McMullan’s family began its Chinese sojourn as missionaries. Though the book is aimed at young readers, one wonders if it won’t appeal even more to adults interested in this period of history and in the emotional development of a young artist. In full-page watercolor paintings, each matched with a brief elucidation of some moment of the author’s childhood, frequently placed in historical context, that world is brought to life in lovely, poetic detail. One family’s life in that time and place is revealed to beautiful effect in James McMullan’s graphic memoir, “Leaving China.” In 1937, long-simmering tensions burst into warfare, as the Japanese rapidly occupied large swaths of China. Before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and so entered World War II, war had been raging between China and Japan for four years.
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