Do you feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for your youth when you see the Back to School ads at the end of the summer? Once the temperatures start to cool I am always reminded of starting a new school year with fresh notebooks, a new outfit, and the feeling of excitement about tackling the year ahead. Each fall I enjoy revisiting the novels and stories I read when I was younger, especially contemporary reimaginings of them. I love the familiarity of a story I recognize coupled with a new approach to the story by an author. If you’re looking for the same, these books fit the bill. And don’t worry, we won’t ask you to write a report on them!
Reading The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois for the first time as a high school student in history class captivated me just as much as the 2023 graphic novel adaptation of the same piece of work: Souls of Black Folk. Originally published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature and a founding piece of black protest. Paul Peart-Smith’s graphic adaptation provides additional context, with background on public figures such as Booker T. Washington and Alexander Crummell, allowing for a contemporary update in the time of the 1916 Project and Black Lives Matter.
This isn’t the Shakespeare you read in English class! The King of Infinite Space is an evocative retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Set in modern-day New York City, the book follows Ben in the wake of his father’s death. His mother is getting remarried to his uncle, his best friend Horacio has been acting weird since their relationship turned from friendship to maybe something more, and his ex-fiancée Lia is obsessed with three florists in the wake of her struggles with addiction. Ben will be forced to reckon his relationships with all three people over the course of an evening.
Gingerbread will have you wanting to leave a little trail of gingerbread pieces behind you to bring you back to reality, much like the titular characters in the classic fairytale Hansel and Gretel. Gingerbread follows Perdita Lee as she tries to learn more about her mother Harriet’s early life. What happened to her mother’s friend Gretel? Why is their family recipe for gingerbread so good? And does her mother’s childhood land even exist? Perdita is crumbling up that gingerbread while trying to learn more about her family in this imaginative retelling.
Ayesha lives with her loud Muslim family in Toronto; she wants to be a poet but needs to work a teaching position so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle, and her family can't help but remind her that she has zero marriage prospects while her cousin, Hafsa, is turning down proposals by the dozens. Against an arranged marriage, Ayesha is surprised when she meets the smart but judgmental Khalid. Surprised because she’s attracted to him and then doubly surprised when she learns that he is engaged to Hafsa. Will Ayesha be able to set aside her complicated feelings for Khalid? There are lots of Pride and Prejudice adaptations but Ayesha at Last is one of my most favorite!
Is it possible to best the original? I’ll let you be the judge of that! Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful is an incredible retelling of the American classic The Great Gatsby. The wealth and glitter are still there, but this go around the main character is Miss Jordan Baker, a queer Vietnamese adoptee moving through the circles of the wealthy 1920s NYC elite. It’s the same fun romp with an undercurrent of darkness and mystery.
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