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norapalooza's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
rdyourbookcase's review against another edition
5.0
I appreciated Gill telling his story. It showed how good people can get caught up in bad situations. The ending warmed my heart, and the art was excellent.
librarylapin's review against another edition
4.0
A heartbreaking story told with bravery and vulnerability.
tx2its's review against another edition
4.0
Reading 2023
Book 218: Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence by Joel Christian Gill
A graphic memoir for #nonfictionnovember. I stocked up on a bunch of nonfiction GNs. This one is reviewed for high school readers. Also nominated for several awards for best graphic novel in 2021.
Synopsis: Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.
Review: This book is raw. Joel goes through so many trials in his young life. There are some places where he uses humor to protect himself from the horrors that awaited him around corners. Definitely recommend this book. My rating 4.5⭐️.
Book 218: Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence by Joel Christian Gill
A graphic memoir for #nonfictionnovember. I stocked up on a bunch of nonfiction GNs. This one is reviewed for high school readers. Also nominated for several awards for best graphic novel in 2021.
Synopsis: Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.
Review: This book is raw. Joel goes through so many trials in his young life. There are some places where he uses humor to protect himself from the horrors that awaited him around corners. Definitely recommend this book. My rating 4.5⭐️.
saramarie08's review against another edition
5.0
Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence is an autobiographical memoir of Joel’s childhood. As a small boy, he is forced to learn how to fight in order to protect himself from kids at school and in his neighborhood. He makes the assertion that children are sponges so can only absorb so much violence and negativity before it explodes out of them, often violently as well. As he grows, Joel learns to control hours outbursts and tries to get away from the constant threat of violence, but he is frequently the target of other people’s anger. As he becomes a teenager, he becomes a target for other males well don’t like how popular he is with the ladies, and he also gets on the wrong side of drug dealers.
Let me start by saying I have run a club on campus for 11 years dealing with domestic violence, so this topic is dear to my heart. I'm getting out the soap box on this one.
Joel’s life is heartbreaking. Childhood violence is a really difficult topic to read, and especially to see, but it is an important one for inclusion in our libraries. Physical violence in this story is depicted on the page, as you can see in the cover, and there is a bit of blood. There is also a fair amount of cussing, from the mouths of babes and adults. This book will need to come with trigger warnings for readers who might be upset by content and the frankness by which Gill tells his story. There are a few hints at sexual situations, and child sexual abuse that happens entirely unseen (panels all happen in the dark). It would be tempting not to include this book because of these difficult topics and the fear of what they might bring, but censoring a story as raw and real as this, with situations our students are unfortunately facing or have faced in their lives, means we would be telling them that their entire lives are not appropriate. This book makes us uncomfortable, and it's meant to. Gill's ending message is that he has done all the fighting and suffering so that his kids won't have to. If we shy away from the topics of this book, we may not be able to break the cycles that continue to subject children to this type of violence.
Sara’s Rating: 9/10
Suitability: Grades 10-12
Let me start by saying I have run a club on campus for 11 years dealing with domestic violence, so this topic is dear to my heart. I'm getting out the soap box on this one.
Joel’s life is heartbreaking. Childhood violence is a really difficult topic to read, and especially to see, but it is an important one for inclusion in our libraries. Physical violence in this story is depicted on the page, as you can see in the cover, and there is a bit of blood. There is also a fair amount of cussing, from the mouths of babes and adults. This book will need to come with trigger warnings for readers who might be upset by content and the frankness by which Gill tells his story. There are a few hints at sexual situations, and child sexual abuse that happens entirely unseen (panels all happen in the dark). It would be tempting not to include this book because of these difficult topics and the fear of what they might bring, but censoring a story as raw and real as this, with situations our students are unfortunately facing or have faced in their lives, means we would be telling them that their entire lives are not appropriate. This book makes us uncomfortable, and it's meant to. Gill's ending message is that he has done all the fighting and suffering so that his kids won't have to. If we shy away from the topics of this book, we may not be able to break the cycles that continue to subject children to this type of violence.
Sara’s Rating: 9/10
Suitability: Grades 10-12
jenmillie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
5.0
As I read it, I thought how incredibly important it is for young adults to be reading this. And as an adult reading it, what an incredibly true and heartfelt journey it is. Finding out the author is (was?) a professor of graphic art at Mass Art in Boston MA was a treat. "Professor Joel Christian Gill is a cartoonist who writes and draws comics and graphic novels about black history."