Jun 27 2024
About halfway through this slice-of-life graphic novel, I realized that what I was reading felt too deeply personal to be anything less than semi-autobiographical. So when I got to Joanne Starer’s afterword, discussing how this story was based on her own life, I was both unsurprised and deeply moved by the grace and honesty she …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/27/total-suplex-of-the-heart-by-joanne-starer-ornella-greco/
Jul 28 2023
Jms really wanted to read this installment of the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series together, and I was happy to continue the sports theme here and oblige! I’m actually really glad we got a chance to, and for more reasons than just one. In Big Shot, our hero Greg Heffley details his various disastrous …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/07/28/big-shot-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-16-by-jeff-kinney/
Jul 26 2023
Between watching Arsenal play in person (twice!) and the Women’s World Cup, it has been a satisfyingly sports-mad week for me. Why not keep the streak going with this adorable graphic novel featuring anthropomorphic animals getting together to play baseball? The Fernwood Valley Fuzzies are enjoying the start of their off-season before they figure out …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/07/26/fuzzy-baseball-vol-5-baseballoween-by-john-steven-gurney/
Sep 09 2022
Author Christina Soontornvat wasn’t sure whether anyone would care about her experiences with middle school, but was eventually persuaded to write about one of the most cringe episodes of her own pre-teen career in this wryly moving graphic novel. I’m so glad she did. It’s not easy being one of the few Thai people in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/09/the-tryout-a-graphic-novel-by-christina-soontornvat-joanna-cacao/
Apr 12 2022
Adrian “The Colombian Cannon” Molina is obsessed with football and dreams of being recruited to Nottingham FC. He knows he has talent, but he also knows he has a lot of work to do despite being a part of the Bogota Condors, Colombia’s premier U17 football team. During an exhibition match against England’s Regents United, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/04/12/world-class-by-jay-sandlin-patrick-mulholland-rebecca-nalty-justin-birch/
Apr 08 2022
Oof, this is a gut punch of a book, that tackles not only how racism affects high school athletes but also how relationships fade away as graduation and college loom nearer. Eleanor “Leni” Greenberg and Chanel “Nelly” Irons are best friends and members of their high school’s competitive cheerleading team. In the summer leading up …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/04/08/why-we-fly-by-kimberly-jones-gilly-segal/
Aug 12 2021
A coming-of-age novel with a queer country girl narrator playing sports and learning to interrogate her internalized misogyny while embracing who she is despite the opposition of certain members of her small town, including her nearest and dearest? I was wholly on-board even before I started reading Britta Lundin’s terrific, lived-in prose, and now I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/12/like-other-girls-by-britta-lundin/
Oct 26 2020
When I was younger, I loved a good climb. Mostly of trees and free-standing structures, tho if I’d had a shot at a climbing wall, I’d have totally been up for that, too. So when my college roommates invited me to join the hiking club, you’d think I’d be all in. Unfortunately, club hiking required …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/10/26/above-all-else-by-dana-alison-levy/
Mar 03 2020
As a teenager who never really “fit in” but who got along just fine with my peers because I was happy with myself and didn’t really care about what other people thought, my number one favorite kind of novel was about protagonists who didn’t fit in and didn’t really care either. You know how rare …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/03/03/every-reason-we-shouldnt-every-reason-we-shouldnt-1-by-sara-fujimura/
Feb 11 2019
Y’all, that was delightful. Ngl, I totally pictured Bradley Cooper and JLaw in the roles (and had to suffer the cognitive dissonance of her being way too young to play Tiffany) but that aside, I was incredibly moved by this surprisingly gentle tale of lost love, mental illness and sports fandom. Pat Peoples is not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/11/the-silver-linings-playbook-by-matthew-quick/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire