Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary

by Keshni Kashyap

Other authorsMari Araki (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 2012

Status

Available

Publication

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012), Edition: Tenth, 256 pages

Description

Tina Malhotra, a sophomore at the Yarborough Academy in Southern California, creates an existential diary for an honors English assignment in which she tries to determine who she is and where she fits in.

User reviews

LibraryThing member A_Reader_of_Fictions
First of all, I feel the need to emphasize how much I wish I could have gone to a high school with classes specifically on existentialism and Russian literature. I went to a good high school, but not that good. Also, I am super envious of her project being to write a journal that the teacher has
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promised not to open and read. He must, though, right? Otherwise, I bet about half of the students who had chosen that project wrote nothing.

Anyway, I loved this. Tina was a really believable heroine, suffering through such angsty teen problems as friend breakups, boy drama and family crises. The bits on friendship were really hard-hitting and realistic, as I should know having had many such issues of my own.

Another main theme of the book is diversity and not making assumptions based on race. For example, Tina is Indian. Everyone keeps asking her stupid questions about things, particularly religion. Her crush throughout the book is even laboring under the delusion that she is a Buddhist (she's not; she's a atheist).

What really made this book pop, though, were the illustrations. I just loved them. They really do make the journal look like something a teen (a much more artistic one than I ever was or could have hoped to have been) would make. So much of her personality shines through the illustrations. I bet they look stellar in the actual book (as opposed to the e-galley).
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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
Very similar feel and tone to Reina Telgemier's Smile but it's a little bit older. Tina is in a private school but has finally reached high school aged. Her best friend is changing, got a boyfriend and ditches her for another group. Through her existentialism project she challenges herself to try
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new things and make new friends. The reader also gets an inside look at being an American with Indian parents. I thought it was an interesting read and the existentialist look at life Tina tried was definitely interesting.
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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
Very similar feel and tone to Reina Telgemier's Smile but it's a little bit older. Tina is in a private school but has finally reached high school aged. Her best friend is changing, got a boyfriend and ditches her for another group. Through her existentialism project she challenges herself to try
Show More
new things and make new friends. The reader also gets an inside look at being an American with Indian parents. I thought it was an interesting read and the existentialist look at life Tina tried was definitely interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
Very similar feel and tone to Reina Telgemier's Smile but it's a little bit older. Tina is in a private school but has finally reached high school aged. Her best friend is changing, got a boyfriend and ditches her for another group. Through her existentialism project she challenges herself to try
Show More
new things and make new friends. The reader also gets an inside look at being an American with Indian parents. I thought it was an interesting read and the existentialist look at life Tina tried was definitely interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
Very similar feel and tone to Reina Telgemier's Smile but it's a little bit older. Tina is in a private school but has finally reached high school aged. Her best friend is changing, got a boyfriend and ditches her for another group. Through her existentialism project she challenges herself to try
Show More
new things and make new friends. The reader also gets an inside look at being an American with Indian parents. I thought it was an interesting read and the existentialist look at life Tina tried was definitely interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
Just right for all those thinking teens in honors classes, trying to discover "who am I" while hormones rage and the social ladder shifts without warning. Tina is likable, sometimes annoying and thinks too much, but there's a grounded quality to her that doesn't let her get too carried away by her
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own intellect.
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LibraryThing member mirikayla
Really liked it, even though I swear the plot has to have been done ten million times already. The existential examination and Indian protagonist are a great focus, but really: Inseparable best friends become teenagers, one dumps the other to hang out with cooler people. Dumped friend finds new,
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previously unnoticed friend. Friend who dumped her realizes that her new friends aren't real friends, comes back and ends up forming trio with dumped friend's new friend. Optionally, at some point one of them finds the guy they liked hooking up at a party with a girl they'd thought was their new friend, which is probably what triggers the original friends' reunion. I feel like I've seen so many movies with that plot, and while I can't think of any yet, I definitely know it's the premise of a Babysitters Club book. Probably also Sweet Valley.
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LibraryThing member LibroLindsay
LOVE LOVE LOVE. It probably helps that I, too, took an existentialist literature class in high school, but seriously, I wish I could just follow Tina through life. We would have totally been friends.

Awards

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (Winner — Young Adult — 2013)
South Asia Book Award (Highly Commended — 2013)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2012-01-03

Physical description

256 p.; 6.5 inches

ISBN

0618945199 / 9780618945191

Local notes

graphic novel
Page: 0.5296 seconds