Not a deep dive but a starting point for difficult conversations.
Through a graphic medium, a 16-year-old girl recounts her experience with cyberbullying.
In seventh grade, 12-year-old blonde-haired Lexi receives her first smartphone. Initially, she is elated, but after a fight with twin girls following a volleyball game, her life soon descends into agony when they start cyberbullying her. Lexi explains how on Post Ghost (a fictional, anonymous social media gossip site) the twins would barrage her with insults about her appearance and threaten to beat up anyone who spoke to her; even their mother participated in the abuse. With a clear and concise voice, Lexi explains her feelings of isolation and hurt, although she manages to keep her readers buoyed with reminders of perseverance. Darker themes, such as eating disorders and suicidality, are hinted at but are breezily bypassed. While this volume has full-color photorealistic illustrations, the art is unfortunately disjointed. Every character is depicted as thin and athletic; there is little variance in height or weight. Certain close-ups of junior-high–aged Lexi look alarmingly adult, and oddly scattered manga-inspired renderings insert unnecessary levity to a serious subject. Cavils aside, this first in a series of teen-authored graphic nonfiction tackles timely issues and should interest a wide audience from tweens to reluctant teen readers. Lexi and most of the other characters are white and seemingly middle-class, with scant diversity throughout.
Not a deep dive but a starting point for difficult conversations. (Graphic memoir. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-947378-04-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Zuiker Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality.
An examination of the history of Chinese American experiences.
Blackburn opens with a note to readers about growing up feeling invisible as a multicultural, biracial Chinese American. She notes the tremendous diversity of Chinese American history and writes that this book is a starting point for learning more. The evenly paced narrative starts with the earliest recorded arrival of the Chinese in America in 1834. A teenage girl, whose real name is unknown, arrived in New York Harbor with the Carnes brothers, merchants who imported Chinese goods and put her on display “like an animal in a circus.” The author then examines shifting laws, U.S. and global political and economic climates, and changing societal attitudes. The book introduces the highlighted people—including Yee Ah Tye, Wong Kim Ark, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Vincent Chen—in relation to lawsuits or other transformative events; they also stand as examples for explaining concepts such as racial hierarchy and the model minority myth. Maps, photos, and documents are interspersed throughout. Chapters close with questions that encourage readers to think critically about systems of oppression, actively engage with the material, and draw connections to their own lives. Although the book covers a wide span of history, from the Gold Rush to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, it thoroughly explains the various events. Blackburn doesn’t shy away from describing terrible setbacks, but she balances them with examples of solidarity and progress.
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality. (resources, bibliography, image credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
A powerful resource for young people itching for change.
Soccer star and activist Wambach adapts Wolfpack (2019), her New York Times bestseller for adults, for a middle-grade audience.
“YOU. ARE. THE. WOLVES.” That rallying cry, each word proudly occupying its own line on the page, neatly sums up the fierce determination Wambach demands of her audience. The original Wolfpack was an adaptation of the viral 2018 commencement speech she gave at Barnard College; in her own words, it was “a directive to unleash [the graduates’] individuality, unite the collective, and change the world.” This new adaption takes the themes of the original and recasts them in kid-friendly terms, the call to action feeling more relevant now than ever. With the exception of the introduction and closing remarks, each short chapter presents a new leadership philosophy, dishing out such timeless advice as “Be grateful and ambitious”; “Make failure your fuel”; “Champion each other”; and “Find your pack.” Chapters utilize “rules” as a framing device. The first page of each presents a generalized “old” and “new” rule pertaining to that chapter’s guiding principle, and each chapter closes with a “Call to the Wolfpack” that sums up those principles in more specific terms. Some parts of the book come across as somewhat quixotic or buzzword-heavy, but Wambach deftly mitigates much of the preachiness with a bluff, congenial tone and refreshing dashes of self-deprecating humor. Personal anecdotes help ground each of the philosophies in applicability, and myriad heavy issues are respectfully, yet simply broached.
A powerful resource for young people itching for change. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-76686-1
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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