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27th out of 88 books
—
81 voters
Aya (Aya)
"That's what I wanted to show in Aya: an Africa without the . . . war and famine, an Africa that endures despite everything because, as we say back home, life goes on."--Marguerite Abouet
Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first television ad campaign promoting the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's...more
Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first television ad campaign promoting the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's...more
Hardcover, 105 pages
Published
February 20th 2007
by Drawn and Quarterly
(first published 2005)
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Aya is a book about a teen-aged African girl living in the Ivory Coast during the seventies (a relative boom time). It's billed as being a graphic novel that shows that teens in Africa aren't so dissimilar to those in the U.S. (or teens in general, for that matter) and attempts to break the stereotype of Africa as an impoverished nation where all the kids are starving and/or in the midst of constant warfare.
It focuses on Aya and her two friends, Adjoua and Bintou, as they live their lives in "Yo...more
It focuses on Aya and her two friends, Adjoua and Bintou, as they live their lives in "Yo...more
This book is an interesting glimpse into a young woman's life in the Ivory Coast back in the country's heyday. I love the illustrations which capture the light and character of the Ivory Coast. The story itself is a bit predictable, but I really liked the background on the Ivory Coast, the glossary with Ivory Coast specific terms and the vibrant colors. I would definitely recommend it and it is a quick read.
3 likes · like · see review
rating: 3.5/5
This unique graphic novel takes place in a working class neighborhood in Ivory Coast called Yopougon. The year is 1978 and Ivory Coast is a model of growth and stability. Aya is a girl with dreams, a stable and responsible bystander to the romantic antics of her two best friends, Bintou and Adjoua.
The plot is a bit like a sitcom, with couples getting together or not, cheating on each other, getting in trouble and having problems with their parents. Older teens would find much to rel...more
This unique graphic novel takes place in a working class neighborhood in Ivory Coast called Yopougon. The year is 1978 and Ivory Coast is a model of growth and stability. Aya is a girl with dreams, a stable and responsible bystander to the romantic antics of her two best friends, Bintou and Adjoua.
The plot is a bit like a sitcom, with couples getting together or not, cheating on each other, getting in trouble and having problems with their parents. Older teens would find much to rel...more
The standard narrative of any story set in Africa includes an empathy numbing array of horrors: Child Soldiers wielding machetes and AK-47's, famine, rape, AIDS, corruption, slavery. The desire to call attention to this awfulness is understandable, important even. Yet by having tragedy so omnipresent, it dehumanizes those dealing with that as a part of their life. Marguerite Abouet's series Aya consciously bucks this trend. The charming stories of family and community are startling in their lack...more
Aya de Youpougon
This book is an african book wrote byMarguerite Abouet.
This book is about many girls. They are friends. They're Bintou , Aya , Adjoua , and they're parents.
I recomend this book ,because it is funny and people who like humoristic book would love this book .
This book is an african book wrote byMarguerite Abouet.
This book is about many girls. They are friends. They're Bintou , Aya , Adjoua , and they're parents.
I recomend this book ,because it is funny and people who like humoristic book would love this book .
1 like · like · see review
I agree with other reviewers that the book spent a lot of time on Aya's friends and their promiscuity, but I'm wondering if that's the point. Aya's an aberration in her village. Girls are supposed to graduate from high school (if that) find a man, get married and have 10 or 12 children. She doesn't want to do that. She wants to be a doctor.
I'm wondering if the author's purpose in focusing on Aya's friends is to show how much she deviates from the "proper" role of a young woman. She discourages...more
I'm wondering if the author's purpose in focusing on Aya's friends is to show how much she deviates from the "proper" role of a young woman. She discourages...more
"That's what I wanted to show in Aya: an Africa without the...war and famine, an Africa that endures despite everything because, as we say back home, life goes on."--Marguerite Abouet
Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first TV ad campaign promote the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's beer." It's a golden time, and the nation, too--an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa--seems fueled by something wondrous.
Who...more
Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first TV ad campaign promote the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's beer." It's a golden time, and the nation, too--an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa--seems fueled by something wondrous.
Who...more
I think the thing that I enjoyed most about this graphic novel was the packaging. Beautiful hard cover, lovely pages and colors, and an interesting section in the back containing cultural facts and recipes.
The story itself was simple and predictable, real, and sad. The main character does not really participate in the story, and seems to be - like the reader - a viewer from the outside. This does accomplish one thing, and that is that it brings the main character and the reader onto the same pl...more
The story itself was simple and predictable, real, and sad. The main character does not really participate in the story, and seems to be - like the reader - a viewer from the outside. This does accomplish one thing, and that is that it brings the main character and the reader onto the same pl...more
The book Aya is about african people and their community. The main character is called Aya. But their are also many other characters that make thd story interesting. Aya is a smart student, she actually wants to work and be successful unlike her friends. Aya doesn't like to party like her friends Bintou and Adjoua. Bintou and Adjoua like to go out and have fun but it causes problems. Adjoua got pregnant and it turns it out it wasn't the baby of the man she married. Also Bintou likes Mousoa which...more
I saw this in a comic store and it's so unusual to find comics with main characters (or really any characters) who have dark skin, that I had to read it. It was enjoyable though not necessarily revelatory. The art is great and adds to the story but the story itself isn't much - three friends negotiating romance and relationships in the context of future hopes re: economics and professions. It is touted as giving a great glimpse of 1970's Ivory Coast and it seems to do that well. The main charact...more
This book arrived today and I read it immediately. It was wonderful. It's kind of like Persepolis but it's fiction and it's set on the Ivory Coast, in Africa. This is really a historical graphic novel because it focuses on the 1970s era and shows what live was like in Youpougon, Cote d'Iviore during that time. It's a funny and real story that I think captures what it's like to be African but it's so easy to relate to that it almost doesn't seem African. The characters, three teenage girls and th...more
Many stories of Africa deal with AIDS, war, poverty and famine. In the graphic novel genre, very few stories feature African protagonists. Marguerite Abouet, the writer of the graphic novel Aya, sets out to change this. Aya is the light-hearted tale of three friends living in the Ivory Coast in 1978. Aya strives to be a doctor while her friends, Bintou and Adjoua, want to chase boys and dance all night. While Aya is not the central character, the story is told through her eyes and presents a uni...more
I had a mixed feeling about this book- it was entertaining, but just too short. I had never read a graphic novel before, so perhaps I was disappointed because I didn't know what to expect, or perhaps because this book so closely resembles the work that I do in health communication- and then it did not clearly communicate the desired behaviour- came close, but did not get there- though that was not it's mandate.
As for the Author's own comment about not wanting to portray an image of violence and...more
As for the Author's own comment about not wanting to portray an image of violence and...more
Illustrator:
Clement Oubrerie
Genre:
Graphic Novel, Humorous, International, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction
Summary:
In this highly unique period piece, join Aya and her two best friends Adjoua and Bintou in a light hearted portrayal of Africa’s Ivory Coast in the golden time of 1978. The beautiful yet bookish Aya just wants to study and aspires to become a doctor one day. In contrast, her easy going friends are looking to hook up at the local maquis (a cheap place to dance and meet boys). It’s all...more
Clement Oubrerie
Genre:
Graphic Novel, Humorous, International, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction
Summary:
In this highly unique period piece, join Aya and her two best friends Adjoua and Bintou in a light hearted portrayal of Africa’s Ivory Coast in the golden time of 1978. The beautiful yet bookish Aya just wants to study and aspires to become a doctor one day. In contrast, her easy going friends are looking to hook up at the local maquis (a cheap place to dance and meet boys). It’s all...more
After, I got this book from the library, I tore through it. Though Aya is the titular protagonist, the story focuses more on her two best friends. Aya and her friends seem on the surface, to be regular teenagers. They have a lot of the same hopes, dreams, wishes and desires that Western teenagers do, and this is most visible in the book's dialogue. However, the images show the reader another side. Aya and her friends, though middle class in Ivory Coast terms, seem poor by Western standards. And...more
This was wonderful, a slice-of-life look at Ivory Coast in 1978, and three friends, young women, two of whom are interested in romantic adventures and one of whom is serious about her studies. I just loved having a glimpse into everyday life in urban Africa during peacetime. (Sad to think about what lay in Ivory Coast's future.) Details I noticed--how the various families in the city have living with them cousins from the villages in the countryside, how the girls do washing in tubs in the court...more
I loved the intro and the "bonus section" at the end of this book--that combined with the little insights into Ivorian culture made this read worthwhile. I made sure to copy the recipes before giving this book back! I really liked the concept of this book, but not necessarily the execution. Aya didn't really seem to be the main character in this book--she seemed to be, as another reviewer put it, the "goody-goody" voice of reason, the quiet feminist we want to pull for but who never really does...more
This book was fine, but I'm really not sure it told the story it thought it was going to tell. It's called Aya, but except for the fact that it opens with Aya introducing herself and her family and some of her friends, it's really a story about her friends. Aya herself is on the edges of the story, but she largely stays home and studies while everything else is happening. Also, it just sort of feels like the first chapter of something larger. Also, as good as the artwork is, when it arrived at t...more
The author said she wanted to write a simple tale about life in an African village, showing that not everything always revolves around tragedy, and that she does.
The tale of Aya and her two friends and their lives presents a life not so unfamiliar to an American audience and does a good job of showing that people from other parts of the world do have lives like us. That being said, the book falls a bit flat in that it goes to such great pains to tell a simple everyday story that it feels like a...more
The tale of Aya and her two friends and their lives presents a life not so unfamiliar to an American audience and does a good job of showing that people from other parts of the world do have lives like us. That being said, the book falls a bit flat in that it goes to such great pains to tell a simple everyday story that it feels like a...more
I am not a part of the generation of graphic novels, but I am a curious reader and I really enjoyed this well illustrated story of three young women growing up in the Ivory Coast.
1 like · like · see review
I picked up this book off the shelf because I had a free period, and why not read an interesting looking graphic novel? It seemed short, not that many words, I was sure I could finish it. When I started reading this book, I didn't know what to expect, but it was so unique! The characters were very funny, I got a look into the life of Yop City, and a look into human nature. It seems like a simple book, and it's true--the plot isn't life-changing, but the way the characters act just tells so much...more
Quite refreshing to see Aya, the strong and determined teen, as the "heroine" of this story. The book is light-hearted in tone, although it touched on major social issues (disparity of wealth, prejudice, infidelity, child abuse, abortion, teen pregnancy). It was intriguing to read about the "hey day" of Ivorian life in the late 1970s.
Although the story was "cute" - like a teen sitcom or romantic comedy - my favorite part of the book was the appendix where there was a glossary on slang language,...more
Although the story was "cute" - like a teen sitcom or romantic comedy - my favorite part of the book was the appendix where there was a glossary on slang language,...more
I plucked this beauty from the library graphic novel section, and I was intrigued. I love white men and their neurotic obsession with girls and coffee as much as the next sequential art nerd, but to have a story about African women in the 1970s and have it be light-hearted and funny??? Bring it! I really liked the art and the story, a simple one about three girls who like to dance and party at night (well, one likes to study), get into trouble w/local boys, have errands to do around the house, g...more
This book is a comedy about an everyday love life. This book takes place in Africa and talks about a life of an African girl and what she goes through. There is also a lot of political talks in this book. The main character here is Aya, she is a young teenage girl who lives in Africa and lives with her mother, father and her brother. She helps her friend out because she was in love with a guy and gets pregnant by him. Her parents are very shocked and astonished at the fact she is young and she d...more
It is refreshing to read a story set in suburban sub-Saharan Africa of the '70s that feels so universal. As a slice-of-life story, the book lives or dies by its characters -- here Aya is a mixed bag, as some of the characters and interactions are brilliantly realized (such as Aya's "date" with the neighborhood simpleton) while some feel all-too conventional (the lecherous men and husband-seeking women felt largely interchangeable). I wish there the book focused more on the titular Aya, who plays...more
I wish I could assign half stars as a rating. Aya earned a solid 3.5... maybe a 3.6 (so I rounded up). The illustrations are colourful and expressive and the story is simple, but amusing. While I'm not a fan of graphic novels, Aya was more of a comic book than a graphic novel, with vibrant characters in their late teens. Aya herself was a distant narrator or a foil for her adventurous (and promiscuous) friends. The end of the book includes delightful additions from characters about how to wrap a...more
Afrikka ei ole vain sisällissotien, nälänhädän ja surkeuden manner. Ahdistavien uutiskuvien takaa löytyy tavallisia ihmisiä - bilettäviä poikia, flirttailevia tyttöjä, juoruilevia naapureita...
Aya on Abouetin ja Oubrerien ensimmäinen sarjakuva-albumi, jossa kuvataan elämää Norsunluurannikolla sijaitsevassa Yop Cityn ka...upunginosassa. Lääkäriksi havittelevan päähenkilön lisäksi tapaamme myös hänen parhaat ystävänsä, bilehile Bintoun ja Adjouan, joka hyväsydämisyyttään joutuu pahaan pulaan...
Kuv...more
Aya on Abouetin ja Oubrerien ensimmäinen sarjakuva-albumi, jossa kuvataan elämää Norsunluurannikolla sijaitsevassa Yop Cityn ka...upunginosassa. Lääkäriksi havittelevan päähenkilön lisäksi tapaamme myös hänen parhaat ystävänsä, bilehile Bintoun ja Adjouan, joka hyväsydämisyyttään joutuu pahaan pulaan...
Kuv...more
There's no point in my shouting out about folks taking comics more seriously--sure there's Persepolis, Maus, etc.--but look! A comedy of manners! From AFRICA!!! Who needs Jane Austen? To hell with Britain!
There's a comment by the author where she wants to show Africa without the war and suffering. To be honest, I can't help but think (and worry) about the characters' fates in the troubles that would be coming down the pipe in Ivory Coast in a few years.
This book is for the doubters. If you want...more
There's a comment by the author where she wants to show Africa without the war and suffering. To be honest, I can't help but think (and worry) about the characters' fates in the troubles that would be coming down the pipe in Ivory Coast in a few years.
This book is for the doubters. If you want...more
Aya is a sixteen year old girl living in Ivory Coast, Africa, who wants to go to college and become a doctor, something her father disapproves of. Meanwhile, her two best friends are into partying late into the night and hooking up with guys. The graphic novel follows events over a few weeks as each girl gets into and out of trouble. It's a very normal teenage story, more comedy than tragedy and one you could just easily see set in San Francisco or New York, without the sensationalism that tends...more
A perfect summer read--diverting, easy, and informative. It tells the story of an independent, strong-willed and ambitious young woman in the Côte d'Ivoire of 1978 and two of her girlfriends who are also independent, but not so strong-willed or ambitious. I laughed while gaining access to an Africa I hadn't known about. The author of the text was born in Abidjan, second only to Lagos as a major West African metropolis, and later moved to France where she collaborated with an accomplished childre...more
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| Great African Reads: Mar/Apr: Côte d'Ivoire | "Aya" | 29 | 28 | Mar 22, 2012 04:38pm |
Marguerite Abouet naît en 1971 à Abidjan. Elle grandit en famille dans le quartier populaire de Yopougon jusqu'à l'âge de douze ans. Puis, ses parents l'envoient avec son grand frère à Paris, où les héberge leur grand-oncle. Elle y découvre avec émerveillement les bibliothèques et se passionne pour les livres. Elle écrit bientôt des romans qu'elle ne fait lire à personne, tout en devenant tour à t...more
More about Marguerite Abouet...
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