An imaginative work that effectively blends fantasy and social commentary.
A real-life version of the folk hero John Henry emerges in the Jim Crow South in von Hoffman’s speculative debut novel.
Fifteen-year-old Moses Crawford has some unusual characteristics: He’s taller than most grown men, incredibly strong, and impervious to bullets and billy clubs. These all come in handy for a Black kid growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1935. They allow him to do things like save his uncle from a murderous group of men in Georgia without getting a scratch on him; he does this while wearing “a work shirt, jeans, a pair of boots,” he notes. “Afterward stories where I wore a costume and a mask. Never happened. Not then or ever. Kluxers wear masks.” Unfortunately, his father is not bulletproof like him, and he dies in an ensuing shootout. Then racists in the Georgia town take out their anger on their Black neighbors as soon as Mo and his uncle leave. There’s nothing scarier to these bigots than a Black man who can’t be brought down, and, to them, Mo’s very presence is tantamount to a declaration of war. Will he be able to use his unique abilities to prevent further violence, or will he cut his own path of destruction across the South? Poet, nonfiction writer, and former journalist von Hoffman writes in a clipped, muscular prose style over the course of this novel that suits his sensitive, often ambivalent protagonist. Here, for instance, Mo awakens to a couple’s rural poverty: “Everything they had in the world would add up to little more than nothing….Other than Uncle Stan, my father’s brother, I didn’t really know anyone who was poor, not like this.” The characters, particularly Moses, are well drawn, and aspects of Moses’ journey, such as the way it’s covered in the media and his efforts to translate his grassroots movement into a political one with the John Henry Party, may remind readers of events in our own time. Overall, it’s a complex work that engages with an era that feels simultaneously remote and frightfully contemporary.
An imaginative work that effectively blends fantasy and social commentary.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73633-170-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: 4 Dogs Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth.
Superman confronts racism and learns to accept himself with the help of new friends.
In this graphic-novel adaptation of the 1940s storyline entitled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” from The Adventures of Superman radio show, readers are reintroduced to the hero who regularly saves the day but is unsure of himself and his origins. The story also focuses on Roberta Lee, a young Chinese girl. She and her family have just moved from Chinatown to Metropolis proper, and mixed feelings abound. Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane’s colleague from the Daily Planet, takes a larger role here, befriending his new neighbors, the Lees. An altercation following racial slurs directed at Roberta’s brother after he joins the local baseball team escalates into an act of terrorism by the Klan of the Fiery Kross. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill superhero story then becomes a nuanced and personal exploration of the immigrant experience and blatant and internalized racism. Other main characters are White, but Black police inspector William Henderson fights his own battles against prejudice. Clean lines, less-saturated coloring, and character designs reminiscent of vintage comics help set the tone of this period piece while the varied panel cuts and action scenes give it a more modern sensibility. Cantonese dialogue is indicated through red speech bubbles; alien speech is in green.
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth. (author’s note, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77950-421-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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