7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up

September 15, 2020
Kirby Finn is a modern-day Robin Hood who is always looking out for the underdog. Kirby specializes in devising clever plans that empower kids to stand up to bullies and even rally the community together to save a friend's family business. To his classmates at prestigious Greycliff Academy, he's a hero. But like many heroes, Kirby harbors a painful secret. Despite a fierce loyalty to his friends, he dodges their questions about his family and home life. When the truth finally catches up to him, his friends learn the complicated reasons why he tries so hard to be heroic. Told with humor and authenticity, this book explores friendship dynamics, identity, and the uncertainty of the future. Kirby, his best friend, Raja, and their mutual crush, Kelly, all face their own challenges. Raja struggles to break free from his role as Kirby's sidekick, and Kelly finds strength from surviving an adverse situation in her past. The vibrant, dynamic, full-color panel work succeeds in highlighting the youthful irreverence of the characters and their antics. Wonderfully balanced, this story entertains while also introducing serious topics in an accessible way. Kirby and Kelly present White; Raja is biracial with a White mother and brown-skinned father, and there is diversity in the supporting cast. The highs and lows of growing up portrayed in an appealing, amusing, and heartfelt way. (author's note; sketches, drawings, and deleted scenes) (Graphic fiction. 9-12)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2021
Kirby Finn is a hero to the students at Greycliff Academy. In addition to the "Seven Good Reasons" videos he sends out, which delineate why it's best not to grow up, he leads his After-School Resistance team of students in cleverly dispatching bullies and other jerks, saving a friend's local business, and waging an underground war on Principal Cudgel, puppet of school board president Darth Finkenboner. Best friends Raja Ahmed and Kelly Rose are there for Kirby, even after discovering that the friend they thought they knew has been harboring secrets about his identity. Gownley's (the Amelia Rules! series; The Dumbest Idea Ever, rev. 3/14) pen-and-ink drawings, hand lettering, and full-color panels combine for a dazzling array of busy, action-filled pages with blizzards of speech bubbles, and an occasional quiet pause in the form of a cityscape, nighttime sky, or neighborhood scene. The writing works well with the illustrations to create a sensitive portrait of friends, each with a well-developed backstory, who realize that they "weren't just a bunch of random kids," but rather a constellation of young people who were big and powerful together. Back matter includes an author's note and a look behind the scenes at the book's creation. Dean Schneider

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2021
Kirby Finn is a hero to the students at Greycliff Academy. In addition to the "Seven Good Reasons" videos he sends out, which delineate why it's best not to grow up, he leads his After-School Resistance team of students in cleverly dispatching bullies and other jerks, saving a friend's local business, and waging an underground war on Principal Cudgel, puppet of school board president Darth Finkenboner. Best friends Raja Ahmed and Kelly Rose are there for Kirby, even after discovering that the friend they thought they knew has been harboring secrets about his identity. Gownley's (the Amelia Rules! series; The Dumbest Idea Ever, rev. 3/14) pen-and-ink drawings, hand lettering, and full-color panels combine for a dazzling array of busy, action-filled pages with blizzards of speech bubbles, and an occasional quiet pause in the form of a cityscape, nighttime sky, or neighborhood scene. The writing works well with the illustrations to create a sensitive portrait of friends, each with a well-developed backstory, who realize that they "weren't just a bunch of random kids," but rather a constellation of young people who were big and powerful together. Back matter includes an author's note and a look behind the scenes at the book's creation.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)