Two Great Teen/YA Graphic Memoirs

I took advantage of Nonfiction November to  catch up on some graphic memoirs, and I read two of them that are perfect for teens and young adults (though I enjoyed them as an adult, too!).

Pénélope Bagieu has written and illustrated several graphic novels and graphic nonfiction books, including the award-winning Brazen, though her coming-of-age graphic memoir, Layers, was the first of her books I've read. I'm so glad I did! In it, she tells sixteen different stories about her life in France, covering the period from childhood to young adulthood, with warmth, emotional depth, and humor. Each of these is a separate vignette, not in chronological order, on a different topic, but together they paint a full picture of her early life and process of growing into an adult. Her first story is titled, Why Don't You Have a Cat?, and it tells the story of the kittens she and her sister got for Christmas when she was very young. But she had her cat for almost twenty years, and she tells stories of her relationship with her cat throughout those years, so we see every stage of her life through that lens, from small child to young adult. Some vignettes are very short and funny, like A Story About My Seduction Abilities, or short and dark, like the one-page story about noticing signs that a friend in school was being abused. Sometimes she digs a bit deeper into some serious topics, as in Deja Vu, where she compares, side-by-side, two instances of unwanted sexual attention, one as a child sleeping over at a friend's and another as a young adult. That one, like many of them, uses very creative story-telling techniques and makes maximum use of her drawing talents. These aren't illustrated stories but truly a graphic memoir, where the pictures tell the story. Often funny, sometimes thought-provoking, and always intimate, Layers is a truly unique, though very relatable, memoir that uses the graphic form perfectly.

144 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction November - Published in 2023

Travel the World in Books - France

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey by Akim Aliu (co-written by Greg Anderson Elysee and illustrated by Karen de la Vega) is another coming-of-age graphic memoir with an international flavor but quite different. Akim was a professional hockey player in the NHL who here tells the story of the terrible racism he faced, from youth hockey all the way up to the pros. Akim's mother is Ukrainian and his father is Nigerian, and when he and his brother were children, they lived in both countries. As a biracial couple, his parents found prejudice and racism in both places--even from family members--so they moved the family to Canada, hoping to provide a better life for their sons. Life was generally better in Canada, but Akim and his brother were still often the only Black kids in their school or neighborhood. Akim fell in love with hockey from the first moment he saw it, and when his parents got him some used skates at a yard sale, they discovered he was a natural. He loved the sport and was very good at it. So good, in fact, that he qualified for an elite teen league in Canada. At age sixteen, he moved to a town four hours away from his family to live with a host family and play hockey. He eventually went pro and joined the NHL, but Akim encountered horrific, often violent racism at every step of his journey--from teammates, spectators, and most alarmingly, sometimes his own coaches. As dark as this story is, there's a happy ending because Akim started a foundation, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and has dedicated his life to making hockey, the sport he loves, more inclusive and to stamping out racism on the ice and off. The way that he turned his pain around to help other kids is truly inspiring.

120 pages, Graphix (Scholastic)

If you want to know more, as I did, here's a short interview with Akim Aliu about his experiences and his important work.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Nonfiction November - Sport

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (several different provinces)

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  
  

Fiction Review: Horse

I have a weird relationship with novelist Geraldine Brooks. Whenever I hear about one of her novels, I always think, "I'm not interested in that." Then, I read it (often for book group) and absolutely love it! So, when I heard about her latest novel, Horse, I again thought I wasn't interested in reading a novel about a racehorse (even though I just read and loved Seabiscuit for Nonfiction November). But, my neighborhood book group chose it for December, so I listened to it on audio, and ... you guessed it! I thoroughly enjoyed this engrossing story spanning more than 150 years.

In 2019, a young man named Theo, a Nigerian-American art history graduate student attending Georgetown University, is searching for a subject for his thesis. One day, he sees that his neighbor across the street has set out a bunch of old furniture and other household items on the sidewalk with a sign saying "Free." As he's walking by, Theo spots a painting. He pulls it out and sees it's a small painting of a horse, with a Black boy standing next to it. Intrigued, he pulls it from the giveaway pile and begins looking into it. Meanwhile, Jess, a young Australian woman who works at the Smithsonian putting together animal skeletons, hears about a missing horse skeleton from a colleague in the UK who suspects it may be stored at the Smithsonian. Jess finds the skeleton in storage and begins to work on it. Back in 1850, a Black boy named Jarret lives on a Kentucky horse farm. His adopted father, Harry, is a free man, thanks to his skill at training horses that allowed him to earn money and buy his freedom. When a new foal is born on the farm, Harry and the farm's owner give it to Jarret to train himself. As the horse grows, a traveling painter named Thomas Scott comes to the farm and is hired to paint the horses. Unfortunately, Jarret's life with his beloved horse does not unfold as he expected, and the two of them end up in Louisiana, where they again encounter Scott. Meanwhile, in the present day, Theo and Jess meet and work together to investigate the mystery of the horse from its skeleton and its painting.

Brooks is talented at weaving together an intricate story of different people in different time periods whose lives intertwine (much as she did in People of the Book). Her characters are three dimensional and interesting, and I came to care about them. As always in her historical fiction, she's taken a fascinating real-life but little-known piece of history and built a fully fleshed-out story around it. You can read the true story of the discovery of this horse, his trainer, and the painter in this article from Smithsonian magazine. The audio production was excellent, with multiple narrators reading the chapters from different characters' perspectives, which helped to bring them all to life. The narrative skillfully moves from past to present and back again, creating a sense of suspense in this already compelling story that is not only about horses and racing but also about art, history, racism, and love. Once again, I enjoyed every moment of this captivating novel by Geraldine Brooks. Next time, I won't waffle about whether to read one of her novels!

416 pages, Viking

Penguin Audio

Two other Geraldine Brooks novels I enjoyed (besides People of the Book) were Year of Wonders and Caleb's Crossing (my reviews at the links).

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Louisiana

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, one of Theo's sections from the beginning of the novel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

   

 

Or you can order Horse from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Nonfiction Review: Seabiscuit

Laura Hillenbrand is my personal hero. She has the same immune dysfunction disease I have, yet she has written and published two best-selling nonfiction books requiring years of research, interviews, and writing that were both turned into top movies. She wrote her first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, while at her sickest and mostly bedridden and housebound. My husband and I both thought Unbroken, her second novel, was fantastic and powerful, and he enjoyed Seabiscuit. So why did I wait over ten years to finally read Seabiscuit while it waited patiently on my shelf? My only excuse is that I didn't think I'd be interested in reading about horse racing. But, as usual, Hillenbrand's enormous talent for storytelling pulled me in from the first pages and kept me rapt.

In June 1936, a horse trainer named Tom Smith met a three-year-old colt named Seabiscuit. Tom, who had learned about horses in the wild West and was known by the Indians there as the Lone Plainsman, didn't talk much, but he knew horses. He'd been in search of just the right horse for his employer, Charles Howard. Howard was now a wealthy Californian, but he'd come from the East in 1903 as a penniless bicycle repairman and made his fortune by getting into automobiles at just the right time. Seabiscuit didn't look like a winner to most people. His legs looked somewhat deformed and weak, and he had a bad reputation for a wild temperament. But Smith saw something in the horse, so he urged Howard to purchase him, which he did, for a bargain price. At that time, a short, muscled redhead named Red Pollard was 12 years into working as a jockey, and his career seemed to be over. Born into a large, boisterous Irish family in Canada in 1909, Red, whose real name was Johnny, had been through years of scraping by as a jockey and part-time prizefighter, two physically punishing careers. He'd had some wins early on as a jockey, but those years seemed to be behind him. After a terrible car crash in Detroit, Pollard and his agent, Yummy, dirty, injured, and out of cash, went to the local track where Yummy tried to get Red a job. Smith let Pollard meet Seabiscuit, Red offered the horse a sugar cube (the last thing in his pockets), and the man and horse immediately began to bond. The rest is quite literally history. By 1938, the number one name in newspapers across the nation wasn't Roosevelt or Hitler or Mussolini; it was Seabiscuit.

This isn't just a book about a horse. It's also about Howard, Smith, and Pollard, Seabiscuit's close-knit team, and many others surrounding them. Hillenbrand brilliantly portrays a time in history, and the unique relationships and events that made Seabiscuit such a household name. Most importantly, Seabiscuit's rise to fame was not a straight line, but a rocky road filled with enormous challenges. Pollard and Seabiscuit both faced unbelievable trials; at one point, it seemed certain that neither of them would ever race again. Hillenbrand's research is thorough and fascinating, but the key to this compelling book is how talented she is at telling a story, weaving together historic events, people, and horses into a propulsive narrative that is completely engrossing. I still have little interest in horses or horseracing, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about a remarkable horse and his remarkable rider.

339 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

Check out the excellent movie adaptation of Seabiscuit.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (I should get extra credit for this book that sat on my shelf for 10 years!)

Nonfiction Reader Challenge

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by George Newbern, and/or download it from Audible. The audio sample is from the preface and the start of chapter one and provides a nice overview of why this story is so special.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

 

Or you can order Seabiscuit from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: High Country

I have been a fan of Nevada Barr's novels for decades. My husband and I both enjoy her thrillers (19 now!) set in national parks, starring Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. We've read Anna Pigeon novels set in Isle Royale, Mesa Verde, Lassen Volcanic, and Carlsbad Caverns (see my review of Blind Descent). It's especially fun to read a Barr novel set in a park we've visited, as is the case in High Country, set in Yosemite National Park.

Our visit to Yosemite was in the summer with blue skies and sunshine, but this novel is set in December, a time when far fewer visitors come to the isolated valley. That setting--cold, foggy, remote, and constantly overcast--provides plenty of atmosphere for this dark story. Anna has been asked to come work at the park undercover, to help get some information about four young people, all seasonal park employees, who recently disappeared without a trace. Trish was one of them, and she worked as a waitress at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley, so Anna arrives just in time to take over Trish's shifts. She also takes Trish's room in the nearby employee dorms. Her roommates are twenty-somethings and Anna is almost fifty, but she does her best to be friendly and get to know these young women who might have information about Trish that could help to find her and the other missing employees. Almost immediately, Anna begins to sense that something sinister is going on at the park. The head ranger who brought her in is away for a week, and the deputy thinks this whole undercover thing is ridiculous, so Anna heads off on her own. She has some clues that something might be going on at a small backcountry lake, so she hikes into the high country, in snow and dangerously cold temperatures, all alone. With her decades of ranger experience, Anna is an experienced hiker and backpacker, but nothing could have prepared her for what she encounters up there.

It had been years since I last read an Anna Pigeon novel, and this book reminded me how much I love this series! Nevada Barr is an excellent writer and has crafted a gripping, action-packed plot that kept me turning the pages, but she also has a wonderful sense of humor that often had me laughing out loud. Anna gradually uncovers the mystery of what is happening behind the scenes at Yosemite, and it's a twisty, unpredictable one. She finds herself in mortal danger not once but twice in this fast-paced adventure. I stayed up way too late reading this novel (and also read some of it outdoors). Now that I've remembered how great the Anna Pigeon books are, I definitely won't wait years before I read another Nevada Barr novel--I have about fifteen of them to catch up on!

323 pages, G.P. Putnam's Sons

Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

R.I.P. Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat from the start of the novel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

Or you can order High Country from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: The Guide

I met author Peter Heller at Booktopia 2017, when he was discussing his novel, Celine, about a kick-ass older woman who used to work for the FBI and now helps to find missing persons (based on his own mother's real life!). Last year, my husband and I both read and enjoyed The River by Heller. Both of these novels combine two of our favorite things: thrillers and beautiful outdoor settings. So, I was excited to read Heller's latest outdoor thriller, The Guide, which is a follow-up to The River.

Jack, one of the main characters from The River, is back, now in his home state of Colorado. Jack's had a rough time with grieving and PTSD, so he takes a job as a fishing guide for the summer. Fishing has always been a soothing activity for him, and he thinks that fishing every day in this beautiful place will help him to heal. Kingfisher Lodge is very luxurious, catering to super wealthy clients, located on one of the most beautiful, pristine stretches of river in the state. Jack is assigned to guide Alison K. (no last names to protect privacy) as his first client. He doesn't really follow celebrity culture, but he thinks he recognizes her as a hugely popular singer. All he cares about is that she loves to fish as much as he does, and she's very good at it. The two of them spend their days on the river, engrossed in fly-fishing. But from the moment he's introduced to the property and the staff, Jack begins to feel that something's just not right in this idyllic spot. The property is bound by barbed wire on one side, and a warning that trespassers will be shot on the other.  Jack hears a scream in the middle of the night, some of the staff (and the lodge's rules) seem strange, and both he and Alison begin to notice that something is off with some of the other guests. What is really going on at this beautiful fishing lodge?

This is another winner from Heller! The first two-thirds of the novel is a slow build of tension, as Jack's observations and gut feeling tell him something is wrong. The suspense develops gradually, with a growing sense of dread, as Jack and Alison spend sun-soaked days on the river but sense something sinister beneath the surface. Toward the end of the novel, that tension bursts into an action-packed thriller with stunning secrets revealed one after another and Jack's life in danger. My favorite part of this and his other novels, though, is Heller's gorgeous nature writing.

"Jack put the manager out of his mind or tried. But it wasn't until they were through lunch and back on the creek that his anger swirled away in the thigh-deep current. The thing about fishing: it washed everything away but water and stone and wind. And bird cry. And blowdown. And a spiderweb's gleamings in the exposed roots of a cut bank. And in a tailwater pool: the spreading rings of rising trout, dapping silently like slow rain. His heart rose to these things like a hungry fish and he could forget himself."

I'm not really into fishing, but throughout the book, Heller paints vivid pictures of the outdoor world--the sights, sounds, and scents of nature--and how they affect Jack. I could completely relate to these frequent passages and appreciated them during a time when I wasn't able to get outside much myself. This is a thriller, though, and the horrors that humans can come up with are in sharp contrast to those beautiful, peaceful portraits of the natural world. My husband and I both loved this novel and can't wait to see what Peter Heller writes next!

257 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Colorado

RIP Challenge

Fall Into Reading Challenge - Leaves on the cover

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   

 

Or you can order The Guide from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Middle-Grade Graphic Novel Review: Booked

This is probably my strangest reason ever for choosing a book! At the end of September, I realized I hadn't read a book for the Monthly Motif Challenge yet (you can see all of my reading challenges here). September's motif was "a book with a clever title that uses a play on words, a pun, or a double meaning." I didn't have time to fit another regular book in, but while in the library on September 29, I realized I could fit in a graphic novel! I went to the kids' section and found the perfect graphic novel: Booked by Kwame Alexander, with illustrations by Dawud Anyabwile. Not only does the title have multiple meanings, but the book itself is filled with clever word play that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Twelve-year-old Nick has a pretty good life as the novel opens. He is a star soccer player, playing for both his school team and a travel team. His best friend, Coby, also plays for the school team and is the star player on a competing travel team. Nick's mom has signed him up for old-fashioned etiquette/dancing classes, which are pretty lame, but he has a crush on a girl named April in the class, and he thinks she might like him, too. Then, things begin crashing down in Nick's life: his parents have a devastating announcement, bullies are bothering him, and even his beloved soccer is threatened. Just when it seems like he's hit bottom, Nick begins to realize he has a lot of people in his life who care for him--not just his parents and Coby but a teacher at school and The Mac, the school's rapper librarian. He even begins to develop an appreciation for books.

Sample page from Booked

Describing the plot (even though it is an excellent plot) doesn't even scratch the surface of this wonderful book! Kwame Alexander is known for his novels-in-verse, and this one includes a wide variety of storytelling techniques: verse, dialogue, narration, texts, and more. The illustrations by Anyabwile are stunning, in black, white, and green. The action just leaps off the page, and the characters come to life. And, as I mentioned, the book is loaded with fun, clever word play, well beyond just the multiple meanings of "booked." Nick's dad is a literature professor who's written his own dictionary of "weird and wonderful words" that Nick's required to read from each day (reluctantly), so the novel is packed with fun new vocabulary Nick is learning in spite of himself. This original, fun graphic novel has it all: friendship, family, action, humor, and plenty of emotional depth. I'm so glad my reading challenge led me to this wonderful book I might have otherwise missed!

320 pages, Clarion Books

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Monthly Motif Challenge - Title Play

Diversity Challenge 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   

 

Or you can order Booked from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Memoir Review: The Year of the Horses

One of the last books I read for this year's Booktopia event in May was a memoir, The Year of the Horses by Courtney Maum. This moving personal story of depression and healing is sometimes wrenching and sometimes joyful but always engaging. 

The author shares her story of a depression so severe, with insomnia so horrible, that she finally seeks professional help. Her new therapist, who barely seems old enough to have completed his schooling, is actually quite helpful and eventually suggests she try horseback riding, which leads Courtney back through a torrent of childhood memories, both good and bad. She was once a pretty typical horse-crazy little girl, who took riding lessons and cared for "her" horse, and dreamed of Pegasus and other magical horses. Her beloved time with horses came to an abrupt end. Now, thirty years later, she returns to the stables, uncertain where this will lead but feeling an immediate peace with the smell of hay and warm horse bodies. She gradually, slowly, relearns how to ride, finding an activity just for her, in the midst of her busy life as a wife, mother, and writer. Just riding isn't enough, though, and she soon becomes fascinated with the sport of polo, something she never encountered before. Throughout her telling of this present-day story of horses and healing, Courtney returns back to her childhood, sharing memories that show early indications of depression and anxiety in the midst of a chaotic, unsettled adolescence. Bit by bit, Courtney's past and present merge, as her therapy and her love of horses--and newfound love of polo--begin to help her heal and move forward.

I'll admit, I was never one of those horse-crazy girls as a child and have never experienced severe depression, so I wasn't sure I would be able to relate to this memoir going into it. I've enjoyed horseback riding--as a child and as an adult--but was never really zealous about it. But, Courtney writes about her experiences with such depth and passion that I was pulled right into her story, and I could certainly relate to her experiences as a wife, mother, and writer. She writes about her feelings and her life with a visceral openness that engages the reader. In fact, despite the differences in our experiences, I marked many passages in her memoir that spoke to me, like this passage about the experience of being mother to a child who is growing up:

"Positive, selfless touch was something I was in need of in my thirty-eighth year on earth. The baby who had lived her life strapped to my chest, cooing and blowing bubbles into my exposed skin, was now a toddler who wanted to do everything herself, who squirmed out of my arms when I was craving intimacy, who survived on cheese crackers and apple cider instead of my own milk. My body seemed invisible; it wasn't looked at by my husband, and because we lived in the middle of the woods in an already rural area, it wasn't looked at by anyone else."

It's these kinds of raw, honest emotions that drew me into this memoir, despite my different experiences. Isn't that what the best memoirs do? They give us insight into lives different from ours while also presenting universal truths of human nature. Courtney Maum is quite talented in this regard, and I was fully immersed in her story. She is a new-to-me author, and I would like to try some of her novels.

266 pages, Tin House Books

Blackstone Publishing

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Alphabet Soup Challenge - Y

Nonfiction Reader Challenge (category = Published in 2022)

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

      

 

Or you can order The Year of the Horses from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Middle-Grade Review: Marshmallow and Jordan

I've been hearing good things about the middle-grade graphic novel Marshmallow and Jordan by Alina Chau, and I finally had a chance to read it for myself. I enjoyed this charming, moving story of the challenges a newly-disabled girl faces and the unlikely ally she finds to support her.

Jordan was the captain--and star--of her championship middle-school basketball team in Indonesia. Then an accident left her wheelchair-bound. She seems remarkably well-adjusted, and her kind teammates still support her, while she watches their practices and games and sometimes even helps the coach or plays from her chair during practice. But Jordan misses being a full part of the team and competing. One day on her way home from school, she finds an injured white baby elephant. I guess elephants are common in Indonesia because Jordan doesn't seem surprised but helps the baby elephant back to her home so that her mother, a veterinarian, can help the injured animal. Her parents agree to let the elephant, whom Jordan has named Marshmallow, stay at their house while its leg heals. Wanting to pay back her kindness, Marshmallow mysteriously creates a pool in the backyard one night and the next day helps Jordan learn to swim without the use of her legs. Jordan loves the newfound freedom of being able to move in the pool! After a wonderful day of playing water basketball in the pool with her friends, Jordan joins the water polo team. Since she's entirely new to the game, her teammates aren't very welcoming at first and worry she could mess up their chances to make it to the finals this year. Jordan feels left out, by both old and new teammates, but she practices hard every day after school, putting in extra hours on her own, until her strength, stamina, and skills in the water improve. A crisis at the end of the school year is resolved in a very surprising way.

Sample: Jordan with her basketball team

 

Sample: Jordan takes Marshmallow home

As someone who is disabled by chronic illness--and had two young sons disabled by the same illness when they were very young (one is now recovered)--I can tell you with certainty that it is very rare to see a disabled child in a book for kids and adolescents. It's even more rare to see a disabled child who is a talented athlete. But this wonderful book is about more than just Jordan's disability. It's about friendship, family, and overcoming all kinds of challenges. I like that Jordan's challenges here are both related to her disability--not being able to play her favorite sport anymore--and entirely "normal" kinds of challenges that all kids face with friendship, acceptance, and trying to learn a new skill. There is also a touch of fantasy woven throughout the story, for extra fun. The gorgeous, colorful watercolor images help to tell the story and also to literally paint a full picture of what daily life in Indonesia is like (and some extras at the back add to that). Together, the pictures and text/dialogue tell a magical story of an ordinary girl in a different culture than most readers are familiar with, facing challenges that all kids can relate to.

365 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Indonesia 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

 

Or you can order Marshmallow and Jordan from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Graphic Novel Review: Dragon Hoops

I finished one of my last books for the 2021 #BigBookSummer Challenge this past weekend, Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, an acclaimed graphic novel that I’ve wanted to read for a while and spotted at my library last week. It’s a nonfiction book that won the Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature, but I thought the book was of interest to adults as well as teens.

 

It's an interesting book because the author himself is in it. In fact, it's a book about writing this book, so it is very meta. That acts as the framework for the story, while the focus is on the basketball team at the high school where Yang teaches. He is admittedly not a sports person, but he became curious about the school-wide attention on the school's winning basketball team, from students, teachers, parents, and alumni. He interviews the coaches and players in depth, begins attending games, and even researches the history of the game and writes/draws about it all. He  delves into the players’ family and ethnic backgrounds and issues of racism toward the multi-cultural team as he follows their progress to the California State Championship.

 

Dragon Hoops sample page

Dragon Hoops sample page

 

 

Like the author, I am also not a big sports fan and know very little about basketball, but I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel. It's really about the people involved and how the sport affects their lives. I enjoyed learning about the history of basketball (and he includes the history of women’s basketball, too), and his in-depth characterizations of the players on this team made me care about them and root for them. Yang’s drawings are detailed and realistic and helped to pull me into the story. And he has a sense of humor, which I always appreciate! I learned a lot and was entertained by this unique book, and I want to read more from Yang.

446 pages, First Second

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   
  

Or you can order Dragon Hoops from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.