A story with easy appeal for fans of coming-of-age adventures and Star Wars.
An underdog finds confidence and the courage to share his love of filmmaking with his community.
As a middle child and junior high school student, Mark battles insecurities about his height and weight. His siblings (younger and older) outperform him in sports. Bullies push him around and call him “Tattoo,” an uncomfortable (and likely mystifying) reference to the television series Fantasy Island. Deriving little comfort from his mother’s favorite saying, “Big things come in small packages,” Mark dreams of bulking up on summer vacation so his crush, Lisa Gorman, will finally notice him. However, when a new movie set in a galaxy far, far away inspires Mark to embark on his own filmmaking project, he discovers another way to build his confidence. In this graphic memoir, Tatulli reflects on his own struggles with body image and the beginnings of his passion for creating art. The comic-book format invites readers to participate in Mark’s creative process as he develops his Star Bores spoof. Full spreads show his storyboarding and each of his hacks for designing costumes and props without a budget. An animated art style contributes to the lighthearted liveliness of the conflict. Panels depict the author, his family, and Lisa as white; his classmates are diverse, including pal Kevin, who is black. Overall, Tatulli’s story shares a positive message about dedication and overcoming obstacles through imagination and creativity.
A story with easy appeal for fans of coming-of-age adventures and Star Wars. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-44049-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
