Middle-Grade/Teen Review: The Dumbest Idea Ever!

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but I have enjoyed a few of them in the past, so I looked forward to reading a new release from Jimmy Gownley, The Dumbest Idea Ever! I quickly realized that this book defies categorization. Yes, it is in the form of a graphic “novel,” but it isn’t a novel at all; it’s a memoir about Gownley’s own adolescence and how he got his start as an author.

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)

NOTE: This book is scheduled to be released February 25, 2014

Teen/YA Review: The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir

I always enjoy reading memoirs, so the new teen/YA memoir The Pregnancy Project, by teen Gaby Rodriguez, caught my eye.  Gaby’s story is a captivating one, well told with the help of author Jenna Glatzer.

Gaby comes from a long line of teen mothers.  Her own mother became pregnant at just fourteen and went on to have seven more children.  Her grandmother and aunts were all teen moms, too, as well as some of her own older sisters.  Gaby, an intelligent, hard-working young woman, was determined not to follow in their footsteps and become another statistic.  Her family’s history, though, made the topic of teen pregnancy intriguing to her.

So, when it was time to choose a year-long Senior Project along with her classmates, Gaby came up with something truly unique.  With the approval of her principal (and her mother and boyfriend), Gaby pretended to become pregnant in order to observe how friends, peers, family, and teachers treated her and to explore the stereotypes of pregnant teens.  This memoir is the story of Gaby’s project and her experiences inside the world of a pregnant teen.  It is eye-opening, to say the least.

I was fascinated by this memoir and by Gaby’s story.  Apparently, so was the rest of the world, as Gaby became an overnight sensation, sought after by every newspaper, TV network, and talk show in the nation (and beyond).  Lifetime even made a movie about her experiences (I’d like to see that).  Her memoir provides an inside look at high school, poor Hispanic populations, and the plight of pregnant teens.  It should be required reading for every teen girl.

216 pages, Simon & Schuster

 

Teen/YA Review: Three Little Words

Ashley Rhodes-Courter lived in fourteen different foster homes in nine years. Her memoir, Three Little Words, chronicles her childhood spent as a victim of a badly broken foster care system, yet she sees herself as more of a survivor and advocate rather than a victim.

Ashley’s story begins with her earliest memories (based in part on stories told to her by her family). Her mother was only seventeen when Ashley was born. They lived for awhile with her mother’s sister, then with a boyfriend and a new baby brother. When Ashley was just three years old, and her brother Luke still a baby, police removed them from their house, and the progression of foster parents began.

Ashley and Luke were bounced from one foster home to another, sometimes together, sometimes apart. She stayed in some homes for years and in others for just a day or two. For years, no one explained to her why this had happened, where her mother was, or what she could expect in the future. Some of her foster parents were caring, kind people; others were indifferent, crowding too many children into small homes. One foster mother was as evil as any fairytale stepmother, mentally and physically abusing Ashley and the other fourteen children in her care.

Fortunately, Ashley was an intelligent and resilient child and eventually escaped the foster care system that was responsible for so much pain in her life. She is now a college-educated twenty-two year old who is a vocal advocate for adoption and foster care reform. Simon & Schuster published Three Little Words within their teen division, but the memoir is fascinating and compelling for readers of any age. From the adorable picture of Ashley dressed as an angel on the cover to the acknowledgements, notes, and photos at the end of the book, I could scarcely put it down.

P.S. The three little words aren't the ones you're thinking of!