This book is the story of four young Tunisians (Saif, Aziz, Meriem, and Chayma) after the events of the Arab Spring, which took place in 2011. Two years after the “Jasmine Revolution,” Tunisia is unstable and facing economic hardship – taken from the back cover. As the situation becomes more severe and calls to activism in the streets

It’s always good to branch out and read/learn something new, and with this book, I learned a little. Not that the book didn’t give me more information, it’s that it gave me a lot of information, so much that I had trouble reading and comprehending what was being told to me. The book was translated from its original French, and the author included footnotes as the story went along. Now, I needed those footnotes since I knew nothing of the Revolution. But like I said, there were so many of these that I didn’t retain any of them.

As for the artwork, I thought it was very rudimentary, and it was tough to understand who was talking and where they were. I understand the author/illustrator may have wanted their graphics to be basic, but I felt these were too basic. The story would have been more engaging if I could understand or recognize who the people were that were talking.

I learned something about the Arab Spring, but sadly I did not retain it. With that said, I do want to know more, and I will be doing some of my own research. I picked this book up to see if it would be a good contender for my diversity graphic novels class for middle schoolers, but it is not. The language is coarse, and I genuinely do not think it would keep their attention.