Response to Kampung Boy

     Before reading this book, I don’t think I would say I had ever read a graphic novel before. Sure I had read children’s books and picture books before, but the term graphic novel was not in my vocabulary. Because of this, I decided the read this book twice. The first time, I paid attention to the words and the story, the second time I paid more attention to the illustrations and character descriptions. 

     After reading it twice, I thought about the book for a while and why Lat may have written it and what importance this book might hold. Did it explain some very different aspect of culture or a hot topic issue that is/was highly talked about? Did this text shock me with new information and/or ideas? Well, sure it did. Besides the research that I had just previously done on Malaysia, I had almost no former knowledge of the area, the people, or the lifestyle. It was merely a place on the map that I had to look up because the name was the only thing that was familiar to me. 

     While reading the book I definitely learned a few things about Malaysian education, religion, rites of passage, family structure, etc. Religious schooling starts very early, elders are highly respected, boy are circumcised at age 10, it is a privilege to pass your tests and go off to boarding school for higher education. But what really struck me was how this story was not so different from every other child in the world. The drawings and illustrations were simple and child-like, depicting the innocence of the boy and how he viewed the world. At one point in the book, when the 3 brothers take him out to their favorite swimming hole, I noticed that the boys barely even looked like humans. Sure they had a head and 2 arms and 2 legs, but their bodies were not shaped like a young boy, they were missing features such as noses and belly buttons, their hair and teeth were very exaggerated. The other aspect of this child-like view on the world was how he was facing and dealing with the same issues that all children face. First, he had to leave his family and go to school with children he did not know and a teacher who was very strict and scary. He was used to this loving mother and playful father, and had to leave and be in the care of someone else. Almost every child deals with this when going off to daycare/preschool/kindergarten. They have to try to make new friends and they long to be accepted. Lat dealt with this when the 3 Meor brothers. He so desperately hoped they would accept him as their friend, and when they did he felt joy and love. Every child wants this. No kid wants to go to school and have a hard time making friends or being accepted by his/her peers. As Lat’s schooling continues he has to worry about his grades and doing well in school. He starts to withdraw a little from his peers, maybe because he is dealing with self-confidence issues, maybe because he would rather just do what he likes to do, maybe its a little bit of both. What child doesn’t go through some sort of period where they are uncomfortable in their own skin, where they feel like they don’t quite fit in? A little later in Lat’s childhood, he faces acceptance from his own parents. He knows their love for him, yet he hears them talking about him late into the night about him growing up and acting more like an adult. He wants his parents to think he is responsible and becoming a man, but like a lot of children, goes about that in a way that backfires a little. Lat is still very young and yet has to deal with the weight and responsibility of inheriting his father’s land, being a big brother to his younger siblings, doing well in school and passing his tests, working in the community, and still having friends and having fun as a kid. This is a lot of pressure on a kid and is not uncommon for most children around the world. This is what really struck me about this novel: how relatable it was for children everywhere. Sure, not everyone goes to religious schooling like Lat did, some children don’t have siblings, some children grow up with a lot of money and privilege, some children live in the hustle and bustle of the city, but yet this book is still talking about central issues that are the same for everyone. Everyone wants and needs to feel accepted by their peers, everyone has to go through certain rites of passage, everyone has to deal with the complications of growing up and having more responsibilities. This book is not just about Lat, a young boy growing up in a small village in Malaysia, this book is about a child growing up and facing the issues that every other child in the world also has to face.