Book Review: Strange Fruit (volume 1): Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History

My supervisor brought me back a copy of Strange Fruit from BEA this year and I was pleasantly surprised by the gift.  I have been trying to make a concerted effort to read more graphic novels this year.  They're not the section that I naturally gravitate towards, so when it comes to book talking titles, I think the kids can see the nervous flop sweat that I develop. 

Strange Fruit by Joel Christian Gill

Strange Fruit was good; there were nine stories in the book which ranged from the better known (Henry "Box" Brown and Bass Reeves) to the obscure (Richard Potter and Marshall "Major" Taylor).  The stories were colorful and seemed well researched.  The artwork was very cartoon-like but was not a distraction from the overall theme of each story.  The hand-lettering of the speech bubbles was hard for me to read, but became easier as I became more familiar with Mr. Gill's penmanship. 

I think this book serves as a good starting point for 'tweens and teens who are interested in African American History.  The bibliography in back is extensive and is broken down by each person.  Books are intermixed with websites, but the hand-lettering becomes problematic again as lines seem to blur together.  Mr. Gill's unusually drawn "E's" (Three parallel lines without a connecting bar) do not help the situation.