Mi Barrio from Smarter Comics

Don't let where you came from dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you become. Successful entrepreneur Robert Renteria grew up sleeping in a dresser drawer. This hard-hitting comic memoir traces Robert's life from a childhood of poverty and abuse in one of the poorest areas of East Los Angeles, to his emergence as a business owner and civic leader today. For more information about Robert and the From the Barrio Foundation, please visit www.fromthebarrio.com or Google "Robert Renteria."

Adapted from the book From the Barrio to the Board Room (2008) by Renteria, who created a foundation that brings his message of hope to inner-city schools, Mi Barrio occupies a unique position in the sequential-art format: the inspirational graphic novel. Telling the story of Renteria’s real-life struggle to escape a neighborhood filled with gangbangers and a home haunted by an abusive stepfather to eventually succeed as a president of his own laundry-machine company, Mi Barrio hits all the familiar points in a straightforward first-person narrative that eschews subtlety in favor of its lessons, while the artwork conveys the clean, efficient sense of a corporate brochure. However, it has the undeniable gravity of the truth and its inspirational message does come through loud and clear as Renteria, encouraged by his loving mother and grandfather, learns a sense of discipline in the army and employs a philosophy of hard work, a never-quit spirit, and a drive to live out what he describes as “the American Dream.” Grades 6-9. --Jesse Karp