Graphic Novels

Class Act, Heart Stopper Dragon Hoops, just like I asked for!

Craft, J. Class Act, (2020) New York, NY: Quill Tree Books, HarperCollins Publishers. 

Oseman, A. Heart Stopper, (2020), New York, NY: Graphics, Scholastic. 

Yang, G. Dragon Hoops, (2020), New York, NY: First Second, Roaring Brook Press. 

These are all very school-centric graphic novels and as a 18 year public school educator I can say with full confidence that they all get it 100% right. 

I have not read New Kid, Jerry Craft’s precursor to Class Act and I figured that if I was confused I would go back and read it, but Class Act pulled me in right away and kept me engaged enough to read it in one sitting. Craft deftly touches on different perceptions of race and class, the damage caused by microaggressions and the impact of socioeconomic difference among friends while keeping his characters adorably realistic and his story tremendously entertaining!

It is actually a law that every review of the book Heart Stopper has to use the phrase swoon-worthy, and with good reason. This first love story is just that. The feeling of uncertainty, excitement and longing is perfectly rendered. The fact that it is two boys in an English public school, one of whom is very straight-seeming, just turns the simmer up a notch. This book won the Mass. Teen Choice Book Award last year in a landslide. 75% of the students in my school who took part voted for it, and that was before the Netflix series was released, which has only broadened its popularity. If you don’t go directly from book one all the way through the available titles (and then go onto the webcomic for yet to be published panels) you are clearly dead inside. 

Dragon Hoops is a gift from Gene Luen Yang to librarians everywhere. The combination of high school basketball, real life teen issues and the graphic novel format makes this a sure sell. It is thick, which can put off reluctant readers, but as soon as they see the panels, they are sold. This is Yang’s story of making the leap from high school teacher to full time graphic novel writer combined with the 2014-15 championship season of the Dragons - the basketball team at the school where he teaches. You wouldn’t think those two themes would mesh, but they really do. It is a great look at the background of the team (including a shocking look into allegations against one of the coaches that is handled perfectly) illustrated by a man who is trying to decide the future trajectory of his life.

All three of these are great for hooking readers and enlarging their world views.