Big Apple Diaries

by Alyssa Bermudez, Alyssa Bermudez (Illustrator)

Overview

In Big Apple Diaries, a heartfelt diary-style graphic memoir by Alyssa Bermudez, a young New Yorker doodles her way through middle school—until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack leaves her wondering if she can ever be a kid again.

It’s the year 2000 in New York City. For 12-year old Alyssa, a biracial Puerto Rican girl, this means all kinds of new challenges: splitting time between her dad's apartment in Manhattan and her mom's new place in Queens, navigating the ups and downs of middle school, harboring an epic crush on a new classmate, and figuring out how to be a "real" Puerto Rican. The only way to make sense of it all is to write and draw her thoughts and worries into her diary.

Then life abruptly changes on September 11, 2001. After the Twin Towers fall and so many lives are lost, her concerns about gossip, crushes, and fashion feel distant and insignificant. Alyssa must find a new sense of self and purpose amidst all of the chaos, and find strength to move forward with hope. This moving graphic memoir is based on Alyssa Bermudez's own middle school diaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250774279
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/17/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,084,737
Product dimensions:	5.73(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.06(d)
Lexile:	GN650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Alyssa Bermudez is a born and bred New Yorker now living down under in Tasmania. She studied illustration and animation at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After spending many years working for magazines, agencies and schools as an art teacher, she moved across the world to Hobart, Tasmania where she works as a freelance author and illustrator. Her illustrations can be found in many books including the Lucia The Luchadora series and the Amelia Chamelia series.

Editorial Reviews

"Educators seeking firsthand accounts of 9/11 will want to share this with their students, while ­middle graders looking for an engrossing graphic novel in the vein of Raina ­Telgemeier’s or Shannon Hale’s work will be pleased." —School Library Journal

"An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy." —Kirkus Reviews

"Combining eye-catching layouts with frank vulnerability... Bermudez puts her whole heart on the page, and the love she holds for her younger self can be deeply felt in every entry." —Publisher's Weekly

"Big Apple Diaries is a beautiful snapshot of preteen life." —Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

07/01/2021

Gr 5–8—Bermudez relies on her middle school diaries to document life as a preteen in New York City during and shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Seventh grader Alyssa longs to be popular, frets about pimples, tries to attract the attention of her crush Alejandro, and strives for high grades so she can be accepted into a good Catholic high school and avoid disappointing her parents. Her family life causes her anxiety—her Puerto Rican father and her white mother are divorced and are reluctant to give her the social freedom she so desperately desires. Feeling torn between two homes and lives, she struggles to see herself as "fully" Puerto Rican or white, turning to drawing in her diary as an escape. Alyssa's life takes a turn in eighth grade, when the World Trade Center towers are attacked. Confused and scared, she suddenly faces an uncertain future. In her author's note, Bermudez mentions that she never wrote about 9/11 in her real diary at the time—she didn't process the events until she was an adult, and the tenderness of that experience is evident in her graphic memoir. Bermudez's illustrations are heartfelt and youthful, emphasizing her innocence and transition into young adulthood post-9/11. Stylized like funky doodles, illustrations rendered in shades of blue will appeal to younger readers without taking away from the serious undercurrent of the book. VERDICT Educators seeking firsthand accounts of 9/11 will want to share this with their students, while middle graders looking for an engrossing graphic novel in the vein of Raina Telgemeier's or Shannon Hale's work will be pleased.—Elise Martinez, Racine, WI

School Library Journal

2021-06-16
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.

Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.

An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)

Kirkus Reviews

06/21/2021

Bermudez (My Singing Nana) makes her solo debut with this humorous and sincere graphic novel memoir chronicling her middle school years in New York City. Drawing on her own childhood diaries, recollections with former classmates, and a friend’s “special 9/11 diary with poems, reflections, and news articles,” the telling opens on Sept. 7, 2000. It’s 11-year-old Alyssa’s first week of seventh grade at St. Ignatius, a Catholic school on 84th Street—the burgeoning artist struggles to balance schoolwork with hopes of popularity, and feels socially constrained by her parents’ rules. Utilizing a palette of blacks and blues, as well as lively, fully illustrated diary entries, Alyssa shares her interior life as a shy and artistic half–Puerto Rican, half-white tween with divorced parents. Entries include everything from lighthearted comedy (a disastrous eyebrow mishap) to nervous excitement (her first romance) and—most powerfully—poignant reflection (the aftermath of 9/11). Combining eye-catching layouts with frank vulnerability (“Tomorrow I will be in the vast unknown space of my future”), Bermudez puts her whole heart on the page, and the love she holds for her younger self can be deeply felt in every entry. Ages 8–12. Agent: Claire Easton, Painted Words. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly