Full Description
Middle school student Kader is on the precipice of the turbulent path to adulthood. Join him on this journey of discovery and healing through dazzling art replete with puzzles, hidden images, symbolism, reflection and silence.
Award-winning artist Nadir Balan brings this deeply human story to life with stunning illustrations that invite readers to feel every emotion alongside Kader as he uncovers his past and searches for belonging. Written by psychiatrist Dr. Yener Balan and psychotherapist Duygu Balan, this graphic novel embraces raw vulnerability and authentic experiences, creating a story that feels real, digestible, and powerfully relatable.
Kader's Quest offers behavioral health specialists an invaluable therapeutic tool that resonates with young adults facing similar struggles with family dynamics, anxiety, friendship, bullies, and major life transitions. The carefully crafted narrative allows readers to process their own complex emotions through Kader's journey, helping them feel seen in their experiences. For professionals working with teens who struggle to articulate their feelings, this graphic novel provides a meaningful conversation starter grounded in evidence-based principles, making it a compelling read and a powerful clinical resource.
Contents
The story is of a young boy on a journey of discovering his identity, making peace with his family and beginning to heal from his anxiety.
The backstory is his mother got pregnant at an early age, gave him to his paternal grandmother who raised him as his mother. He never met his bio mother, and always thought his bio father was an uncle away at college.
The plot evolves as the boy discovers his caregiver is not his mother, as she is dying of an illness. This is within the setting of him becoming a teenager, and also being introduced to and having to live with his father for the first time.
The narrative continues with the boy beginning mental health therapy, and recreating dynamics with his father, exploring his place in the world as he realizes he has no real parental figure.
The boy's desire for connection, anxieties of not having a container of a home, and search for belonging are complicated with issues of being bullied on social media and at school.
The journey concludes as he learns to forgive, creates his own narrative, and allows his own healing to begin.
