Recently, Garvey’s Choice: The Graphic Novel by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III found itself on my reading pile again. However, I was a few pages in before I realized I had read it before. It was funny how a book that I had enjoyed had been forgotten, but even though I had plenty of other things to read, it felt like a good idea to read again instead of moving onto something else.
This reading allowed the story to become a bit stronger for me. I remember liking it before, but it never “hit me” as it was this time around. Currently one of my favorite books is A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner and deals with the issue of a boy dealing with his weight and I think the idea of dealing with weight issues with a boy was more interesting this time around. Yes, I compared the two and saw some of the similarities. Therefore, I recommend both books on the subject. The rest of the story is a pretty traditional coming of age story with a son and father trying to connect and the father is not “listening” to his son. Instead, the father tries to force things onto his son that he is not interested in (mostly sports) because that’s how the father connected to the grandfather/his father. It is not until the two find something in common that their relationship starts to grow.
Overall, this is a fun story of a young boy trying to find the perfect space: the right space to fit in his family, his school, with his friends and mostly the what it takes to be happy. The Prose poetry text and illustrations move things along in a quick fashion with the illustrations supporting the characters and voice of Garvey. The artwork is stereotypical comic/graphic novel style with bold colors, glossy images and medium details. They allow the reader to see the story without taking over the text and/or action.