Creativity and athletic endeavor forge a surprising alliance in this energetic series opener.
A group of middle schoolers without an extracurricular to call their own find pro wrestling a perfect outlet for their passions.
Custard Creek Middle School has a new principal with a surprising plan for revamping the school’s finances: He’s canceling all the arts and other clubs and solely funding athletic programs. This sits poorly with the nonsporty students who find emotional outlets through activities like video games, theater, and cosplay. Enter a serendipitous loophole. When a group of these frustrated kids attends a local women’s wrestling expo full of elaborate characters engaging in choreographed confrontations, they have a light-bulb moment: Why not funnel their own stifled creative energies into a wrestling club that requires dramatic imagination, cool costumes, and gamelike storylines? Much of the story centers on starting up the club—finding a faculty sponsor, planning their first match, and acting out an overly zealous pep rally/food fight. The infectious appeal of adolescent self-realization drives the story, but in laying the groundwork for future volumes, this series opener delves deeply into logistics, and the development of the expansive cast is light. The buzzy, brightly colored, manga-influenced art underlines emotional reactions with sparkly, wide-eyed close-ups reminiscent of Gale Galligan’s work on the Baby-Sitters Club graphic-novel adaptations. The student body is racially diverse; most characters with central storylines appear white.
Creativity and athletic endeavor forge a surprising alliance in this energetic series opener. (Graphic fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116450
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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