(Insert Generic Sports Phrase Here): Dragon Hoops for the win in a walk!

 

(Insert Generic Sports Phrase Here): Dragon Hoops for the win in a walk!

 Well, despite Henry’s best attempts there wasn’t too much smackin’ going on this round. Henry tried to get some going with some anti graphic novel sentiments that was too emoticon heavy to take too seriously (😏) and these were actual words he used to describe The Left Handed Booksellers of London: “quick, but trite,” “expected and predictable structure” and “not deep, not thought provoking”. Yeah, and that was in an argument for moving that book forward, but I think it shows Henry’s legendary integrity shining through even in defeat. 

 I know in these first posts we typically try to provide a bit of a summary of each book, but I just don’t know if I have the energy to bring myself back into Booksellers after only fairly recently escaping it. . . but for you, dear reader, I will try: We are in the 80s in London (which sounds like fun), but it’s a very different world where the modern day (actually the 80s) is in seemingly continuous conflict with the Old World, which features goblins, gigantic wolves, sippers (think vampires-light) etc. This is all brought together by our lovely heroine, Susan, who is also smart and trying to find out who her father is and this brings her into contact with the insanely hot and androgynous Merlin and his sister Vivien and together they  . . . OK that’s about all I have in me. There is much running about, some violence, some sort of witty banter and somehow, very little character development or chemistry between characters. I think we’re supposed to be picking up on the sexual tension between Merlin and Susan, but  . .  meh. I’m just not sure we ever got to the point of caring about any of these characters enough to be invested in their journey. It might be one of those books that actually makes a better film, as the very visceral reaction a great actor can elicit and maybe some bang up CGI might really make this spring to life. I’m all for ambitious world building, but I don’t know that it ever works - think Marvel Universe, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings - unless you are grounded in characters that work their way into your heart. I just read a review of a new TV series - Wheel of Time for those fantasy aficionados out there - that contained some phrasing that perfectly encapsulated Booksellers: “epic in scale . . .[but] not yet human in scale.”

 Dragon Hoops, in contrast, begins with an image of our narrator (and author) Gene Yang - who many of you might know from American Born Chinese, his 2006 graphic novel - and he remains the figurative heart of our story. We follow him through his decision to serve as a chronicler of the elite high school basketball team at the school (Bishop O’Dowd High School) where he teaches Mathematics, even while he weighs some big personal decisions, including whether or not he should start writing Superman for D.C. Comics. (One of those holy grail type things for comic folks). Along the way we learn a lot about Gene, his family, and the members of the Dragons, but we also get a crash course in basketball history and culture. If that last one has you looking for the exits, it mirrors Gene’s initial reaction and part of the initial power of the text is how he characterizes -through nuanced visuals and eloquently simple prose - Gene’s trepidation in leaving the comforts of academia for the uncertainty of this athletic world. There is a three page stretch at the outset of the novel (pages 10-12) that will force you to feel the pit in Gene’s stomach as he approaches the gym for the first time, where everything - even greeting his coaching colleague and deciding how to shake hands - is fraught with uncertainty. Yang’s drawings are spare (if you want to see a more lush visual landscape you can check out his - spoiler alert - eventual work on Superman), but you could take those three pages and teach any kid how a graphic novel - or a film, for that matter - works, in a way that is both simple and complex. The primary narrative will keep you moving through this text - despite being four hundred plus pages it’s a book that will likely be finished in a few sittings, if not one or two- it is the individual stories of the people Gene meets along the way that provide consistent depth and resonance; there is no question in my mind that you will see yourselves and your schools represented in this graphic novel For me, a big part of the power of this text was Yang’s both implicit and explicit recognition that there are no completed stories here - although the final pages do provide us with some closure - only poignant glimpses into the multitudes we all contain. 

And just in case you remain unconvinced (looking at you, Henry) here are three personal anecdotes/facts to support our case:

I had to order two extra copies of Dragon Hoops to return to Vanessa (They are coming, I promise!) because I gave copies to two of our most reluctant (attendance, reading, you name it) students and I have a table in my office littered with books right now and it is not an exaggeration to say that Dragon Hoops is the first one that kids and adults alike pick up and start thumbing through. 

In the time since I started The Left Handed Booksellers of London I started three other books (including a 600 page tome entitled The Dawn of Everything) and finished two of them before I finally slogged to the end of Booksellers. I like to have a few books on the go at any time, just for variety, but ideally I’m having an internal debate about what I pick up first, not actively pushing one to the bottom of the pile several days in a row.

One of our team was not sure if the Smackdown was really going to be her thing, but I encouraged her to give Dragon Hoops a few pages before making that decision. She came back the next day and was all in and reported she had never had more discussions about books with kids than she did when she had Dragon Hoops sitting on her desk.

So, our sense is that there is something special about Dragon Hoops. I know I was a bit ahead on Booksellers, but I certainly think it will find an audience out there, but there aren’t too many books you could give to literally anyone with a good chance they might find a way into something interesting, and likely profound, but Dragon Hoops offers that. It is our definitive choice to move forward in the first round.