Book Review: Luisa Now and Then By Carole Maurel

'Luisa Now and Then' is a graphic novel about realizing and embracing who you are. The novel is by Carole Maurel and adapted by Mariko Tamaki. 

The book is about two different people who are really the same people: Luisa as an adult and Luisa as a teenager. Teenage Luisa falls asleep on the bus and finds herself lost in a city. She knows the address of her aunts apartment, so she decides to head there to get help from her aunt. Upon arriving at the apartment, she encounters not her aunt, but a stranger who looks remarkably similar to herself. Through the experience of meeting each other, the adult Luisa and the teenage Luisa both learn something very valuable about themselves, and learn to embrace who they are.

The artwork of this story was wonderful and helped transport the reader to Luisa's world. The story itself was well written and thought-provoking. It was interesting to see how teenage Luisa was disappointed over who she had become because she had not fully followed her dreams or  accomplished her aspirations. But adult Luisa knew that reality was so different than dreams, and sometimes you have to make sacrifices in adulthood. However, Luisa was making sacrifices she didn't need to. She wasn't letting herself be the person she truly was due to the pressures of the society and the people in her life. Encountering young her helped free her to be who she was suppose to be.

Overall, this is a great book that I would recommend to anyone who wants to ponder the differences of perspective between teenagehood and adulthood. Sometimes it is good to remember that despite all the frivolity of youth, there is a wisdom of youth too that we often loose as we grow old.