The memoir begins when Jimmy was thirteen, attending eighth
grade in Catholic school in a small Pennsylvania coal town. He’s an excellent
student and one of the school’s best basketball players. The only piece of his
life that doesn’t seem to fit is his love of comic books and graphic novels.
Everyone else sees them as a waste of time, and the nuns at school won’t even
let him read them during quiet reading time.
Things are good for Jimmy until he gets the chicken pox,
followed by pneumonia, and misses almost a month of school. His grades drop, he
misses the championship basketball game, and things seem to keep getting worse.
After a summer spent hanging out with the kids in his neighborhood, Jimmy
starts high school and his problems seem to just get worse. Jimmy feels like he
can’t get out of the slump that began with his long illness, plus he struggles
with the kind of problems all young teens face: transitioning to high school, making new friends, talking to
girls, and doing well in school.
Eventually, Jimmy writes and draws his own comic book and
even manages to get it published (no spoilers here – that is revealed in the
first pages of the book), but his friends don’t always understand his passion
for comics. You'll have to read it for yourself to discover what the dumbest idea ever is!
I enjoyed this unique graphic novel memoir (a new category
of book?). It’s a coming of age story that middle-graders will relate to, but
it is also about setting goals and making your dreams come true, even when your
friends don’t get it. I’m no expert on graphic novels, but I thought that both
the writing and the illustrations were very good, and the story held my
attention. Kids who love to write or draw will especially enjoy this inspiring
real-life story.
236 pages, Graphix (a Scholastic imprint)
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