Annotation: The sense of loss when your best friend moves away can be heart-rending. Chunky Rice is a bitter sweet look at what happens when friends go their separate ways.
Justification for Nomination:
Before we begin, let’s identify the characters so what follows is slightly more clear.
Dramatis Persona:
Chunky Rice – Titular Turtle character who is moving away for reasons unknown
Dandel – Mouse like creature, Chunky’s best friend (or is it lover?)
Solomon – Human, weird roommate/landlord
Charles – Human, weird racist boat captain.
Livonia/Ruth – Weird conjoined twins traveling on the boat with Chunky
Chunky Rice and Dandel spend a lot of time together and have a great friendship/love for each other. Sadly all good things must come to an end, and Chunky must leave the town for greener pastures somewhere far away. Chunk offers Dandel the opportunity to come with, but Dandel declines for reasons unknown.
Solomon brings Chunky to the docks to charter passage across the sea on Charles’ ship. Though Charles and Solomon are brothers, Charles seems to hold ill feelings toward his younger brother, for reasons revealed later. While boarding, Charles expresses his disdain for Chunky’s Motown music by chucking it into the sea, and steals anything else of value. They begin traveling into the sea, where Chunky meets the other passengers, conjoined twins Livonia/Ruth.
During the voyage, we see that Dandel longs to be with Chunky as evidenced by the stream of “bottle letters” Dandel throws out to sea. We also get to see where Solomon and Charles had their falling out. Their cruel father forced Solomon to kill their dog’s puppies, which causes Charles to hate his brother. Later on, their father sends the dog out to sea, never to return. Charles naively believes his father’s story about how the sea took her. Solomon tries to make amends for killing the puppies later in life by befriending an injured bird, while Charles becomes devoted to the sea.
Chunky Continues his journey, forced by Charles to be free labor on their journey. Charles later opens up to Chunky, basically revealing that the sea is now his only friend.
I wavered on this one, because at first I couldn’t see how this work related to YA. But as I reflected further, this story tugged at my heart incessantly, nearly brining me to tears with each successive reading. This is a story about loss of friendship. It’s melancholy, and bitter-sweet. I noticed deep down, a few YA themes after several readings. Firstly, the characters are all pretty idealistic in their own way. Chunky Rice thinking that moving will be the answer(s) he/she is seeking. Solomon thinks that he can keep the ill bird, Merle, as his friend. Charles thinks the sea is the only friend he needs.
The story also explores a variety of relationships between friends and family, and delves into how all of those relationships are different. The story also captures uncertainty, in the sense that friendships are usually fleeting, and shows that even the best of friends may have to part ways some day. This element really hit home for me, having been on the Dandel side of things, with many of my friends moving away. I have also been on the Chunky side, being the one moving away and ending the friendship for my own growth.
This story really focuses on the value, and finite-ness of both friendship, and family relationships, and it’s a sad story that any teen who has had to move, or had their best friend move away would relate to, and that’s why I agree with the nomination of this story. It’s an intense, yet subtle emotional piece of work focusing on relationships, and loss.
Justification for Nomination:
Before we begin, let’s identify the characters so what follows is slightly more clear.
Dramatis Persona:
Chunky Rice – Titular Turtle character who is moving away for reasons unknown
Dandel – Mouse like creature, Chunky’s best friend (or is it lover?)
Solomon – Human, weird roommate/landlord
Charles – Human, weird racist boat captain.
Livonia/Ruth – Weird conjoined twins traveling on the boat with Chunky
Chunky Rice and Dandel spend a lot of time together and have a great friendship/love for each other. Sadly all good things must come to an end, and Chunky must leave the town for greener pastures somewhere far away. Chunk offers Dandel the opportunity to come with, but Dandel declines for reasons unknown.
Solomon brings Chunky to the docks to charter passage across the sea on Charles’ ship. Though Charles and Solomon are brothers, Charles seems to hold ill feelings toward his younger brother, for reasons revealed later. While boarding, Charles expresses his disdain for Chunky’s Motown music by chucking it into the sea, and steals anything else of value. They begin traveling into the sea, where Chunky meets the other passengers, conjoined twins Livonia/Ruth.
During the voyage, we see that Dandel longs to be with Chunky as evidenced by the stream of “bottle letters” Dandel throws out to sea. We also get to see where Solomon and Charles had their falling out. Their cruel father forced Solomon to kill their dog’s puppies, which causes Charles to hate his brother. Later on, their father sends the dog out to sea, never to return. Charles naively believes his father’s story about how the sea took her. Solomon tries to make amends for killing the puppies later in life by befriending an injured bird, while Charles becomes devoted to the sea.
Chunky Continues his journey, forced by Charles to be free labor on their journey. Charles later opens up to Chunky, basically revealing that the sea is now his only friend.
I wavered on this one, because at first I couldn’t see how this work related to YA. But as I reflected further, this story tugged at my heart incessantly, nearly brining me to tears with each successive reading. This is a story about loss of friendship. It’s melancholy, and bitter-sweet. I noticed deep down, a few YA themes after several readings. Firstly, the characters are all pretty idealistic in their own way. Chunky Rice thinking that moving will be the answer(s) he/she is seeking. Solomon thinks that he can keep the ill bird, Merle, as his friend. Charles thinks the sea is the only friend he needs.
The story also explores a variety of relationships between friends and family, and delves into how all of those relationships are different. The story also captures uncertainty, in the sense that friendships are usually fleeting, and shows that even the best of friends may have to part ways some day. This element really hit home for me, having been on the Dandel side of things, with many of my friends moving away. I have also been on the Chunky side, being the one moving away and ending the friendship for my own growth.
This story really focuses on the value, and finite-ness of both friendship, and family relationships, and it’s a sad story that any teen who has had to move, or had their best friend move away would relate to, and that’s why I agree with the nomination of this story. It’s an intense, yet subtle emotional piece of work focusing on relationships, and loss.
Suggestions for improvement: The only thing I would suggest is clarifying the characters and relationships. I think some of these though, may have been left vague on purpose.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Journey
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