Boxers & Saints Boxed Set Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.Boxers & Saints Boxed Set EditionOne of the greatest comics storytellers alive brings all his formidable talents to bear in this astonishing new work.In two volumes, Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the Western interlopers. Against all odds, their grass-roots rebellion is successful.But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite side of the conflict. A girl whose village has no place for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity.Boxers & Saints is one of the most ambitious graphic novels First Second has ever published. It offers a penetrating insight into not only one of the most controversial episodes of modern Chinese history, but into the very core of our human nature. Gene Luen Yang is rightly called a master of the comics form, and this book will cement that reputation.This boxed set includes the trade paperback Boxers as well as the trade paperback Saints, packaged together in one slipcase.Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult LiteratureA New York Times bestsellerOne of Publishers Weekly's Best Comic Books and Best Children's Books of 2013 A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013An NPR Best Book of 2013
Series: Boxers & Saints (Book 1)
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: First Second; Box edition (September 10, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596439246
ISBN-13: 978-1596439245
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.9 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #51,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Books > Teens > Historical Fiction > Asia #69 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Religious #133 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Comics & Graphic Novels
Age Range: 12 - 18 years
Grade Level: 7 and up
Even though Boxers & Saints has been published as two separate books, they really do need to be read together to get the complete story. Which is why I'm reviewing both books together.The year is 1898. The place is China. Once closed off to the rest of the world, foreign missionaries and soldiers have taken to roaming the countryside to bully, rob, and convert the Chinese people. There are those that wish to stand up to them, but how? The foreigners have guns and power on their side. And then...Little Bao stands up. He has learned to harness the power of the ancient Chinese gods, and he recruits an army of Boxers - common people trained in Kung Fu, who use the power of the ancient gods to free China from those "foreign devils." And lo and behold it works! They begin winning violent battles against the foreign soldiers. But there is a cost to their victory. Death. Death of those "foreign devils" and death of Chinese citizens who have converted to Christianity. On the other side of the coin of the Boxers...are the Saints. Chinese Christians who want to make a better life for themselves, but are torn between their nation and their faith. One such Saint is an unwanted fourth daughter, Four-Girl, who is never even given a real name by her family. Instead she finds both a name, Vibiana, and a family with a local Christian missionary. She begins having visions of Joan of Arc, who attempts to guide her down the path of righteousness. But the Boxer Rebellion is coming...and Vibiana will soon have to decide whether she will be Chinese or Christian.Much like in American Born Chinese, Gene Yang weaves two different powerful stories together to create one amazing story. In this collection, each story represents a different side of the coin.
I finished the second book this morning and I am still an emotional wreck. Yang has officially passed into another plane of storytelling. Those who know his work well are used to Yang's subtle approach to difficult topics like radical forgiveness, cultural identity and cultural shame, and even social Darwinism, eugenics, and child abuse, all with a wry sense of humor and empathy. His work also often reflects the ways in which ordinary people grapple with and through faith in the midst of personal crisis. "Boxers" and "Saints" are no different in one sense, but this story has a fundamental difference: the stakes are so much higher, and the outcome, potentially so much more disastrous. The characters seem trapped by decisions and consequences which, once they start rolling, spin entirely out of their control.What Yang gives us in each book is a separate portrait of two young people from similar circumstances who take dramatically different paths to finding a coherent identity and a sense of justice. Through their interwoven stories, Yang takes each one through a series of extremely difficult questions about the origins of religious and political extremism, how even good people with noble ideas can cause unspeakable damage, the horrors of imperialism, and the ways in which the various Christian mission movements were problematically tied to the imperialists. Yang takes no sides and does not moralize about the events of the Boxer rebellion, just a profound sadness for their plight and his ever-present deep, deep empathy. And that is precisely what makes these novels so devastating.Yang explores in gut-wrenching detail the ways in which each person's unique experiences shape the ways in which they react to political and cultural upheaval.
Boxers (Boxers & Saints) Boxers & Saints Boxed Set Saints (Boxers & Saints) Led Zeppelin I-Houses of the Holy (Boxed Set) Platinum Guitar: Authentic Guitar TAB, Book (Boxed Set) (Alfred's Platinum Album Editions) Just Boxers 2017 Wall Calendar (Dog Breed Calendars) Weird but True Collector's Set (Boxed Set): 900 Outrageous Facts Weird but True! Collector's Set 2 (Boxed Set): 900 Outrageous Facts AMISH ROMANCE: Love in Sugar Creek Boxed Set: Clean Amish Romance Four Book Box Set Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-4: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning, and Pirates Past Noon Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5 Book Paperback Boxed Set (new covers w/poster) (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4) Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 5-8: Night of the Ninjas, Afternoon on the , Sunset of the Sabertooth, and Midnight on the Moon A Little Books Boxed Set Featuring Little Pea, Little Hoot, Little Oink Bad Kitty's Very Bad Boxed Set (#1) Bad Kitty's Very Very Bad Boxed Set (#2) Mini Masters Boxed Set Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-28 Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and Steam Train, Dream Train Board Books Boxed Set Plants vs. Zombies Boxed Set Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One Book Boxed Set: Avengers Assembled
