to surface.
Award-winning creator of Living With Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before, and affect those that come after.
Content Warning: body image, disordered eating.
Reviews
“AGE 16 is a needed reminder that we are all echoes from wartimes and generations past, a crucial addition to the AAPI graphic memoir collective. Painful but kind, holistic without stretching too thin, this book will live in my head for a long time.”
- Deb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
“AGE 16 tells a modern teenage story—the anxieties and joys of friendship, prom dresses, and university applications—while being grounded in a complex, compelling intergenerational narrative that spans decades and continents. Rosena Fung’s energetic cartooning brings this emotionally powerful tale to life. Layered, thoughtful, and important, but also a sheer delight to read: I can’t praise AGE 16 enough!”
- Andrew Woodrow-Butcher, The Beguiling Books & Art
“[A] moving and emotional graphic novel [that] shows us how our history can come to define us, and how we can choose to change.”
- Victoria Ying, Harvey Award–winning author of Hungry Ghost
“This beautiful triple-timeline story will top critics' lists, and young adults' bedside reading piles!”
- Fiona Smyth, illustrator of the Stonewall Honor Book Sex Is a Funny Word
“Rosena artfully captures the pain and joy of this age. From beginning to end, this story is just brimming with heart.”
- Tillie Walden, author of Spinning
“An absolutely brilliant exploration of intergenerational trauma, body image, and the struggle to find out who you are. It’s poignant and profound but also full of delightful offbeat humor. I no sooner finished reading Age 16, then I turned back and read it twice more.”
- Jeffrey Canton, Children’s Book columnist, The Globe and Mail