A valuable addition to the growing swath of graphic novels drawing attention to civil rights history.
“Most people know Mrs. Parks, but few know who I am.”
This work of graphic nonfiction makes clear that the Montgomery Bus Boycott began not with Rosa Parks but with 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat to a White woman on a crowded bus. It was then that she met Rosa Parks, who encouraged her to get involved with the NAACP Youth Council. Claudette was found guilty of breaking the segregation laws, but organizers opted not to rally around her (she was seen as “too young, too dark, and too poor”); instead the boycott was organized around Rosa Parks, who nine months later refused to give up her seat. Claudette was glad something was being done, but she felt pushed to the sidelines. The boycott was difficult, and there were threats and violence directed at those involved. For many years, Rosa Parks was the name associated with the bus boycott, but gradually, Claudette Colvin’s role in the actions and lawsuit that ended bus segregation became known. This book explores the many issues surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott, such as the age, gender, and class barriers that factored into decisions and the internal struggles that those involved in the movement grappled with. The choice to tell the story through Claudette’s eyes will appeal to young readers, as will the colorful comic drawings that highlight the actions and feelings.
A valuable addition to the growing swath of graphic novels drawing attention to civil rights history. (afterword) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-17422-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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
A painful and painfully recognizable tale of one girl’s struggle to make and keep “one good friend.” (author’s note)...
A truth-telling graphic memoir whose theme song could be Johnny Lee’s old country song “Lookin’ for Love in all the Wrong Places.”
Shannon, depicted in Pham’s clear, appealing panels as a redheaded white girl, starts kindergarten in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1979, and her story ends just before sixth grade. Desperately longing to be in “the group” at school, Shannon suffers persistent bullying, particularly from a mean girl, Jenny, which leads to chronic stomachaches, missing school, and doctor visits. Contemporary readers will recognize behaviors indicative of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the doctor calls it anxiety and tells Shannon to stop worrying. Instead of being a place of solace, home adds to Shannon’s stress. The middle child of five, she suffers abuse from her oldest sibling, Wendy, whom Pham often portrays as a fierce, gigantic bear and whom readers see their mother worrying about from the beginning. The protagonist’s faith (presented as generically Christian) surfaces overtly a few times but mostly seems to provide a moral compass for Shannon as she negotiates these complicated relationships. This episodic story sometimes sticks too close to the truth for comfort, but readers will appreciate Shannon’s fantastic imagination that lightens her tough journey toward courage and self-acceptance.
A painful and painfully recognizable tale of one girl’s struggle to make and keep “one good friend.” (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-416-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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