KIRKUS REVIEW
When Yancy’s older brother threatens Yancy’s horse Shy, running away seems the only answer. For all of Yancy’s 15 years, he confides to his journal, he’s felt threatened by Will, his Conduct Disorder–diagnosed brother. To protect Shy, Yancy flees into the California wilderness with the horse. After an educational bout of hard labor assisting the Mexican ranch hand Tavo (who returns to Veracruz and vanishes from Yancy’s consciousness once he’s served his narrative purpose), Yancy is returned home. With his brother increasingly violent and his parents impotent, it’s only a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt. All’s well that ends well—at least for Yancy, who gets a girlfriend, a safe home for his horse and his parents to himself. Too bad for Will, who gets committed to a facility where he’s drugged to the gills. Huang’s cartoons add spice and verisimilitude to Yancy’s journal, despite the distractions of a handwriting-style typeface. The tale’s many weaknesses are made up for by Yancy’s engaging writing style, alternating adolescent poems, narrative and comics. (Fiction. 13-15)
