Reviews

Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes

bibliosteph's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

lmcoffman's review

hopeful informative reflective

4.5

nicolemags's review

5.0

This graphic novel is excellent. A copy should be in every classroom and library across America.

gingerlibrarian's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

nisanre's review

adventurous hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

This was a good book. There were some very impactful panels and the story was an excellent and important one. 

bibliobrandie's review

5.0

Incredible graphic novel memoir about Tommie Smith. You are introduced to Tommie and his family as sharecroppers in Texas. The family then migrates north to California where Tommie has his first experience attending an integrated school and also his first experience running track. From there you follow the path that led him to courageously raise his fist in protest for racial justice on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games. I think this is a perfect graphic memoir and one all students should and will want to read.
For 8th grade book talk: paired with Ghost by Jason Reynolds, Becoming Muhammed Ali by Kwame Alexander, and Before the Ever After by Woodson, Jacqueline.

lostinausten's review

emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced

4.5

The true story of Tommie Smith's journey to the Olympics and his impact on history. 

This was such a powerful book! It's a graphic novel that is really accessible to kids.The illustrations were so captivating and beautiful. I really enjoyed the mix of history (ie the Civil Rights Movement) and Tommie Smith's own experience. It was really well blended and gave a great context to his experience. As a teacher, I really appreciated how much detail went into explaining how hard Tommie worked and how he wanted to make the world a better, more accepting place. 

cece_meister18's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

juanitamfm's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

This is an excellent graphic novel about the life of Olympic medalist Tommie Smith and the events that led up to the iconic protest picture from the 1968 Olympics. It’s a great book for middle grade students. 

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Child death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Slavery, and Violence