A compulsively readable series debut.
A middle-grade graphic novel chronicling the only unsolved commercial hijacking in aviation history.
On Nov. 24, 1971, a suit-clad White man strolled into Portland (Oregon) International Airport, black briefcase in hand. He purchased a one-way ticket aboard Northwest Orient Airlines’ Flight 305 to Seattle under the name “Dan Cooper,” seated himself behind three dozen Boeing 727 passengers, and slipped a note to a flight attendant just before takeoff. Unless he received $200,000 in cash, two front parachutes, and two back parachutes upon landing, Cooper promised to detonate the makeshift bomb in his briefcase. In Seattle, Cooper released his unwitting hostages alongside a new set of demands: Now, the plane would travel to Mexico City at the lowest possible speed, flying no higher than 10,000 feet with the landing gear deployed and a rear staircase lowered. Cooper never made it to Mexico: Instead, he leapt into the cold, rainy night above the forests of Washington. Though the hijacker vanished without a trace, his alias—misreported as “D.B. Cooper”—lives on. This stranger-than-fiction saga thrives thanks to spectacular design choices: “Dick Tracy”–esque, hard-boiled cartooning; rugged, mechanical typefaces; and a bevy of files, folders, and miscellaneous paperwork come together to form a fabulous criminal collage. Sidebars impart such important particulars as the precise weight of a dollar bill and Cooper’s conceptual-but–decidedly-amateur familiarity with parachutes.
A compulsively readable series debut. (photos, afterword, sources) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299151-5
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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