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A Smart and Courageous Child
  • Published: 19 November 2024
  • ISBN: 9781427877192
  • Imprint: Tokyopop
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $32.99

A Smart and Courageous Child

Formats & editions
EBook
20 Sept 2024
Paperback
19 Nov 2024
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Winner of the 24th Manga Division Excellence Award at the 2020 Japan Media Arts Festival

Every young couple has high hopes for their unborn child, and Sara and Kouta Takano are no different. But only days away from giving birth, Sara learns about the tragedy of Malala Yousafzai's attempted assassination at the hands of the Taliban, and her pure and innocent belief in the future is shaken. If such a smart and courageous child can be hurt so badly by the world, how can she keep her own baby safe? With Sara now in a state of shock, will the young couple be able to bridge the widening gap between them, or will it tear their family apart?

The reality of this world, as seen through the eyes of an author that has spent years illustrating the women and their lives.

"This book brilliantly captures the anxieties held by people of today. Sara embodies the joyful anticipation of a mother-to-be, until an international story breaks and expands her list of hopes and fears in the information-flooded world. A modern audience can relate to her distrust in the times, and Sara’s anguish is universal in its resonance. The work devotes numerous techniques to express its intentions but remains accessible. Colored pencils bring the story to life, at different times injecting turbulence and warmth. Through a small but striking backlist, the artist has secured a singular presence in the industry. What does it mean to be wise and brave? How do we resist and reverse the cruelties of the world? The artist plumbs this fathomless question and offers a powerful response." — Kazuko Kawahara, Japan Media Arts Festival
  • Published: 19 November 2024
  • ISBN: 9781427877192
  • Imprint: Tokyopop
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $32.99
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Praise for A Smart and Courageous Child

"Ultimately, A Smart & Courageous Child is a contemplation of what it means to be a parent, and also what it means to care for children. [...] I hope we see more works from Yamamoto and others like her, and I’m very honored to have been able to nominate it for Best One-Shot in the American Manga Awards. [...] This manga hit me somewhere personal, deep in my soul, and as someone who has worked with young children and has friends who have young children, I felt a rare trembling when I read this manga." — Ashley Hawkins, Manga Librarian

"As a parent, I’m not sure I’ve encountered another piece of media that so perfectly encapsulates the experience of waiting for a baby to arrive. [...] Yamamoto is equally as good at capturing one of the biggest parts of the pregnancy waiting experience — the imagining. [...] Yet, mothers keep giving birth, families dream of having children, and we all keep fighting to survive. A Smart and Courageous Child is the perfect book for such times." — Borealis Capps, Yatta Tachi


"Thus, like much of Yamamoto’s other work, A Smart and Courageous Child is a story of womanhood and the place that AFAB people occupy in the world.

What I did find to be a universal message in this manga was the feeling of being weighed down by societal pressures to conform to expected gender roles. Sara wants to regain control over her own body, and she experiences some overwhelming emotions near the end of the story related to the pressure to behave in an appropriate “motherly” manner.

What I appreciated most about A Smart and Courageous Child is how the manga used the creator’s nontraditional style to appeal to a female audience, incorporating soft colors and rounder lines, which are typically considered more popular with female readers."

- Ollie Kaplan, Comics Beat

"TOKYOPOP continues to fight the good fight in publishing indie manga that's not the usual Shonen action stories, with Miki Yamamoto's indie manga about the anxieties of having a baby in a world fraught with fear and chaos, A Smart and Courageous Child.
Creator Miki Yamamoto draws in a raw, simple style that's almost childish, but her command of storytelling, of panel layout, pacing, facial expressions, body language, and dialogue is impeccable.
Score - 8/10
TOKYOPOP continues to fight the good fight in publishing indie manga that's not the usual Shonen action stories with Miki Yamamoto's indie manga about the anxieties of having a baby in a world fraught with fear and chaos, A Smart and Courageous Child, which follows a couple expecting their first child as they go from joy to existential horror at the kind of world they're bringing their baby into and how they come to terms with that."

-Adi Tantimedh, Bleeding Cool