Inspiring in spirit, if not in specifics.
The story of Simon Tam, a Chinese American activist who took his fight for the right to trademark his rock band’s name to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Born in 1981, Simon Tam grew up loving music and working in his parents’ restaurant in San Diego. His early experiences with racism informed his worldview, so when he decided to pursue music and didn’t see many people in the industry who looked like him, he named his rock band The Slants in order to “take ownership of hurtful words and give them a new meaning.” When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected his trademark application on the grounds that the name was racist, Tam decided to fight back. The legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 2017 ruled in Tam’s favor. Wenjen’s writing is forceful and emotional but doesn’t explain the specific legal arguments, reducing them to generalizations such as “Asians [were] being treated differently by the government” and “the judicial system was racist.” When dialogue is used, it’s sometimes unclear who is speaking. Where Wenjen shines, however, is in communicating the passion with which Tam dedicated himself to fighting for equality and combating racism. Gómez illustrates the narrative with dyanmic, collagelike digital art in a limited palette of muted colors. Each spread also features a quote from the song “We Sing From the Heart” that The Slants wrote about the experience.
Inspiring in spirit, if not in specifics. (about the band, information on other activists who have fought anti-Asian racism, sources, author’s and illustrator’s notes, lyrics to “We Sing From the Heart”) (Informational picture book. 6-12)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781636550879
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Red Comet Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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