This hilarious window into the world of adolescent males, based on the Zits comic strip, also reveals moments of surprising poignancy.
Author and artist create a hybrid of text and comics, as 16-year-old Jeremy Duncan describes his life with insight and humor. Readers meet Jeremy's girlfriend Sara ("the 'H' is invisible") and her best friend, D'ijon ("coolest dreads since Bob Marley"). They also meet his best friend since age four, Hector ("6'6" and pushing 230 pounds"), with whom he started a band called Chickenfist, along with a drummer named Pierce and bass player Tim. Tim has given Jeremy and Hector tickets to the band Gingivitis ("Their music is the basis for everything our band is and wants to be"). The only wet blanket on this high point of Jeremy's life thus far is the reason Tim can't use the tickets: his mother has cancer, and Tim has to undergo a marrow transplant for her.
Scott and Borgman hit all the right notes. When Tim tells them the sad news, Pierce says in a speech balloon, drumsticks aloft, "This is not supposed to be happening!! Cancer is supposed to just belong in stupid direct-to-cable movies!!!" Sara and Jeremy have a fight because she doesn't think he's supportive enough of Tim. One of the book's funniest moments is Borgman's illustration of girls "deal[ing] with each other... like three-dimensional chess" and contrasting that with the way guys "keep things simpler." Readers will hope this is just the start of Jeremy's adventures. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness