The American Dream?: A Journey on Route 66 Discovering Dinosaur Statues, Muffler Men, and the Perfect Breakfast Burrito by Shing Yin Khor
Published by Zest Books (Tm) on August 6th 2019
ISBN: 154157852X
Pages: 160
Goodreads

The title of this book includes a question mark which clues readers into the fact that it will challenge traditional notions of the “American Dream.” The author of this graphic memoir, Shing Yin Khor, is an immigrant and artist from Malaysia who after living in Los Angeles for ten years sets out in 2016 to learn about the rest of America. She sets out on Route 66, the “Mother Road” she read about in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This memoir is just as much about the roadside attractions and the search for the “American Dream”, as it is about the author becoming comfortable in her own skin as an immigrant and an American. The eye-catching artwork in ink and watercolor formatted in a variety of sizes often taking up whole pages. This book will have wide appeal for readers who have just left high school and are looking to set their own path and begin their own journeys. 

Elizabeth Andersen, Librarian, Westbrook High School