Why Is Everybody Yelling?: Growing Up in My Immigrant Family

"A wonderful book about figuring out who we are and who we want to be when we grow up. It's also about being an American--especially a first-generation American." --Roz Chast

This graphic-novel debut from an acclaimed picture book creator is a powerfully moving memoir of the author's experiences with family, religion, and coming of age in the aftermath of World War II, and the childhood struggles and family secrets that shaped her.

It's 1950s New York, and Marisabina Russo is being raised Catholic and attending a Catholic school that she loves--but when she finds out that she's Jewish by blood, and that her family members are Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, her childhood is thrown into turmoil. To make matters more complicated, her father is out of the picture, her mother is ambitious and demanding, and her older half-brothers have troubles, too. Following the author's young life into the tumultuous, liberating 1960s, this heartfelt, unexpectedly humorous, and meticulously illustrated graphic-novel memoir explores the childhood burdens of memory and guilt, and Marisabina's struggle and success in forming an identity entirely her own.


About the Author
Marisabina Russo is the acclaimed author and illustrator of numerous books for young people including two picture books based on her family's wartime experiences, Always Remember Me and I Will Come Back for You. Why Is Everybody Yelling? is her first graphic novel. She lives in Westchester, New York.