Engaging account that invites young people to continue to advocate for equality now.
A teen and her two friends learn about the Stonewall riots from her abuela.
Natalia and her friends Jax and Rashad are helping Natalia’s abuela Carmen move into a senior living facility. As the teens help her unpack, they find a picture Natalia has never seen before, and Abuela says that it is a photo of her and her girlfriend in 1969. Carmen tells the teens that back then, being bisexual, gay, or transgender wasn’t as accepted, so she was not out at the time. As Carmen shares how dangerous it could be if people discovered the truth—queer people faced danger from the police, employers, family, and therapists—she and the skeptical teens are transported to the summer of 1969 and New York City’s Stonewall Inn. Bongiovanni acknowledges in an author’s note that the graphic novel “is not 100 percent true” because so much information about the Stonewall uprising comes from oral accounts; still, the book manages to put the teens in the midst of compromising situations that allow factual information into the narrative. Panels show a diverse group of queer folks, including legendary activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, appreciating the safe haven of the Stonewall Inn and standing up to the police. The book ends with Abuela discussing the strides forward and backward in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Natalia and Carmen are cued Latinx, Rashad is brown-skinned, and Jax is light-skinned.
Engaging account that invites young people to continue to advocate for equality now. (foreword, LGBTQ+ resources for youth, a letter to young LGBTQI activists, glossary) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-61836-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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