Koko Be Good

Koko Be Good by Jen Wang Jon is a new grad student and musician who desperately misses his long-distance girlfriend. While trying to be social at the bar with his new classmates, he meets the explosive and rebellious Koko. She has no regular income and seems to float from one friend’s house to another, trying to find as much adventure as possible. Somehow, these two opposites strike up a friendship. Koko is inspired by Jon, who plans to join his girlfriend in working with disadvantaged children in Peru, to try to be good. What is good, though, and is it good for her to try to be good if being good is antithetical to her nature? Meanwhile, her initial poking fun at Jon’s efforts makes him reconsider: is this really what he wants to do? Would he be more true to himself rejoining his old band or taking his experimental music further? Wang’s shaded artwork transitions seamlessly from calm and beautiful to crazy and comical along with Koko’s mercurial moods. This is a tale full of the adventure and searching of young adulthood.