Gene Luen Yang, author/illustrator of American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, and Superman Smashes the Klan is, in my opinion, the most important Asian American graphic novelist on the scene today. He follows in the footsteps of Stan Sakai, creator of the Usagi Yojimbo universe and he brings his minority lens forward in this sports biography to honor the diverse players and coaches of the Bishop O'Dowd high school 2015 men's varsity basketball team in Oakland, California. At the time, Yang was also a high school math teacher at O'Dowd so this is also part of his story as the team heads to the state championships.
What I found most fascinating about this book, besides the whole sports drama of it all is that at one point, his wife becomes his conscience, the fourth wall of the comic panels are broken and we get to see inside the many artistic and writing decisions that Mr. Yang makes to tell this story. Like he says, this season is Googleable, but it is in the choices he makes, revealed in a bit of inner dialogue as well as in the end notes, that make this intriguing.
On a side note, now that I have gone to reading electronic versus paper books, I slowed down on my graphic novel reading because the size on the iPad is a little too small for me to read text without zooming and then I do not see the whole page. However, I just received an iPad Pro 12.9 inch screen, so added to the Libby library app, this was my first library graphic novel read on this device and it is the perfect size. I am definitely going to go back to my online public library to gather more graphic novels, especially as we lost all of our Borders Books and most of the Barnes and Noble stores in Hawaii are also closing.
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