Review of Sunshine, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Sunshine

How One Camp Taught Me About Life, Death, and Hope

by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Graphix (Scholastic), 2023. 240 pages.
Review written May 6, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Sunshine is another graphic novel memoir from the brilliant Jarrett Krosoczka. But this one, unlike Hey, Kiddo isn’t about his difficult growing-up years so much as about a transformational experience he had the summer he was sixteen — working as an intern at Camp Sunshine, a camp for families who have a child with a life-threatening illness.

I’ll say right up front that I did not read this at a good time, and don’t actually recommend it to anyone in my family. It’s too much right now. Because two weeks ago my six-year-old niece Meredith was diagnosed with relapsed leukemia. After being initially diagnosed at three years old, she’s been through two years of treatments, and then a year we all thought she was fine, and now she’s relapsed. So when the sweet little kid pictured on the cover of this book had the exact same diagnosis as Meredith — and in the last chapter relapsed and died (some time after the camp experience) — it just had me sobbing.

It is a terrible thing when kids die.

But the beauty of the camp experience was that they gave those kids a chance to be the normal ones, a chance to goof off and play with friends and just be kids. And a chance for their personalities to shine through, way past the fact that they were sick. And a chance for people working at the camp to come to love them.

The author says right at the start:

Just about everyone who asks about the experience seems to have the same knee-jerk reaction: It must have been so sad.

But that could not be further from the truth. I mean, a camp for pediatric cancer patients shouldn’t be sad — those kids already have enough to deal with.

No, camp was happy, the happiest place I’ve ever been. It was a space where illness didn’t define the campers while they defied their diagnoses. It was uplifting, celebratory.

The kids I met weren’t dying — they were living. Living life to its fullest.

All these years later, there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think of them.

So yes, this book will touch your heart. And even though it struck way too close to home for me, I’m glad I read it. And I love the way he celebrated the lives of those kids. And showed that even kids whose lives are way too short make this world a better place, just by being ordinary kids.

[And medicine is constantly getting better and that was many years ago and we don’t even know Meredith’s prognosis yet.]

Excuse me, I’m going to go cry a bit more.

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Review of The Tryout, by Christina Soontornvat and Joanna Cacao

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

The Tryout

written by Christina Soontornvat
illustrated by Joanna Cacao
colors by Amanda LaFrenais

Graphix (Scholastic), 2022. 272 pages.
Review written January 12, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

I will keep saying it: Graphic novels are the perfect format for memoirs of middle school. And memoirs of middle school are perfect reading for kids currently going through it, to understand they are not alone. The Tryout will take its place with Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, and Shannon Hale’s Real Friends as wonderful encouraging books for middle school readers, looking at the middle school years from the perspective of adulthood.

This graphic novel memoir tells about Christina Soontornvat’s experiences in middle school in a small town in Texas, where she and her best friend Megan were among very few students of color. Her father was from Thailand and her mother’s whole family from Texas. Megan’s father was from Iran. They’d been kindred spirits for years, and both decided to try out for cheerleading.

But they didn’t have classes together, and when they both decided to try out for cheerleading, Megan chose a different partner. Was Christina going to lose that friendship?

The tryout itself was the same as happened at my high school — the kids tried out in front of the student body, in this case, the whole seventh grade. Yes, that was as much pressure as you can imagine. Christina Soontornvat and Joanna Cacao beautifully portray the anguish all the potential cheerleaders experienced.

With these books, it’s always fun to see pictures at the back of the author when she was actually in middle school, and I really enjoyed these. Yes, she survived the experience!

A wonderful graphic memoir about middle school that kids are going to love.

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Review of Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice, by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile

Award Winners, Biography, Graphic Memoir, History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Victory. Stand!

Raising My Fist for Justice

by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile

Norton Young Readers, 2022. 204 pages.
Review written January 18, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
2023 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
2022 National Book Award Finalist
2023 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
2022 Cybils Award Finalist, High School Nonfiction
2023 Capitol Choices Selection

This graphic novel memoir tells the story of world-record-breaking track star Tommie Smith, who raised his fist on the gold medal podium of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 to protest racial injustice in the United States.

The book weaves in scenes from that pivotal race through the whole book, while telling the story of Tommie’s life. He started out as the seventh child of a sharecropping family in Texas, and left with a busload of other Black folks to California. There, he got to go to school regularly, and his life changed.

I love the way graphic novel memoirs show you the emotions of the characters. We see Tommie grow and develop into an athlete. He won a college scholarship in three sports — football, basketball, and track. But when he began breaking records in track, that became his focus.

At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining steam and Tommie wanted to bring attention to the cause, using the platform of being a world-class athlete.

But when he raised his fist during the anthem at the Olympic games, he was sent home immediately and his athletic career ended. He also became a target of hate and couldn’t even find a job for a while.

I like the way the book describes his emotions and thoughts while standing there on the platform. “We had to be seen because we were not being heard.”

Eighty seconds.
That’s how long we stood
there as the anthem played.

Those fists in the air were
dedicated to everyone at home,
back in the projects in Chicago,
Oakland, and Detroit,
to everyone in the boroughs
of Queens and Brooklyn,
to all of the brothers
and sisters, fathers and mothers
in Birmingham, Atlanta, Dallas,
Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans,
to everyone struggling, working
their fingers to the bone
on farms across America,
to everyone holding out hope
that things will get better . . .

. . . that was for you,
from John and me.

This is a powerful story of someone who gave up so much in order to make a statement about people who were being overlooked.

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Review of A First Time for Everything, by Dan Santat

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

A First Time for Everything

by Dan Santat

First Second, 2023. 320 pages.
Review written March 12, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

Here it is! Yet another book that convinces me that the absolutely perfect material for the graphic novel format is the middle school memoir. A First Time for Everything joins books like Smile, Real Friends, El Deafo, and many others that all brilliantly express the emotions and awkwardness of middle school — showing kids that they are not alone.

Caldecott-winning artist Dan Santat got to go to Europe the summer after his eighth grade year. It was an experience that changed his life.

First, he expertly shows some of his humiliations in middle school, so we understand his lack of self-confidence. Some girls who always tease him are along on the trip, but so are some kids from other parts of the United States, including a girl who seems to think he’s cool.

And they see Europe! They start in Paris and travel to places like Switzerland, Salzburg, Vienna, and London. The adults on the trip give them a lot of freedom (the Author’s Note in the back comments on that), and we really get the feeling of a kid experiencing Europe, meeting new people, and learning about himself.

I lived in Germany for ten years and visited many of the places portrayed in this book, so I loved that aspect of reading it as well. It made me want to go back. So much. (But then, most things do.) And when I do, I’m going to drink a Fanta and think of Dan Santat. (Well, and my kids. They love Fanta, too.)

This book is completely wonderful. He managed to put on the page the awkwardness of middle school plus the wonder of Europe plus the challenge of trying new things — and the way all that makes you grow. You could see the kid Dan gaining confidence and liking himself more as the story went on.

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Review of Dancing at the Pity Party, by Tyler Feder

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Dancing at the Pity Party

A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir

by Tyler Feder

Dial Books, 2020. 202 pages.
Review written July 27, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I like the way Dancing at the Pity Party gives you full disclosure in the subtitle. Yes, this is a graphic memoir about the author’s experience with her mother’s death from uterine cancer that happened when Tyler was 19 years old and a sophomore in college.

The book is really well done. It’s a wonderful tribute to her mother and the relationship they had. It tells the story of how the cancer unfolded and the horrible and strange things that did to her emotions. And it explores the mess of grief and the strange things people say.

I probably should not have read this book only eight months after my own mother died. One of the things people do that’s insensitive is compare grief. I can’t fully understand what Tyler went through, because my mother was 78, not 47, and had Alzheimer’s, so by the time she died, it seemed horrible that she’d been alive so long. But I found myself saying, “Yeah, but my father died, too!” – because my father died unexpectedly two months before my mother finally passed. And that has nothing to do with Tyler’s experience – but for me it pointed out that all grief is sadly individual. You can find people who understand certain aspects of what you’re going through, but each one of us has our own journey.

And that’s what’s brilliant about this book. It portrays Tyler’s individual journey with grief. It makes a beautiful tribute to her mother, and it’s a wonderful story about human emotions.

I especially liked her fantasy Deadmom App. Among other things, it mutes all Mother’s Day social media and looks up any movie to find out if the mom dies in it. (I went to see the Mister Rogers movie with Tom Hanks when my Mom was dying in another state. I didn’t know the other main character would be dealing with the deaths of his parents.)

She thinks of so many aspects of the experience of losing someone so important, things that you don’t necessarily think of when you think about loss.

Reading this book will touch your heart whether you’ve ever experienced grief or not.

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Review of Welcome to St. Hell, by Lewis Hancox

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Teen Nonfiction 0

Welcome to St. Hell

My Trans Teen Misadventure

by Lewis Hancox

Graphix (Scholastic), 2022. 298 pages.
Review written October 2, 2022, from a library book

Memoirs in graphic novel format are the perfect way to capture all the emotion and angst of the teenage years. In Welcome to St. Hell, Lewis Hancox tells about how difficult life was for him in high school when his name was Lois and everyone thought he was a girl.

Lewis grew up in a small town in England, officially named St Helens, but known to locals as St. Hell. It wasn’t a posh town, and the book is peppered with British slang I had to get used to, but it gives the feel of the place where he grew up.

I like the way older Lewis ushers the reader through the book, assuring everyone that it’s all going to turn out okay. But he tells how uncomfortable he was in his own skin when everyone – including himself – thought he was a girl.

And yes, when he started making out with his first girlfriend, his dysphoria made him extremely uncomfortable getting intimate — and there’s a diagram showing his naked body as it was then, with all the things he was uncomfortable about highlighted.

Yes, current book banners are citing that page. No, it’s not pornography. It’s a cartoon, and it’s not going to titillate anyone. It’s demonstrating his extreme gender dysphoria.

And he went through extremes to try to get a body that looked more like a man’s. Extreme dieting followed by obsessive working out. When he finally got to go to a gender identity clinic, it felt like life was opening up for him. And calm and happy adult Lewis, who has been leading us through the book, shows that he did find the solution to his troubles.

So if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like for transgender teens, who may not know yet that they’re transgender, only that they’re different, I highly recommend this book. And it needs to be available to teens, so the transgender ones who might come across it will know they are not freaks and they are not alone.

If you think that teens are too young to know which gender they are, I offer this book as a counter example. Lewis may not have then known what his feelings meant, but he knew that something was wrong with the way people perceived him. Please have some respect for what people know about their own bodies. Please!

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Review of Guts, by Raina Telgemeier

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

Guts

by Raina Telgemeier

Graphix (Scholastic), 2019. 218 pages.
Review written 9/19/19 from a library book
Starred Review

Raina Telgemeier does it again! Here’s another autobiographical graphic novel (really a graphic memoir) about when she was in fourth and fifth grade. After catching the stomach flu, she began having trouble with stomach aches when she was worried about anything, and then became excessively afraid of vomiting. The problem fed on itself.

That’s easy to summarize – but seeing it lived out in graphic novel form helps the reader understand and feel for her. There are also some problems with friends and enemies (of course) and small school and family issues. Raina sees a therapist, and I like the way she gets over feeling like that means there’s something wrong with her. She also gets some actually helpful ways to cope with her fears.

Kids are going to love this – the hold list is already long, with both boys and girls on the list. I heard that one child complained there was too much vomiting, so I think a child like Raina herself who doesn’t want to hear about vomit might have trouble with it. But for kids who like gross things, that will be an additional attraction.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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Review of Messy Roots, by Laura Gao

Biography, Graphic Memoir, Teen Nonfiction 0

Messy Roots

A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

by Laura Gao

Balzer + Bray, 2022. 272 pages.
Review written July 24, 2022, from a library book

Here’s a graphic memoir immigrant story. It’s getting where I feel like I’ve read a lot of these — the life story of a kid who feels very different from their peers and ends up loving art. I’ve read others, but they always pack a punch. In the hands of an artist, a graphic novel (or memoir) is such a wonderful way to express all the emotional weight of their story.

YuYang Gao moved from Wuhan to Texas when she was 4 years old. She’d been living with her grandparents in China, playing with cousins, and didn’t even recognize her parents when she first arrived.

This book tells about her growing up years, trying to fit in, learning about herself and about her heritage, but also being willing to break new ground. In college, she came out as queer and had some challenges telling her family. She moved to San Francisco, where there was a vibrant Asian community.

Then when the pandemic hit, Americans had finally heard of Wuhan, but not in a good way. San Francisco, that had been so welcoming, had new dangers.

It’s all done with striking, brightly-colored art, with lots of variety in the images and panels. She brings you along on her story with all the confusions but comforts of her background combined with the life she’s building for herself.

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Review of Sylvie, by Sylvie Kantorovitz

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Starred Review 0

Sylvie

by Sylvie Kantorovitz

Walker Books, 2021. 346 pages.
Review written May 19, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

I love graphic novel memoirs for kids – and so do kids. Graphic novelists, using pictures as well as words, are better than anyone at expressing what it was like to be a kid.

In Sylvie the author tells about what it was like growing up in a Jewish family in France. Her family moved from Morocco when she was small. Sylvie always wanted to be an artist, but her mother pushed her to study science and math and other more impressive fields.

Sylvie’s father was the principal of a “Boys’ Normal School,” a college where students earned teaching degrees, and her family had an apartment at the end of a row of classrooms. So Sylvie grew up in a school. She had three younger siblings, and when the third came along, she got to move into an attic room in the school, with more privacy and room to do art.

The stories of growing up feel universal. She touches on things like family conflict, feeling like an outsider, friendships starting and ending, and making decisions about what she wants to do. And she’s in France! It’s all told with humor, and her creative drawings bring it to life.

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Review of Dragon Hoops, by Gene Luen Yang

Graphic Memoir, History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Dragon Hoops

From Small Steps Great Leaps

by Gene Luen Yang
color by Lark Pien

First Second, 2020. 446 pages.
Review written May 26, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This is a graphic novel memoir about a notable high school basketball season at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California, when the author was a teacher there. It was the 2014-15 season, and Mr. Yang had just had a graphic novel published on which he’d been working for six years. He puts himself into the story as he finds out all the hopes and dreams of the students and teachers were centering on finally winning a California state championship with their nationally ranked players. The school had previously had teams go to the championship game many times, but had never actually won.

And so we get the story of the season. The starting players and the coaches are featured. Key games are dramatized. We even get the history of basketball and why Catholic schools have a good record in this sport.

The author keeps the theme of “From Small Steps to Great Leaps” going by highlighting many small steps throughout – as people take a step into something new, and big things result. In Mr. Yang’s own life, he was trying to decide whether to quit teaching and switch to writing comics full-time, as he negotiated an offer to write for Superman.

But with basketball, you don’t know if the “good guys” win. And by making that point early in the book, we didn’t know how the season was going to turn out. The final game is well-dramatized and had me shouting at the end. Yes, shouting at a graphic novel as if it were a live game.

Now, the women’s basketball team at Bishop O’Dowd won the state championship that same year, so I found myself wishing there had been more coverage of that. (There was some, but mostly talking about the older sister of one of the players on the men’s team.) Though to be fair, the book was long enough as it was, and that might have made it unmanageable. Not to mention the difficulty the author might have had trying to get to both teams’ games.

I also wasn’t sure I liked the author writing himself into the story. But by the end, I appreciated it. It added a personal touch and emphasized that these were real kids caught up in big events.

I’m not a sports fan. (Though I was, in fact, a big fan of my high school’s basketball team and took stats for it.) But I am a fan of Gene Luen Yang’s writing, and I enjoyed this book thoroughly. The pacing was good; the history was interesting; and the competition was dramatic.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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