This book is like grade school if it were a crime scene.
Doktor Karayom's first book: What to know
Grade 3 is 200 plus pages of Dr. Karayom images that may take a bit of time to scrub off your head: a mother who finds surprising comfort in peeling the skin off her son; a boy with pencils sticking out of his bloodied scalp as if forming a Jesus crown; a kid who sets fire to himself after finding out the “exchange gift” present he got was a box of matches. This book is like grade school if it were a crime scene.
The images are not mere floating artworks on paper. They form part of 23 little komiks-style stories told not only with absurd humor and subversive joy by the author and artist—whose name is Russel Trinidad in real life—but also affection and even hints of poignancy. The boy who ends up with the box of posporo wakes up from his flash of a dream and stops himself from setting fire to his classmates, realizing the gifter might be too broke to afford anything more. “Sino ba naman ako para mag mataas…” the giftee asks. And of the skin-peeling? It’s the kid’s way of offering solace to his mother who’d just been abandoned by his dad. Do these heartwarming endings make the book safe for kids? We'll have parents be the judge of that.
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