A winner.
The trials of a high school basketball team trying to clinch the state title and the graphic novelist chronicling them.
The Dragons, Bishop O’Dowd High School’s basketball team, have a promising lineup of players united by the same goal. Backed by Coach Lou Richie, an alumnus himself, this could be the season the Oakland, California, private Catholic school breaks their record. While Yang (Team Avatar Tales, 2019, etc.), a math teacher and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, is not particularly sporty, he is intrigued by the potential of this story and decides to focus his next graphic novel on the team’s ninth bid for the state championship. Yang seamlessly blends a portrait of the Dragons with the international history of basketball while also tying in his own career arc as a graphic novelist as he tries to balance family, teaching, and comics. Some panels directly address the creative process, such as those depicting an interaction between Yang and a Punjabi student regarding the way small visual details cue ethnicity in different ways. This creative combination of memoir and reportage elicits questions of storytelling, memory, and creative liberty as well as addressing issues of equity and race. The full-color illustrations are varied in layout, effectively conveying intense emotion and heart-stopping action on the court. Yang is Chinese American, Richie is black, and there is significant diversity among the team members.
A winner. (notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 13-18)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62672-079-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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PERSPECTIVES
A quiet powerhouse of a memoir.
Graphic novelist Walden recounts her years coming-of-age as a competitive ice skater.
Tillie Walden knew she was gay since she was 5, which was also when she began ice skating. This memoir recounts the years from when she’s 11 to when she reaches her late teens, as her life marches on through fledgling romances, moving halfway across the country, bullying, and various traumas with skating as her only constant. Her story is largely insular, with her family only visible in the periphery, even with regard to her skating. Walden’s recollections tend to meander at times, with an almost stream-of-consciousness feel about them; her taciturn introspection mixed with adolescent ennui creates a subdued, yet graceful tone. For a young author (Walden is in her early 20s), she is remarkably adept at identifying the seminal moments of her life and evincing their impacts on her trajectory. Her two-toned art is lovely and spare, utilizing the occasional splash of an accenting color to heighten visual interest. She draws herself as a blonde, bespectacled, white girl, a depiction that brings Harriet Welsch to mind. Walden deems herself “a creator who is happy making a book without all the answers,” and while she may not solve any of life’s great conundrums, her offering is intimate and compelling.
A quiet powerhouse of a memoir. (Graphic memoir. 13-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-772-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
IN THE NEWS
Heavy reading for a revolutionary manifesto and unlikely to be remembered when 2020 rolls around.
The liberal firebrand belabors corrupt government policies, fingers corporate bad behavers, and lays out his legislative agenda in this young readers’ edition of Our Revolution (2016).
The author twice mentions that he drew more young voters in the 2016 elections than either of his rivals, but if he expects this mix of talking points, statistics, and campaign rhetoric to fire up readers of pre–voting age he needs another think. After an opening dedication to those young people, he then goes on at tedious length to deliver belligerent indictments of big corporations (“When it comes to dodging taxes, GE brings good things to life”); banks (“their business model is based on fraud”); the pharmaceutical industry (“It has effectively purchased the Congress”); and government policies that have left health care and child care systems “dysfunctional,” immigration “broken,” and public education a “pipeline from school to jail.” Glancing references aside, minorities do not enter his discourse until a late chapter on criminal justice reform. Though he frames his proposed remedies in big-hearted and common-sensical language, they can come off sounding grandiose, such as a claim that eliminating “wasteful and unnecessary administrative costs would free up all the funds we need to provide health care to every American.” Along with occasional charts and surpassingly fustian sidebar tweets (hey, Bernie tweets too!), each chapter features useful leads to activist organizations, online information resources, and videos. Afterword not seen.
Heavy reading for a revolutionary manifesto and unlikely to be remembered when 2020 rolls around. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-13890-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
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