‘Alice On The Run’ Receives A 2023 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor

Welcome to the table,

I watch a lot of docuseries. Maybe more accurately, while I am working, I listen to a lot of docuseries. Over sitcoms and action-adventure, I really enjoy learning about people and their stories. Learning about the food, culture, rituals, and relationships of others makes me feel connected to a world I know my wheelchair is going to keep me from seeing.

The knee-jerk reaction is “Oh, don’t say that,” but I know what this life is. In my lifetime, I have seen more work go into making pills for old guys to enjoy the company of young women or silicon-filled sacs to enhance the conventional “beauty” of people, while making the world more accessible has woefully lagged behind.

I won’t roll along the great wall, or see the pyramids in person. It’s not a lack of want or effort on my part, it’s just realism. I can’t even get into a local gaming shop because of the way the shelves are set up. The idea of spending thousands to travel and not being able to do things is way too anxiety-inducing to think about.

So I read and listen to stories from places I want to go but will never see. And I learn, at least second or third hand, about the stories from our world.

Alice on the Run seems like it is going to be a powerful story.

Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War, from Humanoid’s critically acclaimed Life Drawn imprint, is based on the true story of a young child, Alice Cyuzuzo, following her journey as she traverses the roads of Zaire to seek refuge from the civil war that has struck her native Rwanda.

Written by Gaspard Talmasse and translated by Nanette McGuinness, Alice on the Run is set in Gitarama, in the Southern Province of Rwanda in 1994, five-year-old Alice lives a peaceful childhood with her parents and little sisters, but life as she knows it changes forever as the genocide of the Tutsis erupts, forcing her to escape her village with her family. On the hot roads of the Democratic Republic of Congo, known then as Zaire, Alice grows up bouncing from one refugee camp to another and seeking some semblance of a normal life.

It is said that Talmasse delivers a singular testimony, capturing with painfully real emotion a relentless world as seen through the eyes of an innocent child: one who grew up to become his own life partner.

Humanoids has announced that this powerfully moving non-fiction graphic novel has received a 2023 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor.  The GLLI prize aims to highlight the gems of world literature for 12-to-18-year-olds. The original list of titles included works translated from 5 languages, and the shortlist includes stories from Asia, Europe, and South America. Works considered were published within three years of the submission deadline. The shortlist of seven titles contains various themes and subject matter of interest to teens and includes many graphic novels.

Until next time, listen to the world around you… near and far. You never know whose stories may change the way you see things.