Loving and true but doesn’t always avoid cliché.
In this stand-alone companion to Krosoczka’s graphic memoir, Hey, Kiddo (2018), 16-year-old Jarrett spends a life-changing week at Camp Sunshine, a summer camp for seriously ill children and their families.
In 1994, artistic Jarrett, who flies under the radar at school, joins a diverse assortment of his Worcester, Massachusetts, high school classmates chosen to travel to Maine as camp volunteers. His one-on-one assignment is with Diego, who has advanced brain cancer and is a wheelchair user. Diego is withdrawn and uninterested in camp but is eventually brought out of his shell by Jarrett’s quiet companionship. The slice-of-life story follows activities and developing friendships at what is in most ways a typical summer camp, yet it’s one filled with kids in extraordinary circumstances enjoying the rare privilege of being ordinary. Krosoczka’s art has an appealingly painterly and deliberately loose style—it’s easy to see why the campers enjoy his cartoons. Especially notable is the limited color palette tending to grays, oranges, and yellows, like the titular sunshine playing across old photos. The matter-of-fact tone often, but not always, avoids leaning too hard into sentimentality. But ultimately this is a narrative in large part about inspiration provided by sick children to healthy people. This brings with it inherent and perhaps unavoidable issues with presenting the campers as lessons. The book is stronger when it prioritizes the reality of the kids themselves and gives their interior lives focus.
Loving and true but doesn’t always avoid cliché. (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 14-18)Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781338356311
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Though not the most balanced, an enlightening look back for the queer future.
An adaptation for teens of the adult title A Queer History of the United States (2011).
Divided into thematic sections, the text filters LGBTQIA+ history through key figures in each era from the 1500s to the present. Alongside watershed moments like the 1969 Stonewall uprising and the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the text brings to light less well-known people, places, and events: the 1625 free love colony of Merrymount, transgender Civil War hero Albert D.J. Cashier, and the 1951 founding of the Mattachine Society, to name a few. Throughout, the author and adapter take care to use accurate pronouns and avoid imposing contemporary terminology onto historical figures. In some cases, they quote primary sources to speculate about same-sex relationships while also reminding readers of past cultural differences in expressing strong affection between friends. Black-and-white illustrations or photos augment each chapter. Though it lacks the teen appeal and personable, conversational style of Sarah Prager’s Queer, There, and Everywhere (2017), this textbook-level survey contains a surprising amount of depth. However, the mention of transgender movements and activism—in particular, contemporary issues—runs on the slim side. Whereas chapters are devoted to over 30 ethnically diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer figures, some trans pioneers such as Christine Jorgensen and Holly Woodlawn are reduced to short sidebars.
Though not the most balanced, an enlightening look back for the queer future. (glossary, photo credits, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8070-5612-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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