Learn more about this fascinating intersectional graphic memoir and browse other graphic novels in our libraries' collections.

Messy Roots was selected as a 2023 - 2024 UVM Learning Community book for the Summer Reading Program by two Learning Communities: Arts & Creativity and Global Connections. Laura Gao was just recently on campus giving talks about her book.

Here is a little bit more about Messy Roots:

“After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID‐19 makes Wuhan a household name.

In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming‐of‐age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao’s debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.”