The Talk is a memoir written in graphic novel format. I don't normally love this format, but political cartoonist Darrin Bell has done something amazing with this book. The Talk takes readers through the first 40+ years of his life growing up as a biracial person in America. The pain and trauma he has experienced are palpable through his stunning illustrations. This book is full of American history as seen from a personal perspective. I highly recommend this book for all readers from middle school to adulthood. It is powerful and impactful.

5 stars to this brilliant, thought-provoking, sharp yet compassionate graphic novel memoir about the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning American editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator, Darrin Bell. Born to a white mother and black father, Bell chronicles his life from a pivotal moment when he was 6 years old and first experienced racial profiling and police brutality as a Black boy in America. The racism and discrimination that he experienced from the time he was just 6 years old (!!) continues throughout his life, and ranges from outright racism to hidden racism to subtle discrimination and so much more. This is shown brilliantly through his artistic style as an award winning cartoonist.

I went into this book not realizing it was a memoir. I thought it was a fictional book. But it truly wowed me. Not only the message and underlying themes and incredible storytelling, but also the raw, poignant, bleak at times, hopeful at times, point of view that all black boys and men experience.

So when do you have "The Talk" with your young black son? Is it when he's still in diapers? When he's learning how to pick up a pencil? When he's learning how to read? When he begs for a toy gun and you can't buy him the one he wants because his life is not worth the toy? Is it when he's taking the training wheels off his first bike?

For Darrin Bell, he was 6 years old. And towards the end of the book, when his own son turns 6, he and his wife sit him down and tell them the ugly and dangerous reality of this country, and the systemic racism it was built on.

A must read for ages 10+.

Wow. Real. Raw. Read this one. It is heavy and heart wrenching and that is why it should be read. The art style is pretty unique and adds so much to the words and emotions on each page. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I was expecting a children's book but this is not a children's book. The story is told through cartoons and captions that tell a story and is an eye opener about racism in different forms, where even children are at risk for playing with a water gun. So much of the story is conveyed by the pictures that in many cases words aren't even needed. It's the kind of book that you tell other people about because it's just that good, that essential.

I didn't realize until near the end of the book that this book is an autobiography. The author is telling his own story about growing up as a black child. He really is a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.

I received a review copy from the publisher Henry Holt & Company via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

This is a stunning work of art. A memoir in graphic/comic format that covers the ups and downs and regular in-betweens of the author's life growing up as a Black boy, adolescent, man, in the United States. This book is not a meditation on race, but like any Black person in the United States, the author's life has been shaped by the outside forces of anti-Black racism and violence and thus, it is a part of his story and his memoir. I loved how personal and individual this story is, while it remains a tool for teaching his audience about the general landscape of our nation. I believe the title reflects this duality: 'The Talk' is a near-universal experience among Black American families and yet, Darrin's 'talk' is actually given to him by his white mom - a 'talk' his Black father prefers to forget, ignore, turn from; a 'talk' his older brother doubts the veracity of, or at least, doubts that racism is its root cause. It is these extremely personal stories and quirks that make this book so brilliant. To have an author say - I became the first cartoonist to win a Pulitzer *and* to admit that one of his cartoons made him the perpetrator of Islamophobia and brought shame to him in the same memoir was so touching. To me, it made the memoir feel more real, more human. And, of course, to see the book end with a reflection on fatherhood and his determination not to repeat his father's mistakes was a tear-shedding moment.

The Talk is a book that will become required reading. At it's most basic, this is a memoir of Darrin Bell's childhood and growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, to becoming an adult and having his own family. But it is also a sample of race in America, and how individual people are shaped by the overall racist society that we all exist in.

Written and illustrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Darrin Bell, this graphic memoir is about how his life reflects The Talk his white mother gave him: That as a biracial boy, he'd grow up to be feared, suspected, and maligned by some whites, teachers, police and others and would need to be aware and proactive (e.g., as a child, have a toy gun that looks every inch a toy or potentially suffer the worst imaginable consequences). It's also about Bell discovering his gifts, his voice, his unique place in the world, and grappling with his own need to give The Talk to his son.

A book appropriate for middle and high school library collections and classrooms, this memoir will be relatable to many, an eyeopener to others, and a source of insight and discussion for any reader open to Bell's story..

“You’re one of the good ones.”
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Pulitzer Prize winner @darrinbellart was six when his mom told him he couldn’t get a realistic-looking water gun because it wasn’t safe for him to have one as a Black boy. As we watch Bell grow up, we see how much he struggles in the world without his father to talk to him about racism and his white mother trying to fight his battles for him. We see microaggressions, bullying, racism, a legitimate fear of police, world events that effect Bell and his family, as well as his career growth as a political cartoonist and writer. But at the end when Bell has a family of his own, it’s his turn to have The Talk with his own son.
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What a beautiful graphic memoir about what it means to grow up Black in America in the 80’s until now. It’s books like these that our students (and adults) need to read to understand (as much as we can) the struggles the Black community faced and are still facing today. Racism is not gone and we need to be more vocal about the atrocities happening around us everyday. The artwork was stunning and his depictions of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd made me cry. This graphic memoir releases June 6 for YA and up.

CW: racism, microaggressions, police brutality, bullying

Wow! What a powerful memoir. Darrin Bell and I are of a similar age. The difference between us is I'm white and grew up in a small Midwestern town. He's of mixed heritage and grew up in L.A. He discusses the times throughout his life we was made to feel less than, the times he was frightened or threatened by the police or others in authority from the time he was 6 until now. He grew up to be a cartoonist, often creating powerful editorial cartoons that he sometimes would receive death threats from for telling his truth. His father never had "the talk" with him. Now his son is six and he's struggling with when to have "the talk" with his son so he won't be unprepared the first time he has to go through something similar.

I hate that racism still exists in this day and age. But it is still a fact. It didn't end in the Sixties as anyone who lived through the Trump era knows well. All we can do is strive to do better and know that with each generation things are hopefully getting better. Some days I wonder though.

The Talk, a graphic memoir by Darrin Bell, spans the author’s life from growing us as a young Black boy in east LA in 1981 to his career as an editorial cartoonist today. Bell navigates what it means to be biracial in America and how that experience will shape raising a Black son in a way that wasn’t available to him.

I found so many of Bell’s illustrations hauntingly symbolic and had chills a few times while reading. At the beginning of the memoir, Bell equates law enforcement with an aggressive Doberman; he must act a certain way around the dog, or else his life is in danger. This imagery shows up periodically in the memoir along with comparisons to Star Trek and Star Wars - “I want my comeback to be perfect. And that wanting is like carbonite.” I also really liked his metaphor of being caught in cobwebs and the struggle to remove such an invisible prison.

Bell’s mother buys him a bright green water gun as a child and has “the talk”: how to act around cops and how Black boys are not viewed the same as white boys. I was reminded of Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me when “the talk” comes full circle for Ball when he has the same conversation with his son after finding his own voice through cartooning about things that really matter.

The Talk shapes Bell’s life, both intimate and public moments. Bell is feared by educators with false claims of plagiarism, misunderstood by friends who believe that MLK “fixed” racism, and struggles to connect with a father who refuses to discuss race in a meaningful way. There is a frustrating dichotomy between being “Black enough” or “too Black” that follows Bell throughout his childhood and coming of age which was illustrated beautifully in the graphic memoir.

The graphic novel medium is perfect for memoirs. It allows the reader to process complex issues in a visual way while creating visual narratives about real-life experiences and historical events that need to be kept in conversation.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for the advanced copy. I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy for my classroom.

This has not been my life experience, but I learned quite a bit from this graphic novel. I think it would be a great addition to our middle school collection to not only have students relate to it, but for others to develop deeper empathy and understanding.

Content warning- this book deals with police brutality, racism, and murder. This is an amazing graphic novel that so eloquently shows the cycle of "The Talk" that many Black families have with their children to protect them from the extreme, racist violence that still haunts our country. Bell is able to cover decades of important and life-changing events in this book and does so through the lens of a boy receiving the talk and growing into a father who must give his children the talk. It's no wonder Bell won the Pulitzer, he's an amazing artist and amazing story teller.

Rarely do I finish a graphic novel and think, "Wow, they really nailed the flow and pacing! It really came full circle." That might be because I'm usually plowing through them pretty quickly, but in this case, I truly appreciated Darrin Bell's ability to tell a full and complete story along with the compelling artwork. He struck a good balance between text and drawing, and successfully conveyed the meaningful parts without overly relying on one or the other. You'd think this would be the case with most, if not all, graphic novels, but I really felt it in this case. It was noticeably well done. Bell took complex topics, along with sometimes painful personal experiences, and created a work of art around his growth, healing, and learning.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for sending and allowing me to read this book.
I've read many graphic novels so I believe I know when I find a good graphic novel, this was so well written and illustrated. I really really really recommend this I can not stress this enough.

I'm white. I don't, nor will I ever have children. I will never have to give the Talk. But I know how important it is, and I wanted an example I could provide parents who may be struggling with having this conversation with their children, regardless of their child's skin color. And wow. This book...

I wasn't expected to get as sucked in as I did. The illustrations are good, evocative even. But the sparing use of color just grabs the eye and the heart.

For me, I think being alive for some of these events, and seeing these events from someone just a little older than me... Really helped give me some additional perspective.

And the frame work... bringing everything back to those early chapters, and when the cover art hits you... Wow.

This is not my typical fare, and I'm just... wow. Thank you.

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn’t have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are.

What follows is Darrin's story of growing up biracial throughout a time when so many people said that the Civil Rights Movement had done the work needed and that life surely couldn't be so bad for People of Color.

What does it mean to have a father that tells you just to stay calm when confronted with racism? Or a mother that fights fiercely for your right to exist whether you want her to or not?

How do you make sense of a world that seems hellbent to put you in your place, to hold you down, to break your spirit?
How do you nurture your talent? How do you protect yourself and others?

This graphic novel memoir is a masterpiece of storytelling and graphic arts.

Perfect for middle school and up not just as a mirror book but a book for so many kids and adults whose realities are not the same.

This one is for the budding artist. For the kids who know their existence matters. And for those who don't. This one is for those who
fight so hard to protect and for those who don't see why protection is needed.

Coming out in June 2023, preorder now to ensure you have it for your summer reading and growing.

This follows Darrin from the time he was 6 when his mom had to have “the talk” with him about how because he was black he would be held to different standards and judged differently from his white friends, to the time he has a child of his own who he is having to give “the talk” to. We, obviously, get to see a lot of instances when this actually plays out in his real life but there are more layers to this graphic novel as well. We get to see darrin grow and learn from not only the racism that he has experienced in his life but also from the family members in his life that did not always set him up for success. He learns how to better support the family he is building.

I LOVED this graphic novel. Another one that I feel like should be required reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for providing a copy of this to me for my review! This was a beautiful graphic novel. The artwork was stunning, and I was completely sucked into Darrin’s story. When this is published, I will definitely be purchasing a copy for my classroom library! I think this would serve as a great supplementary text to include in the units I teach The Hate U Give and All American Boys.

I really enjoyed this book and it fostered some conversations I had the next day with a student. I've also already suggested it to a therapist to share with their clients when it comes out. I think this book is so needed, giving voice to an experience that is shared by so many. I appreciated the author's voice and braveness in sharing experiences and feelings so personal. Definitely would suggest to others!

An insightful graphic memoir about race and parents navigating having “the talk” with their young Black kids.