A rare gem that truly understands and powerfully portrays grief: essential, aching, and unforgettable.
This reissue of Dungo’s award-winning debut from 2019 weaves a love story with an elegy—and holds both without flinching.
In this graphic memoir of devastating beauty, Dungo tells two stories: He interweaves his relationship with Kristen, a passionate surfer living with cancer, with a richly researched history of surfing, tracing the sport from its early Polynesian roots through to Hawaiian athlete Duke Kahanamoku’s Olympic triumphs and Wisconsinite Tom Blake’s early-20th-century technological innovations and impact on the sport. The structural conceit is elegant—chapters of personal memoir alternate with historical interludes—and Dungo’s color palette makes the leap between timelines feel effortless and instinctive. Warm terracotta and dusty mauve suffuse the historical sequences, while the contemporary story pulses in deep teal and mint green. One page depicts precolonial Hawaiian islanders surfing and carrying goods in a composition that reads like a living frieze—paper-white figures against a warm brown background, human and oceanic forms woven into a single continuous line—capturing at once surfing’s communal joy and its deep spiritual roots. Dungo handles grief, when it arrives, with the same honor and skill. There are no dramatic breakdowns; instead, he renders loss through evocative scenes, such as a crowded hospital corridor and a lone surfer dwarfed by a wave. Few graphic memoirs reckon with grief this honestly or this quietly.
A rare gem that truly understands and powerfully portrays grief: essential, aching, and unforgettable. (bibliography) (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781838742515
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A compelling ode to self-resurrection and Black sisterhood that finds much-needed light in the world’s darkness.
Two acclaimed, award-winning creators team up to present this moving, introspective poetry collection celebrating the possibilities of Black girlhood complemented by atmospheric mixed-media illustrations.
Showcasing varied poetic forms such as free verse and tanka, Watson reflects on coming of age as a Black girl in a society that habitually flattens Black experiences into easily digestible stereotypes. The opening poem, “Where I’m From,” is inspired by the work of Puerto Rican writer Willie Perdomo, and it peels back the layers of Watson’s identity, creating a harmonious alchemy of personal and cultural history that incorporates familiar touchstones and inheritances like “east coast hip-hop and island tradition.” Themes of resilience and perseverance are interwoven throughout, exploring how Black girls’ existence is often a testament to survival. Some poems contemplate the trauma that results from systemic racism and misogynoir; “A Pantoum for Breonna Taylor” notes how white supremacy weaponizes the basic necessity of rest: “Breonna, who reminded us that Black women / are not even safe in our sleep.” But Watson doesn’t dwell in despair; she finds safety in the healing power of love. Other poems, including “Lessons on Being a Sky Walker,” are rallying cries, encouraging Black girls to honor their roots and cherish their versatility. Watson’s reconstructions of childhood delights and teenage wounds examine the collision of race, gender, and class. Holmes’ tender, vibrant art enhances the poems.
A compelling ode to self-resurrection and Black sisterhood that finds much-needed light in the world’s darkness. (Poetry. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593461709
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A must-read reminder that transformation is made possible through community.
Explores historical threads of race, faith, and family as they weave together in the transformation of youthful, imprisoned Malcolm Little into empowered, purpose-driven Malcolm X.
Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, partners with rising literary star Jackson to explore 20-something Malcolm’s growth through reading, debate, and dialogue. This dedication and rediscovery of purpose, made manifest through newfound faith, would catapult him to the global stage as the chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam under the tutelage of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Refusing to establish his transformation as the marker of an unjust prison system’s rehabilitation strategy, this fictionalized retelling spotlights the relationships, perspectives, lessons, and questions delivered by Black men imprisoned around him and the critical embrace of a family that never abandoned him. “Wake up, Malcolm” is a cue that resounds throughout, linking the familial legacy of Malcolm’s parents, who held ties to ministry and served roles in the racial uplift mission of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. Readers will make connections to persistent injustices faced by Black communities—and the beautiful ways which, despite that terror, Black families have found to craft visions of freedom and lives of dignity and love. This novel showcases the ways that becoming is a social process requiring care, commitment, and community but is ultimately world-changing work.
A must-read reminder that transformation is made possible through community. (more information, timeline, Malcolm X’s reading list, authors’ note) (Biographical novel. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31329-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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