Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to have grown up in Iran? As a teen girl in Iran about forty years ago? Persepolis is a graphic novel memoir based on the teen years of Marjane Strapi, the author, and her life in Iran during the 1970s. Satrapi uses humor and art to tell her story and does a wonderful job of intermingling each with her personal story to paint the picture of what it was like to be an Iranian teen during those years. The comic-lover reader may be surprised to find answers to questions he or she may not have wondered aloud like why Iranian women wear the veil, or why men are only allowed to wear long sleeves. Strapi doesn’t just answer these questions but also demonstrates how she herself dealt with the laws as they were imposed and the perils that came along with trying to oppose them. The story ultimately showed me how little I know about Middle Eastern history and found it amazing that so much information could be packed into this magnificent graphic novel. --Claudio Leon

For a high school lesson plan utilizing Persepolis to introduce students to graphic novels from readwritethink.org click here.