Still, the atmospheric narrative is successful at revealing the tension and texture of a distinctive time and place and one...
A friendship between two teens, one black and one white, emerges both because and in spite of racial change in a 1970s Louisiana town.
The first time Rodney Boulet sees Tatum “Tater” Henry, he is being attacked for daring to come to a whites-only park. Despite the racial climate, Rodney and Tater become friends a few years later when Tater is the first African-American on the baseball team. Integration of the high school means that he, Rodney, and Rodney’s twin sister, Angie, will also be classmates. Angie seems to share their mother’s belief in equality, but Rodney carries many of his father’s prejudices. High school, with its emphasis on sports and dating, proves tough, especially as Tater demonstrates his talent as quarterback and he and Angie grow close. Bradley is an accomplished sportswriter and deftly evokes the cultural importance of small-town sports and how these communities experienced racial change in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Rodney and his family are richly drawn characters; indeed, narrator Rodney’s grappling with his ambivalence about race is especially well-done. Tater, on the other hand reads more like a symbol than a person. He has overcome tragedy, but readers are left to wonder at the source of his strength.
Still, the atmospheric narrative is successful at revealing the tension and texture of a distinctive time and place and one teenager’s struggle to make sense of it. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9793-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
Puerile and odd, this concept doesn’t float. (Graphic fiction. 12-15)
He’s a teen... and a boat.
This overly ambitious and often downright odd graphic novel introduces the not-too-creatively named Teen Boat. This is a young man for whom the ordinary trials and tribulations of adolescence are amplified by his bizarre nautical alter-ego, which he turns into if he gets any liquid in his ear. In an effort to fit in at his stereotypical high school where the jocks get the hot girls, the punk kids are anarchists and the goth kids moodily mope around, Teen Boat tries to use his transforming abilities to achieve popularity. He lets the in-crowd throw a party on him when he is in his boat form; this, of course, ends disastrously. He tries to get a driver’s license, but his jerky driving maneuvers lead to his evaluator’s coffee accidentally spilling in his ear, resulting in a calamitous outcome. This is very much a comic for adolescent boys: Humor is often sophomoric, and most of the girls—with the exception of Teen Boat’s best friend—are busty caricatures. While some of the jokes will indeed induce a chuckle or two, many are stretched to the point of exhaustion, leaving readers ho-humming rather than haw-hawing. The peculiar concept and campy jokes create a strange blend, sort of Archie meets the Transformers—a puzzling combination, indeed.
Puerile and odd, this concept doesn’t float. (Graphic fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-63669-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
An adequate portrait of an art-obsessed teen, but, unlike Vanessa, it doesn't stand out.
A self-proclaimed artist learns lessons about friendship, thoughtfulness and the importance of having something to say.
Restless, exuberant and brightly colored in pink hair and rainbow eye shadow, Vanessa knows she's not like the other “zombie kids” at her Seattle high school. Living with her Grampie and her dockworker mother, who settled down after becoming pregnant with her as a teenager, Vanessa longs for freedom and adulthood and assumes those around her do too (she constantly insists her mother should go on more dates, for instance). Readers instantly see the hurt she causes, despite her justifications, when Vanessa crosses boundaries to give the people in her life what she thinks they want—outing her gay best friend or spilling the beans to her shy musician friend Holly's crush. Her desire for new, transformative experiences is clear as she falls in with an older artist crowd and makes dubious, impulsive choices involving an older boy, a fake ID and a pinup calendar. The device of an art teacher helping her realize deeper truths about herself and her art feels familiar, and the insinuation that dyeing one's hair pink is merely a ploy for attention seems more like an adult's assumption than a teen's experience.
An adequate portrait of an art-obsessed teen, but, unlike Vanessa, it doesn't stand out. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-84154-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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