[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]
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Asterix is one of the most famous French cartoon characters in Europe. He is as well known as Bugs Bunny in America and Doraemon in Japan. He is a Gaul (ゴール人) during the time of the expanding Roman Empire. Although the Romans have great technology and many soldiers, the Gauls use magic potions to become super powerful. Asterix and his friends always get into trouble with the Romans, but they always use their strength and smarts to escape in the end. This comic reminded me of Vicke Viking (小さなバイキング ビッケ), who used to be popular in Japan (learn about the new movie here: https://www.vic-movie.com/)
Asterix is not very easy to start reading because there is a lot of word play and some Latin and other foreign language. However, if you keep reading past the first two or three pages, I think you will get used to it and start enjoying the story. This book contains three full stories, so you don’t have to read the whole thing.
My two cents: Read a little, ask a native speaker about some of the jokes you don’t understand, and enjoy the funny art and silly story in a group instead of by yourself.
