World Citizen Comics were left unattended on the library shelf long enough that I finally caved and borrowed one. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Ultimately, I’m surprised RE: Constitutions is shelved with the Adult nonfiction graphic novels. While I had a pleasant experience, the audience is clearly the Youth(TM).

Fresh from a summer helping would-be American citizens pass their citizenship tests at the local Welcome Center, high schooler Marcus needs to write a paper about the experience for class credit. The paper’s topic is innocuous enough—what does it mean to be a citizen? I wrote a dozen papers like it in high school (thanks, Government class). However, those would have been way better papers if I’d asked my community for help like Marcus did. When Marcus confesses having difficulty writing at a neighborhood picnic, everyone pitches in ideas. Each neighbor has a unique experience and meaning of citizenship. Collectively, we got this.

RE: Constitutions was a breath of fresh hair to be honest. While I studied the USA Constitution in school, the rhetoric had a certain, um, angle (*cough* American Exceptionalism *cough* *cough*). RE: Constitutions certainly centers the USA Constitution, given the setting, but the Constitution is placed in context. It’s treated as a phenomenon, not this evidence that America isn’t terrible. Feathers eloquently makes her points, the art is charming, and I was pretty engaged in what would have been a boring treatise in lesser hands. The salient bits are summed up in the back matter for easy reference. This book seems like a great resource for high schoolers. It provided a balm for me in a tumultuous week.