I will start my review of Soft Targets: Guns in America and the Kids Caught in the Crossfire by Camila Kerwin, with my usual explanation about my position on guns. I respect your choice of being pro or anti guns. However, I grew up in a home with guns. We had rules about them and consequences if we did not follow them. I grew up knowing my mother could out shoot my father when they met. Most of my family hunted. I am a fan of venison. I tease my sister about her purple handgun (she tells me it’s lilac). And I know the other side of the story. I lost a cousin to a domestic abuse situation with a firearm. I know of a teen who was fooling around with a gun and shot his best friend. I have watched the news. This background has made me someone who believes and promotes safety and responsible ownership. I am a fan of gun laws. And as Kerwin points out, many owners also are.
When I started Kerwin’s book, I was worried that they would be too one way or the other. I mostly was afraid of a very anti-gun stance. So I went into the book with an open mind, but a bit cautious. In the end, this book is a look into the world of guns, their history, and the results of violence. The author approaches the subject as someone whose stepfather was a gun owner and she had a fascination with his collection. The stories told are heartbreaking, but respectful and thoughtful. The history of events unfold in details that are sometimes bogged down, but always important. While it offers a mostly balanced look into the subject, the author leans left in some places. I was introduced to people and history I was unfamiliar with. The NRA has a very unique past and present. Even current politics are introduced and how things are both changing and staying the same. The interviews she conducted did make me think.
The illustrations are pretty straightforward, sometimes I liked them others times not. However, I will hold off on judgement until I see the final product. 
I was half way through reading my online reader copy (due late October 2027) when a coworker wrote a review for our store website. Their review is more emotional than mine and says things I agree with. I was debating what I was going to use, but I’m putting it in full (I am also linking this to the review on our website in case you like it and want more of his recommendations).
Soft Targets: Guns in America and the Kids Caught in the Crossfire by Camila Kerwin (10/27/2026)
A heart-wrenching but necessary collection of stories about how American gun culture and violence is harming our youth at a scale unheard of almost anywhere else on Earth. By highlighting the alarming number of suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths of American children carried out with firearms, Kerwin’s book acts (hopefully) as a wakeup call to the nation: thoughts and prayers alone aren’t enough to ensure the safety and futures of our children. Further, Kerwin’s book admirably seeks to unite, not divide, by exposing just how decidedly popular common sense solutions to gun violence/incidents are, with a shared hope that, maybe one day, horrific gun-related incidents will not be the top killers of our children. — John Giarmoleo
So, thank you John for letting me use your review (and your words for my title), thank you Camila Kerwin for writing this graphic novel so we both could review it and thank you Street Noise Books for publishing it so we were able to find it.
