Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu (review)
2024; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 77; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2024.a917203
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural Industries and Urban Development
ResumoReviewed by: Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu Meg Cornell Ukazu, Ngozi Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid; illus. by Mad Rupert. First Second, 2024 [288p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250193520 $25.99 Paper ed. ISBN 9781250193513 $17.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 10-12 On orientation day at her dream school, the North Carolina Peachtree Institute of Collegiate Arts, plucky Molly Bauer gets thrown a wild curveball, finding out from a far-too-cheerful financial aid officer that her full-ride scholarship has disappeared and now she’s in several thousand dollars of debt. Not to be deterred, Molly finds a loophole: the PICA athletic scholarship. If Molly can get nine art students to win a single game of softball, they could scam their tuition right out of PICA’s coffers. Ryan, her best friend, a seventh-generation Peachtree native, and former PICA dropout, gets quickly drafted as the team’s lovably grumpy coach, but convincing her quirky fellow students to take to the diamond is a bit more hands-on. The diverse ensemble cast is hilariously written, ingeniously personifying and exaggerating the delightfully weird, bombastic student body of an art school, and self-referentially sourcing for humor the anime, digital, traditional, and multimedia art cultures that make an art school tick. Standouts of Ukazu’s (Check Please!, BCCB 09/18) endlessly inventive character design approach are the love interest, a mysterious jock-girl whose cool design draws on Paranoia Agent and Akira but who also deadpans quotes like “the best laid plans of Mikes end men” and “carpet damn,” and a tempestuous, antagonistic sophomore already part-timing in the streamer/furry art economy. As tensions rise with every game lost, bigger issues are compellingly tackled, like the emotional and financial costs of going to art school, exploitative university systems, class dynamics within friendships, and the realities of gentrification. Featuring an exhuberant cast that is vibrantly queer and predominantly people of color, Molly’s story stands out as particularly useful for first-generation students and those highschoolers soon taking their turn up at bat writing college applications. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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