"Kampung Boy" Reflection

Kampung Boy was such an entertaining and well written graphic novel.  The way it was written was for informational and amusing which made for a very easy read.  While reading this book I was able to connect to it in many ways because of the similarities of my childhood and of Lat's childhood.  There were of course some traditional differences like the age he started school compared to when I did, when he was sent away to grow up, having to go through classes to learn how to pray properly, and when he got circumcised, I'm a girl so I didn't have to worry about that but it's normal nowadays to have it done as a baby, and not when a boy has turned 10. 

When doing research on Malaysia last week I knew there were different religions within Malaysia, but what fascinated was how similar I viewed America with Malaysia.  Just the diversity in religion, population, and architecture is very common in both of these countries.  So, when I started this book I had my suspicion that I’d be able to relate to this book a lot, which I was able to.

Seeing how Lat’s mother reacted and treated Lat was spot on with how my mom treated me when I was growing up, and I’m sure it would be similar for most people.  The very protective mom who isn’t afraid to punish their child if need be is the kind of similarities I saw. 

This book definitely opened my eyes to the traditional differences of Muslims and of Christians and really makes me want to read more and research more about Muslims traditions and prayers.  Here in America we go to school to learn basic information to benefit our future, for Muslims, they go to school to learn how to properly pronounce words and correctly pray.  It’s so interesting to read about it. 

I loved how this book was written as an autobiography because it helps the reader relate to the author and also helps identify that the events that occurred are accurate and there is also a sense of personal memories portrayed.  Not many people can capture minute details about a person’s life unless they spend a lot of time and really open the person up.  So, having this book be about a real Muslim boy and his side of growing up made the book really enjoyable.  I, as a reader, was able to learn more about the Muslim religion in this book than I would’ve in a textbook.  Why?  Well, this book was entertaining and I was able to relate to it and I didn’t want to put it down, there was personality within the text and so what I read stuck with me.  In a textbook, it is strictly informational and not something that entertains or engages me so what I read usually goes in and then goes out, nothing sticks because I can’t relate to it.

Lat did a fantastic job retelling his childhood in this graphic novel.  This was my very first graphic novel, and it made me want to go read more because that’s how enjoyable it was!