Lonnie's parents are divorced, and he's struggling to adjust to his new living situation. Car rides to and from school become his opportunity to discuss his life, problems, and struggles with his parents, and his parents do their best to assuage his worries. They help him through conversations about divorce, race, and sexuality, while internally, Lonnie contends with expressing his true feelings.

This book covers heavy topics, and the conversations Lonnie has with his parents are interesting. The artwork and compositions are the weak point of this graphic novel; it is difficult to lay out images when there is so much emphasis on conversation, but the artwork never adds more to the conversation. Some of the conversations are only surface level, but I wish the book had dove deeper, focused more on its topics. Children in the target demographic (9-11) can handle more in-depth observations. I wanted to like this book more.

Book 182 of 300 ~ 2024

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I felt for the two kiddos, especially the poor son who kept acting out because he was embarrassed to be the only kid whose parents late divorced.

Simple illustrations but story moved along well.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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I like the diversity of this story which is a about an African American family and the fallout of a divorce. I think many readers can relate to this. We can see that Lonnie is having a really difficult time talking about his feelings and I really like how we could see his inner voices talking, it reminded me of the movie Inside Out. I think many will be able to relate to Lonnie bottling up feelings and not wanting to say them aloud. The love between Lonnie and is sister is something that many can relate to, even though they fight constantly. We can see that over time Lonnie becomes more and more comfortable talking about his feelings in the car, first with his dad and eventually with his mom.

Lawrence Lindell's Buckle Up is the story of Lonnie who has a lot going on as a middle school student. He's dealing with his parent's divorce, a sister who he seems never able to get along with and parents who are struggling with what family now means. Students will sympathize with Lonnie's struggles as many of them suffer from similar problems. The artwork in this graphic novel was creative as a great deal of the story took place in vehicles. I find Lindell's Lonnie completely relatable and a great addition to the classroom library!

This was very relatable as a child of divorce, and also the younger sibling. I thought the format of the story was interesting; pretty much all the conversations took place in the car. While I would’ve liked some conversations to be explored further, I believe Lindell did a great job of getting the conversation started, which is the hardest part.

Anyone who is a child of divorce will thoroughly understand the feelings and conversations in this graphic novel. Navigating a newish life. It's also the age where a boy yearns for his father...but with limited time, it makes it so much harder.

Buckle Up by Lawrence Lindell is a graphic novel following a young boy named Lonnie who is struggling with his parents recent divorce.

Unfortunately, the style of this one really did not work for me. I did not like the art style, which is rare for me because I read a LOT of graphic novels (especially ones written for younger audiences). I also felt like a lot of the dialogue was stilted, and the book did not go into issues far enough. For instance, there were moments of homophobia from Lonnie's parents that were never really addressed.

That being said, I did appreciate the subject matter this book tried to cover, and based on the ratings it is obviously more of a hit with other readers! I also truly loved the relationship between Lonnie and his sister. The author did a great job with sibling rivalry. Thanks to NetGalley, Lawrence Liddell, and Random House Children for the chance to read and review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely adored the representation of race and sexuality. The early days of finding yourself. Questioning things in a way that's realistic. I loved it all :)

This story is about a young boy, Lonnie, who is struggling to deal with his parents' divorce. He feels a lot of shame that their marriage fell apart and does not want his friends to know. The drawings were simplistic and as a whole, the story just didn't do it for me. Divorce is definitely a difficult topic, but there were a lot of times when the characters were not saying anything and the pacing struggled. Additionally, towards the end of the story, Lonnie's character starts questioning his sexual identity. It came out of nowhere and did not add to the story at all.

This book hit a lot of meaningful points, but I agree with some other reviewers that the repetitive images didn't necessarily do much and the discussions didn't dive as deeply as I was expecting as someone who also hits on hard topics during car rides. The book ended abruptly, which also confused me.

I liked the illustrations that were Lonnie's inner monologue. That's not a style I'd seen before and thought it really worked. I also liked some of the repetitive phrasing from the mom and dad, like "young, gifted, and Black" and "mean what you say and do," and how those played into the conversations and feelings they all had.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Great YA graphic novel about a middle school kid going through life drama with a thoughtful and relatable lens.

ARC from the publisher via NetGalley but the opinions are my own.

These are perfect snapshots of what a kid goes through in a divorce. The pull of big feelings, the confusion of how to react to them, the desire to say or do the right thing to make the parents happy. I think a lot of kids will see themselves in the vulnerable inner emotional life Lonnie shows, the things he's afraid of but isn't sure he's aloud to say. There aren't details of the split, big angry scenes with the parents, just people trying to find the way forward in new ways of living. So much love shines through each family members relationship to Lonnie. In addition to what it will do for kids, it felt like a masterclass for parents struggling with shepherding kids through big changes.

I may have set my standards too high after reading the comparisons to New Kid, but this one didn't completely come together for me--it felt a little too spare, and the bisexuality storyline came out of nowhere and read like a box the author was trying to check rather than a meaningful addition to the story. The main character reads very realistically, though, and I found myself chuckling a few times at his relatable awkwardness.

Lonnie is dealing with some big emotions as he struggles with his parent's divorce. The simplistic illustrations do a great job of delineating Lonnie's emotions compared with the conversations he has with his dad.

I think this story is better suited for upper elementary than middle school--I don't think it will appeal to my students. The story ended rather abruptly and the side plot of Lonnie questioning his sexual identity didn't seem to fit the rest of the story.

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Lonnie 's parents have recently divorced, and he is struggling with the transition. He and his sister Nicole fight quite a bit, but do try to listen to their mother when she tells them to knock it off. One of the particularly difficult things about the divorce is after school pick up. Lonnie wants to be dropped off and picked up at a corner a bit away from school, because he feels like the other students have too many questions about why his parents no longer pick him up together. He tells his father that he is the only child in his class whose parents are divorced. At the beginning of the book, he doesn't speak to his father a lot as they shuttle back and forth; we see a lot of Lonnie's internal monologue with himself. As he and his father spend more time together, sometimes getting food or visiting the comic book store together, Lonnie shares more with his father about what is going on in his life. In addition to the divorce and the emotional difficulties this has caused for Lonnie, they discuss detentions that Lonnie has assigned for teasing a boy who was bullying him and the trouble he is in for forging his mother's signature. We see an exploration of how Lonnie and his father feel about the fact that one of the boys in his class, Ray, has two mothers. The father thinks this is not "the norm", which makes Lonnie worry, since he thinks he might be bisexual. The father prints out a pamphlet to share with his son, and they can discuss the issue. The topic of family therapy comes up as well. And the end of the book, Lonnie is comfortable enough with his family's situation to be picked up at the front of the school building.
Strengths: There are not as many books about tweens navigating life with divorced parents as you would think, so this fills a definite need. Urban's Weekends with Max and His Dad works for slightly younger readers, and Levy's The Jake Show for slightly older ones. Lonnie's internal dialogue is nicely show in outlines of the character or in monochrome drawings, and contrasts nicely with what he actually says to his father. The examples of acting out are intriguing, and the discussion of family therapy helpful to young readers who might be in a similar circumstance.
Weaknesses: At my school, it seems like more students live in single parent families than two parent ones, so it seemed unusual that Lonnie would be so ashamed that his parents were divorced. Also, since most of the book deals with emotional issues being discussed during car rides, this is a rather slow moving story.
What I really think: The most obvious read alike for Buckle Up is Reynold's Stuntboy books or Sharp's Just Pretend, but since this is a graphic novel, there is a built in audience for it no matter what the content.

I did not like this book. I thought the art in it was not good - it seemed like it could have been so much better.

Also, I really did not like the tell not show nature of it. Everything was on the surface. There was a weird misconception that the whole school was going to talk about his parents' divorce, which was weird, because aren't half the marriages in America ending in divorce at this point? Also, the dialogue was clunky and awkward. I felt like nothing happened at all. I finally put it down and didn't finish it.

I'm sorry - but this was a big miss for me.

Buckle Up is a book that so many MG readers need. It's a fast paced graphic novel about a boy dealing with the divorce of his parents. He's struggling to feel at home in two homes, he's struggling to communicate his feelings with his parents (mainly dad), and he's struggling to feel "normal" at school when he's the only child with divorced parents. Throughout this book you see how Lonnie works through big feelings with his family and figures out how to feel okay with all of the new challenges in his life. Great for upper MG readers! The world needs more books like this!

Buckle up provides a great example of relationships between individuals in a family when a bond has been severed. Love the way the illustrator shows the child’s real feelings and statements but shares what is expected.

Middle grade graphic novel about a boy struggling with his parent's divorce and his own sexuality. Funny and well done.

Intimate look at a young boy's experience s dealing with his parents' divorce. Middle grade readers will find the story relatable and a jumping point for meaningful discussion.