Book Review: Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu, Mad Rupert (Illustrator)

Publisher’s description

Molly Bauer’s first year of college is not the picture-perfect piece of art she’d always envisioned. On day one at PICA, Molly discovers that—through some horrible twist of fate—her full-ride scholarship has vanished! But the ancient texts (PICA’s dusty financial aid documents) reveal a loophole. If Molly and 9 other art students win a single game of softball, they’ll receive a massive athletic scholarship. Can Molly’s crew of ragtag artists succeed in softball without dropping the ball?

The author of the New York Times best-selling Check, Please series, Ngozi Ukazu, returns with debut artist Madeline Rupert to bring an energetic young adult story about authenticity, old vs. new, and college failure. It also poses the question: “Is art school worth it?”

Amanda’s thoughts

I absolutely loved the art in this. Full color graphic novels feel like such a treat. And, like Freshman Year, which I reviewed a few days ago, this is a nice long story, packed with illustrations and tons of dialogue. Part of why I love graphic novels is that I can burn through them so quickly (which I’m sure creators, who spent SO LONG creating these things, just love to hear), but I do love a really chunky novel that feels like it’s packed in so much.

Molly’s art school has messed up. Instead of a full-ride scholarship, she’s getting nothing. And instead of telling her moms about this horrible turn of events, she just scrambles to try to come up with something else. Good plan? No, not really. But she makes it work. She finds some strange scholarship loophole that will award tuition to a school team that wins even one game. So Molly assembles a softball team full of art school weirdos (I say that with affection) who are not necessarily athletically inclined. Does this seem easier than, say, telling her mothers a tragedy has occurred with her funding and figuring out what to do? No. But it’s a plan of her own making, and she’s taking charge of solving this situation on her own.

Through the softball practices and games, we get to know the small cast of characters well. Everyone is in a different major and has different levels of family support and different reasons for joining the team. The story is funny, the art is so expressive, and the solution to Molly’s problems is totally novel and outside of the box. A satisfying read. I hope to see more from this duo!

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9781250193513
Publisher: First Second
Publication date: 02/13/2024
Age Range: 14 – 18 Years

Filed under: Book Reviews