A Grown-Up Picture Book

We talked a little bit about how Marjane grows up in Persepolis, and how this story represents that general theme. But how about the book itself? I think it shows how we have grown up, in one aspect. We we were little, most of us heard bedtime stories or stories at a different time, and I'm guessing most of us loved it- I know I did. As we grew older we learned to read ourselves, and the books had fewer and fewer pictures. Now, I'm guessing, the books we read have no pictures at all, and our old picture books lie dusty in a corner. The last thing we ever expected (although some of us had probably heard about it) was to read a picture book in a college literature class. But that's exactly what we just did, in a way. And I'm thinking that, although some of us didn't realize it, we enjoyed being reminded of that piece of childhood. Oh, I know, graphic novels are a far cry from Winnie the Pooh or Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. But certain things remain the same. We still enjoy learning the faces of the characters we love, and seeing what they do and what that looks like. We love being welcomed into their world, a world that becomes our own. I think that's the important part of any book with pictures, whether it's for a 4-year-old or a 14-year-old: that they make you feel at home in that world and connected in a way that gets lost otherwise.