Refresh, refresh

Refresh, Refresh
Danica Novgorodoff, Benjamin Percy, James Ponsoldt
978-1596435223

To Sum: Three boys in a small country town await news from their dads who are serving in the US Army, overseas. While they wait, they keep hitting refresh on their computers hoping for an e-mail; they beat each other up to toughen up; and they get into normal high school trouble. They also face the fact that life isn't easy.

Things to Watch Out For: Well, they boys fight and drink. They beat each other up, as well as a few other people. The language can be a little crude, but, it's probably a lot closer to how boys actually talk.

Where to Shelve: This one was rated in one of the catalogues at work as 16+, which meant for my library that it goes in the adult section. However, I think most older teens could handle this. If you have just a high school section, this would probably be fine there. However, since we have 7th grade on up, but also have 4th graders on up coming to the YA section, we shelved it in Adult.

I do like that it's a graphic novel (based on a short story by Percy) that shows the hardships for the young men left on the homefront. We have lots of stories, movies, books, about the soldier's life, and some on life on the homefront. But this deals with a modern war and modern young men. It's different enough that it might just catch the interest of the teen boys.

How I Heard About It: It came through School Library Journal? The YA librarian and I talked about where to shelve it. It also appeared in a few other journals.

Other Reviews
http://engl.iastate.edu/news_items/graphic-novel-adaptation-of-benjamin-percys-story-refresh-refresh-published-1.html/
http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/refresh-refresh-review
http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/graphic-novel-picks-fall-2009-teens-other
http://therumpus.net/2009/11/refresh-refresh/
http://www.ala.org/template.cfm?template=/CFApps/awards_info/award_detail_home.cfm&FilePublishTitle=Awards,%20Grants%20and%20Scholarships&uid=5136A2EB25F1418E
(It's on the YALSA list of best graphic novels for teens 2010)
http://lit.newcity.com/2009/09/29/graphic-novel-review-refresh-refresh/


Other links:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23070
http://www.benjaminpercy.com/graphic%20novels.htm