December 13, 2010
It would perhaps be asking too much for a biography of the 14th Dalai Lama, divinely appointed leader of Tibet, to treat its subject with a skeptical eye, particularly when it's obviously being written from a teach-the-children perspective. Any sense of skeptical inquiry is resolutely not what writer/illustrator Saiwai (an educational Manga artist and puppeteer) is up to in this brisk and action-packed overview of the Dalai Lama's life. Starting in calamity in 1939 with the passing of the 13th Dalai Lama and the locating of his reincarnation in two-year-old Tenzin Gyatso, Saiwai moves quickly through the major signposts of Tenzin's life. Drama is cranked to the max, with bellowing mouths and frequent exclamations of rage or despair as the ancient mountain kingdom of Tibet falls to the crushing dictatorial oppression of Mao's China. Eventually it is revealed that the story is styled mostly as an autobiographical speech delivered by Tenzin to an adoring multinational crowd. While Tenzin's life is inarguably one of great faith, determination, and generosity, Tetsu's lack of perspective ultimately works to flatten, not enhance, the story.
October 15, 2010
Grades 7-12 Saiwai, a manga artist known for his treatments of educational topics, turns his pen to the fourteenth Dalai Lama, whose struggles to free Tibet from Chinese rule earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The gripping story, illuminating the atrocities of the Chinese takeover, is told from the Dalai Lamas point of view and makes the holy leader seem all too human. Saiwai ends his clearly drawn tale with the beginning of the holy mans exile in India and ties things together with an epilogue. There is a bibliography, but a character guide would have helped to keep the many monks straight in readers minds. Though this story isnt quite a complete biographyand though manga purists might object to Penguins decision to publish it in a left-to-right formatit nevertheless makes a nice addition to school and public library collections. Readers, especially teenagers, will wonder what they would have done if they had such power and responsibility thrust upon them at such a young age.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)