Brimming with the same spirited sense of style and magic as Disney’s That’s So Raven, Drama High introduces a fun, brazen new series featuring a young sistah who’s learning that life in the ‘hood is nothing compared to life in high school…
Proudly hailing from Compton, USA, sixteen-year-old Jayd Jackson is no stranger to drive-by shootings or run-ins with the friendly neighborhood crackhead. Street-smart, book-smart, and life-smart, she’s nobody’s fool — least of all KJ’s, the most popular and cutest basketball jock at South Bay High, aka Drama High. Yes, it’s a fact, Jayd fell hard for his player ways for a time, but now that KJ’s shown his true colors — she’s through with him and his game playing for good.
Jayd just wants to start her Junior year of high school drama free. But wanting ain’t getting, especially at a place like Drama High, a predominately white high school in a wealthy part of Los Angeles, where Jayd and 30 other Compton kids get bussed to daily. Saying race relations aren’t what they should be would be putting it mildly, and that’s just the beginning of the drama. Jayd’s first day back to school, KJ’s new girlfriend, Trecee, steps to her wanting to fight. Egged on by Misty, Jayd’s former best friend-turned-nemesis, Trecee wants to make Jayd understand that KJ is off limits — even if she has to do it with her fists. With the fight set for Friday, and the sistah drama at an all time high, Jayd is about to learn who’s really got her back and more importantly, when she’s got to watch it. But at least she can always count on Mama, and her mystical bag of tricks.
Drama High is a remarkably assured debut, and L. Divine is a tantalizing and refreshing new voice. Jayd and her bold, honest, and laugh-out-loud funny assessment of life, along with her quirky cast of friends, classmates, loves, her magical family and eccentric neighbors make for an irresistible, can’t-put-it-down read.
L. Divine holds a Masters in African American Studies and Educational Psychology from UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her daughter and son.
Dark Blue by Melody Carlson
True Colors Series
Melody Carlson has created an emotional touchstone resource for female teen readers in her series titled True Colors. A prolific author of over seventy books, and mom to two grown sons, Carlson has taken a reminiscent look back at her own teen years to write this story. The result is terrific, and young adults will find Carlson’s fiction closer to “true” life than they might anticipate.
The story’s primary message is based on the painful emotion of loneliness and how it can overwhelm, undermine, and skew the ability to function in a healthy way. Kara Hendricks is a quiet girl, but when outgoing Jordan Ferguson takes her hand (way back in kindergarten) and announces her loyalty, Kara and Jordan become best friends for the better part of eight years. Fast forward to high school: Jordan now announces to the still shy and reticent Kara that she’s going to try out for the cheerleading squad. Kara is supportive. Shockingly, Jordan does not make the team, to Kara’s clear relief. The following year Jordan will not be dissuaded and tries out a second time; she makes the team, to Kara’s obvious discomfort.
What follows is not so unusual in the basic fictional formula, where two former best friends take their separate paths — one’s heart is broken (the one left behind) and the other moves on to better and brighter things. This story aptly describes the day-to-day heartaches that Kara experiences as a friend no longer needed or wanted in Jordan’s now-popular social set. While the book could read blandly and predictably, Carlson does some creative wordplay and continually draws readers smack-dab into Kara’s volatile emotional journey, thus ensuring a lively, engaging read. Using such emotionally charged phrases as “…another part of me is dark blue, and I feel buried alive in a deep and bitter grief,” and “I am lonely. Unspeakably lonely. And there is this dull empty ache inside of me. Sometimes I think it might actually kill me. But perhaps that would be a relief,” Carlson successfully gets her readers’ attention.
DARK BLUE: COLOR ME LONELY follows Kara though the school year as she works to survive her emotional funk. She meets new people, slowly engages with them, and learns about true friendship. In the midst of her deepest feelings of despondency, Kara reaches out to God and makes a connection with Christ — her now “best friend.” The author explores Kara’s newfound faith tenderly yet with a frank transparency that works well with the current tempo of the entire text. Young adults will not only appreciate the candor with which this topic is explored, they’ll find themselves seeing social situations in a whole new (and enlightened) way.
Adapting Shakespeare’s plays to a graphic-novel format isn’t easy, as the language needs a particularly firm scaffolding of expression and gesture. As part of the new Manga Shakespeare series, this adaptation, set in modern-day Tokyo, does a competent job of combining manga-style art and abridged dialogue to immerse the reader in the world of the play. Although the richness of the language may be lost, the script keeps the spirit of the story intact, hitting all the major speeches. The art is occasionally muddied by too-similar gray-scale patterns, but the layout and characters are energetic and iconic. By situating the play in modern Tokyo among rival yakuza, or organized-crime families, Appignanesi and Leong present manga fans with a world they will recognize. Robin Brenner
Romeo and Juliet is ideally suited for the manga format—it has teenage heroes, scheming and villainous adults, heartbreaking tragedy, and the ultimate romantic plot about star-cross’d lovers. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall deeply in love—and they refuse to let their parents’ age-old feud get in their way. When Romeo is banished from their town, a series of mistakes and misunderstandings, along with their families’ mutual hatred, finally manages to end their love. An exciting introduction to the Bard for reluctant readers and manga fans alike.
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