Best as a starting reference for kids researching fandom-related topics—or perhaps for adults baffled by said kids’ hobby.
A historical overview of fandom.
Exploring the reason for fandom’s existence—community in shared passions and desire for more from the fandom’s source materials—this book looks at common forms of creative expression in fandom. The five chapters are devoted to fan fiction, fan videos, cosplay, fan visuals (comics, memes, fan art, and so on), and games. The book’s greatest strength is its exploration of the historical origins of the various fandom forms, demonstrating that while the internet has transformed fandom, fan fiction and the like have been around for hundreds of years—even chess was once thought to be dangerously addictive in the same way Dungeons & Dragons and computer games have been. The highlighted fandoms skew American- and Eurocentric, leading to odd omissions of the influence of anime and manga fandom, beyond the coining of the word “cosplay.” Occasionally, arguable ideas are presented as fact (such as which video was the first to go viral), and readers might find themselves wishing for more information regarding the tenuous relation of fandom and copyright. Overall, the book is upbeat and optimistic, and it has a prominent social justice lens that highlights fan creators of color and the ways fandom allows for greater diversity in media so often dominated by straight white men.
Best as a starting reference for kids researching fandom-related topics—or perhaps for adults baffled by said kids’ hobby. (glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5124-5049-1
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works.
A new edition of late author Zinn’s 2007 work, which was adapted for young readers by Stefoff and based on Zinn’s groundbreaking 1980 original for adults.
This updated version, also adapted by Stefoff, a writer for children and teens, contains new material by journalist Morales. The work opens with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and concludes with a chapter by Morales on social and political issues from 2006 through the election of President Joe Biden seen through the lens of Latinx identity. Zinn’s work famously takes a radically different perspective from that of most mainstream history books, viewing conflicts as driven by rich people taking advantage of poorer ones. Zinn professed his own point of view as being “critical of war, racism, and economic injustice,” an approach that felt fresh among popular works of the time. Unfortunately, despite upgrades that include Morales’ perspective, “a couple of insights into Native American history,” and “a look at the Asian American activism that flourished alongside other social movements in the 1960s and 1970s,” the book feels dated. It entirely lacks footnotes, endnotes, or references, so readers cannot verify facts or further investigate material, and the black-and-white images lack credits. Although the work seeks to be inclusive, readers may wonder about the omission of many subjects relating to race, gender, and sexuality, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Indian boarding schools, the Tulsa Race Massacre, Loving v. Virginia, the Stonewall Uprising, Roe v. Wade, Title IX, the AIDS crisis, and the struggle for marriage equality.
A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781644212516
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An important story drowned in illegibility and exposition.
A biography, in comic form, of a survivor of Josef Mengele’s horrific experiments on twins.
Eva and Miriam Mozes are twins, born in 1934 to the only Jewish family in their Romanian village. Though Papa, fearing the antisemitism of interwar Romania, wants the family to flee to safety in Palestine, Mama argues against it. And so it is that they are still in Romania when their home is invaded by Hitler’s ally, Hungary. Following an all-too-familiar story, the Mozes family is sent first to the ghetto and then on to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Torn away from their family, the girls are brought to Mengele for his nightmarish twin experiments. The graphic form mercifully makes it difficult to provide much detail of the stomach-churning tortures Mengele inflicted on those he found lesser, though the blocky illustrations certainly feature starvation, death, and disease. After the girls are liberated by the Soviets, they begin the second part of their ordeal: living with their trauma. Two extremely dense chapters detail the next 74 years, eventually building to the journey Eva would take late in her life toward liberating herself by forgiving the Nazis. This overstuffed survivor tale owes less to Maus than it does to the For Beginners series of graphic nonfiction. Dense blocks of historical play-by-play, ungainly prose, and hard-to-read lettering make this a slog.
An important story drowned in illegibility and exposition. (Graphic biography. 13-15)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68435-178-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Red Lightning Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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