Prime Baby

by Gene Luen Yang

This is definitely not the usual type of book that I like to buy, as it is written for a younger audience.  However, I really enjoyed Yang's other work, such as American Born Chinese and The Eternal Smile, and figured that since this is a relatively inexpensive book, it was worth taking a chance on.

The comic strips collected here (this book reminds me a lot of those old Garfield collections I used to read as a kid in it's formatting) at the pace of four or five panels a page were originally published in the New York Times Magazine, and tell the story of young Thaddeus, a third grader with dreams of world domination.  When Thaddeus's little sister Maddie is born, he suffers some serious sibling rivalry issues, and becomes convinced that she is an alien baby.

As it turns out, he's not far off the mark, as small slug-like aliens start coming out of her mouth.  Thaddeus prepares to go to war, figuring this is the opportunity for global takeover he's been looking for, but sadly, the aliens are emissaries of smiles and happy feelings.  Hilarity ensues.

Yang has a very charming style.  It is hard to resist the charms of his characters and his simple drawings.  This book is not anywhere near as good as American Born Chinese was, but it is a fun little read.