MMGM- We are Big Time and FACTopia

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Khan, Hena and Zerrougui, Safiya (illus.) We Are Big Time 

August 6, 2024 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

ARC provided by Follett First Look

Aliyah Javaid is not happy that her family is moving from warm and sunny Florida to Milwaukee for her freshman year. She's glad to be near her grandparents, but sad at leaving the school she has always attended and her best friend. Her new school, Peace Academy, is also a private, Muslim school, so it seems fairly familiar, but her older brother Ameen seems to settle in better. When basketball tryouts are announced, Aliyah is happy, because she was only able to play rec league in Florida. There are just enough girls for a team, so no one is cut. Coach Jess Martinez makes Noura, a senior who has played before, the captain, but chooses Aliyah as cocaptain over more experienced players, so that there will be leadership once the seniors have graduated. This makes sense, but Aliyah feels that Noura holds this against her. The girls work hard to bond as a team, and Coach Jess is good about making them think about their purpose on the court ("More than the score" is their motto), and having them do activities like baking that help them come together and cooperate. She also sets aside time for them to do their prayers if they coincide with practice. There is some local news interest in an all Muslim girls' team, and the girls get a little tired of being asked, by other teams as well, how they can play while wearing hijabs. The team does fairly well, but Aliyah isn't confident on the court, lets her grades slip because she has a lot to do, and stresses about a lot of things. When the national Rafter Report wants to do a piece on the team as they head toward the state tournament, the pressure increases. She finally shares her concerns with Halima, a teammate, and this helps a little. Even the Rafter Report tends to ask questions about issues like immigration, but the team gets together and decides to redirect all of the questions to basketcall. They are given the last seed in the tournament, which means they will have to play the best team in their first game. They don't win, but feel good about their progress on the court, and Aliyah feels good about her new school and new life in Milwaukee. 

Strengths: I loved Khan's note at the end that this was based off a real team who had similar experiences with media coverage. Girls have been playing basketball for a long, long time, (think about Jessie Graham Flower's 1911 Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School, or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and Athletics) so it was good to see that there really wasn't any objection to the girls having a team, even though some people had questions about the girls playing in hijabs. I'm always a fan of exploring team dynamics, and Aliyah's personal struggles will resonate with young readers who, like Elena Delle Donne's Elle DeLuca, struggle with time management and self esteem. Zerrougui's illustrations are appealing, and she does an excellent job of differentiating the characters through their eyebrows and facial expressions, which is important because they are often in identical uniforms! Seeing coaches protrayed in a positive light is always a relief, and Coach Jess is a good example of how innovative methods and a desire to help students can overcome a lot of struggles. 
Weaknesses: I personally would have preferred this to be in regular novel format, because Aliyah had so many emotional things going on, and it was hard to get a good feel for them. Noura was interesting, and her issues with Aliyah would have been easier to work in as well. Basically, I found this all so interesting that I just wanted to know more! 
What I really think: This will be a HUGE hit with students, since there are so few graphic novels about sports. I loved Khan's Zayd Saleem series for younger readers and was so glad to see that Aliyah was in high school. I will probably have to purchase two copies of this to keep up with demand. 

Considering that there are two other graphic novels about girls' basketball (Tavares' Hoops, Misako Rock's Bounce Back, and Dawson's Fifth Quarter, I'd love to see more basketball graphic novels with boys as the main character. I can only think of Yang's Dragon Hoops. 

Towler, Paige and Smith, Andy (illus.) Secret FACTopia
August 6, 2024 by Britannica Books

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

This book was an interesting format that is hard to categorize; essentially, it is like the National Geographic Weird But True books if James Joyce (Ulysses) had written them in his stream-of-consciousness style. It ping pongs in a delightful way from ultraviolet light to 17th century German books hollowed out to store poison to the manchineel tree... and that's just on three pages! The brief facts are all centered around secret or hidden topics, but encompasses not only the whole world but space as well. 

Facts are presented in a pell mell fashion. Some get an entire page of treatment, and handy dotted lines trail throughout the book, leading from one topic to another. There are also some pages that are a veritable clearing house of facts, with speech bubble or flow chart style boxes cramming lots of facts in a small space. This is a great springboard to further research; when I read the fact about an archaeologist who used dynamite to hasten the excavation of Troy and was surprised that his name wasn't given, I had to do some research and find out that they were referring to Heinrich Schliemann! There is an index, and a list of resources, but this is more of a grab bag of facts rather than something that will help with deep dives. 

I'm a huge fan of this type of book, and hadn't seen this Britannica series before, although this is the seventh book in the series of volumes showcasing "crazily connected facts". Perfect for road trips, bugging older siblings, and possibly even breaking a cell phone addiction, this is a fascinating new way to introduce young readers to the wonders of "fun facts" that is a little different from National Geographic Almanacs, since the pages are full of Andy Smith's goofy but informative illustrations rather than glossy photographs, although there are some decorated photographs that are quite fun. 

 

Brief Blather: The foot surgery went very well, and I have been good about keeping my leg elevated and iced while also getting in the approved amount of exercise. That said, I am not bouncing back the way I usually do, so it's good I'm off school until September 19th. Haven't had the mental acuity to read and review, but did at least get the most recent books from Young Adult Books Central added to the database. The plan for the week is to get that box done, and finish up five more reviews for November. We'll see how that goes!