The Complete Persepolis was a new experience for me in two ways. It was the first time I have ever read a long graphic novel. They have never appealed to me: boy, was I wrong. I don't know what I thought would be so different about them: tiny dense hard-to-read text bubbles? "Cartoons?" Whatever it was, I was completely and very pleasantly surprised. This was a sophisticated picture book for grown-ups, with a gripping story that I could not put down. And that was the second new experience: reading about a very ordinary child's then teenager's life in revolutionary Iran. So many books about growing up in a culture so very different from my own are clearly a looking-back from adulthood; this felt absolutely immediate, as if the heroine was describing events as they happened. And the mix of wide scope -- the revolution and all it brought with it to the ordinary Iranian -- with tight focus -- the childish and teenaged thoughts and concerns that any American of the same age could easily identify with -- made this a truly singular reading experience. If you haven't read The Complete Persepolis, I highly recommend it.