With Theodore Taylor III’s full-color illustrations, this graphic novel edition is enthralling and inspiring.

Garvey’s Choice was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, and a Paterson Prize for Books for Young People Honor Book. He also finds a way to finally reach his distant father-by speaking the language of music. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey discovers his voice-and himself. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey’s father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading-anything but sports. A short, sweet, satisfying novel in verse that educators and readers alike will love.' -School Library Journal, starred review of Garvey’s Choice Grimes writes about adolescent friendships in a way that feels deeply human. will fall hard for Garvey, a tender, sincere boy who dislikes athletics. Īward-winning author Nikki Grimes’s beloved novel in verse Garvey’s Choice is now a graphic novel, imaginatively and dramatically illustrated by Little Shaq artist Theodore Taylor III.

He also forges a new relationship with his father, who does a quick turnaround at Garvey’s recital: “Dad stands to the side / beaming pride like a nova, / lighting up my year.” An author’s note explains the poetic form, which will be useful to classroom teachers.įrom the September/October 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.For anyone who’s ever felt misunderstood. You should let others hear it.” Not only does Garvey find his voice as part of the chorus, he finds new friends, pride in who he is, and the power to stand up to others who would tease him. Garvey’s life changes when his best friend suggests that he join the school chorus: “Your voice is choice. In a little book of little poems, Grimes tells a big-hearted story of Garvey (named after Marcus Garvey), an overweight boy tormented by name-calling at school: “lard butt, fatso, Mister Tubs.” Of his size, he says, “My mom, dad, and sis / could fit inside my shadow / and - poof - disappear.” Garvey yearns for a better connection with his father, who wants him to play football and stop being so soft, but: “Mom’s got a talent / for origami, but she / can’t fold me into / the jock Dad wants me to be.” Employing the Japanese poetic form of tanka - five-line poems (or, here, stanzas) with haiku-like syllable counts - Grimes reveals Garvey’s thoughts, feelings, and observations, the spare poetry a good vehicle for a young man’s attempts to articulate the puzzle that is his life. Intermediate, Middle School WordSong/Boyds Mills 108 pp.

Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes