Fans of history, Hamilton, and/or Hale’s previous entries will be clamoring for this latest volume.
The eighth entry in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales tackles the early life of the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution.
How it is that Hale (the character) has managed to stay his inevitable execution to tell stories of events yet to happen won’t be clear to new readers, but it’s unlikely they’ll care; Hale (the author) yet again weaves a delightful and engaging narrative sprinkled with silly and scatalogical humor. Recurring characters the Hangman and the Provost return to enthusiastically provide commentary and comedic relief as spy Hale recounts the first half of Lafayette’s exceptional life through the end of his participation in the American Revolution. Fans of Hamilton (to which the title is a reference) will recognize familiar characters: George Washington, of course, but also Alexander Hamilton, le comte de Rochambeau, and Philip Schuyler. The narration never skirts or belittles the grim aspects of Revolutionary-era America (the horrific conditions endured by the militia; white men fighting “for freedom” while they enslave other humans). The majority of the cast is white, with members of the Iroquois Confederacy (who speak in stilted English) and a few people of color (enslaved men and women; a black soldier; a portrait of Alexander Dumas) shown briefly.
Fans of history, Hamilton, and/or Hale’s previous entries will be clamoring for this latest volume. (Graphic historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3148-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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
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