WANDERING SON HC (2025)

"Shuichi and his friend Yoshino have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their 5th-grade classmates. But they share a secret that complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today's most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura portrays Shuishi and Yoshino's very private journey with affection, sensitivity, gentle humor. Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn."

"In the second volume of Shimura Takako's superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Both face tribulations and Shuichi in particular finds inner strength and courage he didn't know he had. A sophisticated work translated by comics scholar and veteran translator Matt Thorn, the Wandering Son series is Fantagraphics' second Manga offering and is presented in the authentic 'right-to-left' manga style."

"The third volume in this increasingly popular coming-of-age Manga series picks up the pace with laughs and tears aplenty. Our heroes, Shuichi and Yoshino, have their secret exposed, straining their friendship as they encounter the realities of being young and transgendered. Rendered with sensitivity and sophistication by artist Shimura Takato and translator Matt Thorn, the universality of emotions depicted in Wandering Son should appeal to all readers."

"The Wandering Son series has garnered extensive praise for its uniquely funny and sensitive treatment of the travails of two Japanese tweens who find themselves coping with the knotty issue of gender identification as they slowly realize that maybe they aren't who they were meant to be. In this latest volume, a love triangle develops along with its inevitable companions, jealousy and hate."

"From Fantagraphics Books. In the latest volume of the acclaimed series about transgendered kids exploring their unfolding identities, we've reached a big event; the junior high school entrance ceremony. The boys wear black uniforms with stand-up collars based on mid-19th century European military uniforms and the girls wear navy blazers, tan skirts, and red ribbon neckties. Enter our heroes; Nitori-kun is forced to wear a boy's uniform while Takatsuki-san has to wear a girl's! Yet one girl, 'Sarashia Chizuru', draws stares, whispers, and pointed fingers, because this long-haired beauty is wearing a boy's uniform. Both Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san are awed by the girl's courage, but Takatsuki-san is particularly vexed by their own faintheartedness. They envy more than a few other students who experience such liberty in wearing either uniform and ponder what it ultimately means about themselves. Envy and jealousy are prominent themes in Volume 5: Chiba-san is jealous of Takatsuki-san, for whom Nitori-kun still carries a torch. Maho envies Anna-chan's professionalism as a model. And Chii-chan's loyal sidekick, Shiri Momoko, is intensely jealous of anyone in whom Chii-chan shows the slightest interest. And so our protagonists set off on the journey to adolescence. Scheduled in stores 10/09/13. (96)"

"GENDER-BENDING ROMEO AND JULIET, AND THE LIMITS OF 'PASSING' Shimura Takako's sensitive and charming series about two middle schoolers wrestling with their gender identities continues, with more role-reversal play fun this time around. The success of their performance of The Rose of Versailles in the fifth grade - in which the boys played the women and the girls played the men - inspires our protagonists to put on another gender-bending play for the junior-high school festival. This time they do a riff on Romeo and Juliet, with generous helpings of fantasy and mystery. Nitori-kun and Chiba-san write the script together, but Chiba-san has an agenda: She wants to play Romeo, with Nitori-kun in the role of Juliet. But Nitori-kun wants Takatsuki-san to play Romeo... With her usual prickliness, Chiba-san forces Nitori-kun to confront a question he's been avoiding. Are his feelings for Takatsuki-san those of a boy for a girl, a girl for a girl, or a girl for a boy? But you know what they say of the best laid plans of mice and men: The cast is to be decided by fate, with names drawn randomly. Meanwhile, Maho plans a trip to the beach with her boyfriend, but her parents send Nitori-kun along as an unwillingly chaperone. Faced with unwanted changes to their growing bodies, Takatsuki-san discovers the wonders of 'breast binders,' and Nitori-kun explores the limits of his ability to 'pass.'"

"Shimura Takako's critically acclaimed Wandering Soncontinues to explore gender identity among its cast of middle school students in our 7th volume. Nitori-kun gets his first signs of acne and Chiba-san and Nitori-kun are scouted by the theater club after the success of their gender-bending play, The Rose of Versailles. This Manga series about two middle schoolers wrestling with their gender identities has struck a deep chord with readers all over the world."

"Fantagraphics' critically acclaimed manga about the tangled gender identities of adolescent's continues with Nitori-kun, a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino-san, a girl who wants to be a boy, finding the courage to go to school wearing a boy's uniform. Wandering Son has been hailed as one of the most enlightened treatments of gender identity in the history of comics. The eighth volume continues to explore the lives of its characters with insight and sensitivity."