Flashy and engaging with emotional depth—a slam-dunk thrill.
This graphic-novel adaptation of Alexander’s 2015 Newbery Medal winner offers powerful visuals to an already-cherished narrative of teenage black boys navigating the game of life.
The tale follows a year in the life of the Bell family, with Chuck “Da Man” Bell at the helm as he teaches his twin sons, Josh and Jordan, how to follow in his star-studded footsteps. Josh “Filthy McNasty” Bell takes the lead in narration, providing readers with in-depth court play-by-play as he deals with the growing pains of adolescence, balancing brotherhood and his own becoming. Myriad poetic forms appear throughout. A portion embrace rhyme, with a hint of old-school flow recalling hip-hop’s golden era. Veteran comics illustrator Anyabwile brings an expansive range of black-boy emotional expressiveness to the page, accompanied by a striking attention to detail and pop-cultural reference. Just check the fresh barber lines on display or the true-to-life illustrations of beloved athletes and musicians such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and more. Eschewing the traditional paneled look of the graphic-novel form creates a dynamic flow between the scenes. These are sectioned out into basketball-appropriate quarters and dotted with Chuck’s inspirational Basketball Rules, such as this excerpt of No. 3: “The sky is your limit, sons. Always shoot for the sun and you will SHINE.” These messages grow ever more resonant as readers approach the climax of this heartwarming story.
Flashy and engaging with emotional depth—a slam-dunk thrill. (Graphic fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-96001-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Nothing spices up a boring road trip like moments of extreme terror.
Twins Coke and Pepsi McDonald squeak through numerous murder attempts at roadside attractions across the Midwest and on eastward.
After berating readers who skipped the opener, Mission Unstoppable (2011), Gutman picks up his unconventional cross-country travelogue where he left off. He takes the RV holding his 13-year-old brainiacs and their oblivious parents from the National Mustard Museum in Spring Green, Wisc., to the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Along the way, he pauses to suspend the sibs in French-fry cages over boiling oil outside the first McDonald’s, imprison them in glass vats of soft-serve ice cream at Ohio’s spectacular Cedar Point Amusement Park, lock them inside Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (with a Megadeth track cranked up to mind-blowing level) and subject them to other perils. What’s up? It seems aptly named bad guy Archie Clone and other assassins are out to kill, or perhaps test, them before they can join a secret organization of child geniuses and collect a huge reward. Tucking in small photos, instructions for following the route on Google Maps, facts about attractions large and small and mysterious ciphered messages, the author brings his confused but resourceful youngsters to an explosive climax and a shocking revelation that guarantees further adventures on the road back to the left coast.
Nothing spices up a boring road trip like moments of extreme terror. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-182767-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers should start with the first volume to get the characters’ back stories, but here’s an animated, breathlessly paced...
A heavy thunderstorm brings a motley trio of fugitive ex-circus performers, their armored pursuers and a band of smugglers together under the roof of a greedy innkeeper in this never-a-dull-moment sequel to Tower of Treasure (2010).
Complications pile on as young Dessa and her two companions—a small, irascible, bright-blue Norker and a huge, trollish Ettin—find refuge in a stable. They do so just as the owner of the adjacent inn is finishing a deal with a crew of smugglers and moments before Captain Drake and his elite troop of royal guards ride into the innyard. As in the opening episode, Chantler not only shows an ability to pack plenty of clearly defined action into his graphic panels, but also develops unusually nuanced characters through glances, gestures, subtleties of facial expression and the occasional quick flashback. In the course of a nonstop flurry of chases, captures, wild mishaps, pratfalls, acrobatic feats and narrow escapes, Dessa also picks up a cryptic clue to the whereabouts of her kidnapped twin brother and his evil captor to set up the next chapter.
Readers should start with the first volume to get the characters’ back stories, but here’s an animated, breathlessly paced adventure that’s just hitting its stride. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55453-416-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
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