Summary:
Akim Aliu was born to a Nigerian father and Ukrainian Mother. He tells his story in this graphic novel, beginning with his parent’s courtship through the present day. His story is filled with racism, family strength and good friends. He used the turmoil that he dealt with through his hockey playing years to fuel his desire for everyone to be able to play hockey no matter what they look like. This desire helped him to form the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Mama Alerts:
Violence. There is some fighting and blood.
Partial nudity. There is a scene where the young hockey players are hazed naked in the bathroom. Private parts are covered.
Theme, generally:
The theme is best summed up in Akim’s father’s words on page 19, “You keep focus on your dream.”
Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?:
Talking Points:
Akim notices that several times, when he is being targeted for being black, none of his teammates or his coach say anything.
Do you think that is right?
Have you ever been made fun of and wondered why your friends didn’t speak up?
Have you ever been quiet when a friend was being picked on because you didn’t want to be picked on?
Akim turns all his hardships into something good, “The Hockey Diversity Alliance.” How can you turn around your hardships into something good?
In My Opinion:
To be honest, I was hesitant to read this. In the world we live in today, I am very sensitive to the subject of racism, as sometimes it seems that no matter what you do today, you are a racist. But I’m glad I read it. The examples of racism were truly racist acts. Putting it into a graphic novel was really genius as the reader is able to see the racism. I like the fact that for every racist, Akim showed that he had some true friends. He saw the good with the bad and I appreciated that. In the end, I was proud of the boy in the novel for taking that anger and frustration and putting it to work doing good. I liked the fact that he smudged out cuss words, enough that you knew what it was, but not so much that it was in your face. I’m not sure how age groups are determined for books, but maybe it should be 14 and up just based on the violence and partial nudity?