Ask a Bookseller: ‘Angelica and the Bear Prince’ by Trung Le Nguyen
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K-12 school is back in session across the state, and as usual on Ask a Bookseller, we’re marking the occasion by focusing on books for kids and teen. Char Palmer of Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis recommends the YA graphic novel “Angelica and the Bear Prince,” written by Minneapolis writer and cartoonist Trung Le Nguyen.
High school drama? Sure. Transformative power of theater? Check. This graphic novel follows a burned-out teen, Angelica, who is buoyed by supportive messages on social from ... a bear? Determined to meet the person inside the bear costume who serves as the local theater’s mascot, she gets an internship at the theater.
“It's an adorable story. The art is great, full of whimsy,” says Palmer. “It kind of reads almost like a modern-day fairy tale. So it's realism playing off of the magical kind of whimsy of the theater and the show. It's almost like two different worlds colliding.”
Palmer also appreciates that the storm has good trans representation via one of the main characters.
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