too wordy...not something I'm into normaly anyways. ( )

This is more of a 3.5 for me but I feel bad beating up on a book that's made professionally and sides with the angels. It's a rambling, disjointed account of a young boy's experiences as a hobo during the Great Depression—a story that ends up both fascinating and a bit paint-by-numbers. Train-hopping, bulls with billy clubs, communism and anti-communism, bean cans and newsboy hats. It's all sincere and filled with shades of compelling stories, but it never really gripped me. I partly blame the intrusive and not whole necessary narration, written in an overly florid style ill-fitting the rest of the book.

Dan Burr's art is very good illustration, but it's a fairly pedestrian take on the comic book medium. Much of it simply illustrates the plot more than it supplants or provides it.

Anyway, I'm an asshole for not absolutely loving this, I get it. ( )

Another prime example of what a graphic novel is capable of doing once it takes off its spandex underwear and takes a turn for the serious. Set during the Great Depression in the United States, it tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is left homeless and trekking across America. It's both tragic and inspiring, things not normally associated with the graphic format.

I have some minor complaints, admittedly. The faces of the characters aren't very consistent, and the story feels a little weak in certain sections as if they were rushed. I occasionally switched back a page, double checking to make sure I didn't skip anything as what was happening was a little unclear. These are secluded to a couple specific times during the book though, and overall it really is a very good graphic novel. ( )

Again, I'd never read a novel about Depression-era hobos and labor riots in Detroit, but it's easy to learn about it all in graphic novel format. ( )

At twelve, Freddie Bloch finds the security of his family and home gone in the wake of the Great Depression, an alcoholic father, the untimely arrest of his brother and the promise that there are jobs "somewhere." In an effort to at least find his father again, Freddie sets out from California to Detroit in hopes of reunion and adventure.

Instead, Freddie finds a life not of adventure, but one of base survival and of quick life lessons. He meets a fellow hobo early on, Sam, who likes to call himself the King of Spain. Through Sam and Freddie's story, the Detroit Labor riots of 1932 are vividly recounted, the tension of anti-communist resentment, desperation for jobs, racism and Freddie's desire to find his father all coming to a head at once. The drawings of this incident are fantastic, recounting iconic photos from the day.

The book deals with the fallout after Freddie comes to realize he will never reunite with his father who may or may not have made it to Detroit in search of a job. The book shifts after Detroit, as most of the country is no longer optimistic about rumors of jobs, but rather has resigned themselves to finding a way to survive.

The black and white drawings are well-done and detailed, capturing mood and tone as an additional character in the book. This is no cartoon-cheery depiction of hard events - it's hard times and hard places for people who had not ever expected to know that kind of life. ( )