I looked at the cover and said to myself that I knew exactly what this book was about. Well, I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t right. I guess I was on a superhero kick at the time as I felt it would have more of that element. I also thought she would have to struggle to paint/do art. And instead, she isn’t a “real magical power superhero” but our gal does perform a pretty neat trick: Getting Art Students to do the dreaded Group Project AND that group project was to play a sport. 
I guess I should have realized that Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid would have more of an angle of sports (striking out was in the title) and assumed more on the aid part (again, in the title), but I was going by the image. And of course, one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Though with the case of Ngozi Ukazu’s book, you can partly judge it by the cover. It is a cute story about found family, friends and seeing beyond the emerald glasses. It is funny and cozy which should come across with the cover.
But even though Mad Rupert (the illustrator) has all those bright, goofy, off beat, and basically simpler illustrations, it goes deeper. The art is a holder for the story of secrets (our main gal Molly is keeping the big financial secret from her moms; another student is keeping the secret of why she dislikes the college so much; the college is keeping secrets about their real motives with renovating local buildings). Overall, the comedy of errors, love and finding the loopholes of life (and financial security) is fun. Not OMG for the adult me, but the at least 10 and up (12 to 15) in me enjoyed things. 
