Burnout (Minx Graphic Novels)
Grade 8 Up-Burnoutopens and closes with Danni seeing how long she can hold her finger over a flame. When her mother moved them out of their trailer and into her boyfriend's house, the teen hoped their lives would improve. But Hank is an alcoholic who becomes increasingly abusive, so their lives become even worse. The only silver lining for Danni is Hank's mysterious son. When she follows him after he sneaks out of their room at night, she discovers that he's spiking trees to sabotage the logging industry. Soon they become romantically involved. Danni is in danger of losing her best friend because she spends so much time with Haskell and because Vivian comes from a logging family and disagrees with his tactics. Sometimes the message gets a little heavy-handed: what are the odds that in every classroom scene, the teacher is lecturing about some type of guerrilla warfare in history? And the multiple uses of fire are enough to support the burning theme without the girls singing along with the Burn Me Burn Me Burn Me on the radio. Miranda's superb illustrations complement the story well, whether they're showing landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, action sequences, or the eyes of a troubled girl. The strength ofBurnoutlies in Danni's internal struggle with her commitment to her first love, the focus on environmental awareness, and the realistically unanswered questions at the end of the story.–Andrea Lipinski, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.