Mi Barrio from Smarter Comics - Softcover

Robert Renteria; Corey Michael Blake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1610660005 ISBN 13: 9781610660006

Publisher: Writers of the Round Table Press, 2012

Synopsis

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."

About this title

Review:

This inspirational title, produced by the business books–into–comics outfit Writers of the Round Table, adapts businessman Renteria's 2008 memoir about his hard-knock life into a punchy, easy-to-digest story. Renteria grew up with a single mother in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood during the 1970s, where he did everything that should have gotten him killed: running with gangs, selling drugs, the works. A stint in the military straightened him out, but didn't provide many prospects for employment. After knocking around in Chicago, Renteria convinced the owner of a laundry sales company to take a chance on him. Cut to years later, and Renteria is a wealthy salesman who has started his own company and now also mentors and lectures about getting out of the ghetto grind (his quick answer: hard work). Clester's art is more highly accomplished than is usually seen in true-life graphic adaptations, and while Renteria's tendency to gloss over the details can leave his story feeling sketchy at times, it's a work whose hard-won sense of hopefulness outweighs any hint of preachiness.

(Publishers Weekly)

"“Mi Barrio,” which is based on the book, “From the Barrio to the Board Room,” was impossible to put down; it’s as compelling as any Superman comic."— BNET.com

"Mi Barrio is a book crafted lovingly with a specific audience in mind: disenfranchised children and undereducated people with a desire to make more from their life. Sometimes it takes a little push to get people moving, especially in a society where the average person doesn’t read a single book in a year. Releasing a story like this in comic form is an excellent idea. It’s important that this book is straightforward and simple. Studies have shown that comics help encourage literacy among children. And literacy is a key factor in success in life, with direct correlation to income levels. Mi Barrio hopes to be a gateway, a doorway to both the world of comics and into one person’s success story. It won’t inspire everyone (and sometimes a jaded critic like myself needs to step back and consider his own questioning) but it stands a good chance of helping those who need it most." — TradeReadingOrder.com

2011 bronze medal winner of Independent Publisher Book Awards

From Booklist:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Writers of the Round Table Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1610660005
• ISBN 13: 9781610660006
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80
• Illustrator: Shane Clester