Abouet's is a gentle, nostalgic account.'- Craig Taylor, The Guardian (UK) 'Marguerite Abouet's comic tells of a lost age, a time in the late 1970s when the Ivory Coast was basking in the glow of an economic boom, when disco seeped from the open air clubs in Abidjan and teenage girls such as Aya, Adjoua and Bintou were able to enjoy one last flirtatious summer before adulthood.

'Oubrerie's style animates both the broadly funny and painfully grave moments in Abouet's rhythmic slice-of-life storytelling.'- The Washington Post An appendix dishes out recipes, Ivorian slang, history and social background, and other extras valuable for the classroom as well as fun for casual readers.'- Martha Cornog, Library Journal 'An Aya omnibus! Loosely based on Abouet's late-1970s youth in Africa's Ivory Coast, the Aya series has garnered numerous commendations and been tagged as great for teens by YALSA. Reviews About the Author Reviews Praise for Aya: Life in Yop City

(Volumes four through six, are published in English for the first time by Drawn & Quarterly in Book Two.) Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the Children's Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA's Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award and was included on 'best of' lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. This reworked omnibus edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in Abouet's Yop City, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One: Life in Yop City. Clément Oubrerie's warm colors and energetic, playful lines connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet's vibrant writing. It's a wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City.Īn unpretentious and gently humorous story that captures an Africa we rarely see-spirited, hopeful, and resilient- Aya won the 2006 award for Best First Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted nineteen-year-old Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet's youth in Yop City.

Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first television ad campaign promoting the fortifying effects of Solibra, 'the strong man's beer.' It's a golden time, and the nation, too-an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa-seems fueled by something wondrous.

Media Issues, Communication & Journalism.

Computer Science & Information Technology.

Aya of yop city