Big Jim and the White Boy is a Huck Finn graphic retelling from Jim's perspective. Percival Everett published James this year, another retelling from Jim's perspective, and though the output is drastically different, the intention remains the same: to reimagine Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by giving voice and humanity to Jim. This graphic achieves this by integrating history and context, including vignettes where an elderly Huck and Jim look back on the story and fix the narrative to what "really" happened. It is insightful and expanded beyond the narrative of Huck Finn into the greater implications of the lives of these two people through history. It is immensely interesting and a valuable addition to Huck Finn's evolving legacy, one which now includes Jim/James as he was meant to be heard.
Layout and illustrations were visually appealing and well done. I see this as an excellent source to teach alongside James or Huck Finn.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ten Speed Graphic for this ARC!

"That man stole my life and made me out to be a fool." - Jim commenting on author Mark Twain.

This is an interesting reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with Huck and Jim as avenging action heroes. There were places where I tuned out, but on the whole, it works. My favorite parts were the dynamic duo as old men, telling their tales and busting on each other before an appreciative audience of youngsters.

Big Jim and the White Boy by David F. Walker is a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written in a graphic novel format. The full-color illustrations are stunning. They are vibrant, colorful, and show great detail in the facial expressions of the characters. I appreciated the author’s note on the use of the n-word and his decision to leave it in this version of the story. The book gives scholarly insight into Mark Twain and his works. It talks about what Twain left out of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -things such as the fact that Jim had a family as well as other details that work to strip Jim of his humanity.. The author's focus on the artificial and racist dialect Mark Twain chose to use for Jim in Huckleberry Finn was also impactful.

I read the digital version of this book but recommend the print version because the book has different timelines that go back and forth throughout. I think having a physical copy that you can flip between the timelines would make it easier to keep the storylines straight.


Thanks to Clarkson Potter, Ten Speed Press, and NetGalley for a review copy of Big Jim and the White Boy.

If I could give this all the stars I would. What an absolute gem of a graphic novel. Tears were shed and I appreciate both the authors notes in the beginning and the resources in the back. I love this and will be recommending widely thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

Big Jim and the White Boy is not merely a reimagining of the Twain classic, but a conversation with it- and with history.

By centering and giving depth to Jim, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson remind us that history is not just about concepts but human beings- that the triumphs and horrors of the past aren't just theoretical but had very real human consequences.

Anderson and Walker also managed to walk an incredibly thin line in producing a TRUE all-ages book* without sugar coating difficult topics.

This book could be used as a centerpiece for discussions of U.S. history and social structure in schools and at home.

Bravo!

*True All-Ages: A work that not only is with minimal content that may be inappropriate for children, but that has a true appeal to people of all ages.
Ex. Jeff Smith's Bone, Matt Groening's The Simpsons, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

This is a powerful retelling of Twain. We have already ordered a copy for our library and we can't wait to share it with our patrons.

This is more than just a re-imagining of the characters of Huckleberry Finn. It's the story of a friendship, of family, and of never giving up hope. Big Jim and the White Boy follows the "real" Jim and Huck through their journey down the Mississippi and through the Civil War, as well as the impact their tale had upon Jim's descendants.

The multiple interwoven narratives mix fact and fiction, drawing on real historical figures, just as Twain did in his creation of Jim and Huck. The story flows like the Mississippi itself, gentle and strong, and the pureness of the art style belies the depth each character is given.

I loved this graphic novel that takes the story of Huckleberry Finn and focuses it on the possible historically accurate life of a slave named Jim. I think this story is really special as it highlights the relationship between Jim and Huck throughout their whole lives, not just the book, and it focuses on Jim as a person, not just a slave. I also love Mark Twain and still appreciated the authors’ discussion of how he “sugarcoated” slavery in the original book. My only complaint is that it was hard to keep up with all of the different timelines as the book jumps around from Jim’s great-great-great granddaughter’s POV, to his great-great granddaughter’s POV, to his and Huck’s POV as old men, to the 1850s when the original book took place. It’s a really cool idea, but it was hard to read!

Thank you so much for the eARC of this graphic novel! I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know another (often overlooked) side of history. I thought the art was very beautifully done, the story was easy to follow, and the characters were well-developed. I liked how seamlessly the different timelines were woven together and how it was more than just a retelling; it became a story of family and highlighted the importance of oral history, especially for historically marginalized communities. I definitely recommend this book!

Timely in concept and in choice of format/venue. The artwork is inviting and effective. A valuable addition to the ongoing discussion of how a standard in the American Literary canon can be visited and revisited as we grow and change as a nation.

Absolutely gorgeous book that focuses on the actual historical context in which Huckleberry Finn took place, and actually focuses on Jim as a character (which obviously didn't happen in the original material). There are a few times where you can tell you're about to have some education dropped on you, but honestly, this hits home and is gorgeously told. Definitely worth your time.

Definitely a great read for me. It was hard to read because of the strong language and the timeline of it but I felt that it was also a necessary read for me. I am not someone who likes reading classics since I feel that the language is a bit outdated but I really enjoyed this retelling of a classic novel. It also goes to show that many black people’s stories were forgotten about because once upon a time, black people were not considered human. This also showed me that it is important to tell the stories of your life and the ones who came before you. This is how it stays alive and gets told to many generations to come.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this graphic novel

Where do I begin...

Well I went into this thinking I would see a different aspect but I was a little uncomfortable reading this book and I see what is trying to be said but I didn't really like this much.

A fictional retelling presents the story of Big Jim (Huck’s friend) in a different light from the classic Huckleberry Finn tale by Mark Twain. The story is heartbreaking to visually see in graphic form the struggles that African-Americans suffered during slavery and fight for their freedom. In this story, Big Jim is searching for his wife and children who were sent down the Mississippi River. Throughout the story, we are brought back and forth through the generations, starting in the 1850s during Big Jim and Huck’s travels, into the 1930s where they tell children of their journey, and to the modern day where a descendant of Big Jim’s teaches a college course on their journey and struggles.

This is Huckleberry Finn from Jim's perspective. It interestingly jumps from the story of Huck Finn and Jim to Jim telling his story to his grandkids, and jumps again to one of those grandchildren telling it to her grandchild.
Not only does this story give Jim the credit and depth of character he deserved in the original works. I loved how it was intertwined with generational storytelling.

Big Jim and the White Boy by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson is a loosely based remaining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I like that the cover has Big Jim as the focal point of the imagery, and even the positoning of his body conveys his protectiveness of Huckleberry Finn. The story still takes place in the same racist era, but the story is told from the perspective of Big Jim. This book is a middle grade book, so the topics are explored in age-appropriate way that is understandable. In this book, Jim and Huck's relationship is more throughly explored with Jim's role being more of a caregiver who is genuinely protective of Huck. Jim being given more depth in this story and the reader gets to see him have more control of his story. This is a big contrast to the original story that, at times, portrayed Jim as of a lower intelligence than Huck and irresponsibly being led by a child on misadventures down the Mississippi River. While Twain's original put racism more as background noise in the story (it wasn't a real focal point), this story doesn't allow the reader to look away from the cruelties happening but it also is executed in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My review was submitted through the site No Flying No Tights (linked below). The text follows.

“… The story won’t tell itself, you have to tell it, because if you don’t … someone else will tell it and make it theirs.” This line, waiting patiently in the back half of David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson’s Big Jim and the White Boy, is at the root of this recontextualizing of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This new middle grade graphic keeps the least understandable, but most endearing parts of Twain’s Finn (mainly Jim and Huck’s relationship and seemingly unexplainable devotion they have to each other) and gives them depth and meaning by putting Jim in control of his own story. He is not blindly and ignorantly following a child down the Mississippi after an attempted murder as he does in the original tale; he is Huck’s de facto caregiver and a loving, positive adult presence as the two flee Huck’s abusive father. That is where the similarities to Twain largely end. While still set against the same cruel, racist world of Twain’s story, the refocusing of the story through Jim’s lens makes it harder to dismiss that cruelty as “of its time.” Walker’s characters are not out for adventure, but searching for Jim’s family who have been sold while the titled characters were hired on for work. Along the way, their paths cross with real historical figures like John Brown and Thomas Livingstone. Walker and Anderson take Twain’s story and look at all the other narratives that were ignored to focus on a young white boy’s adventure and, in doing so, makes the all characters—including Huck—so much more real and interesting.
As the primary narrator, Jim knows how to navigate a world where an enslaved black man needs to fight for every ounce of space he occupies. While in his youth, Jim knows how to play the part expected from him by the racists and enslavers surrounding him on a daily basis, Walker also shows him as an older man who knows the power of his voice and story. As that graphic moves through time and narrators, illustrator Anderson and colorist Isabell Struble use subtle changes in style and art to drive the importance of perspective in storytelling. There is a gentleness to their art that further contrasts the harshness of the story in a truly beautiful way.
This new middle grade and up graphic does not shy away from the brutal world of the Antebellum South or even of the original Twain work. The n-slur is depicted frequently with thick, black lines running through each instance, simultaneously blurring the word and highlighting it. Walker explains its incorporation in an author’s note as endemic to the harsh historical reality of the book, but even with that it is jarring to see and further drives the sense of danger in those moments of the plot.
With debates still raging over the inclusion of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on school reading lists, Big Jim and the White Boy offers a beautiful new perspective, placing the excitement and adventure of the original into a world that feels more true and authentic, a world that is cruel and beautiful but ultimately driven by love.

Thanks to Ten Speed Graphic and NetGalley for the digital copy of this graphic novel. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This graphic novel blew me away. As an American writer, one can argue that Mark Twain revolutionized the artform. And while he tackled the tough issue of slavery in his writing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it was told from the white person’s perspective. Big Jim and the White Boy is an attempt to correct Twain’s depiction of a black man in the south in the days of slavery.

There are several different timelines followed in this graphic novel. There’s the timeline of Twain’s story and its retelling, there’s the timeline of the 1930s, when an aging Jim and Huck are reminiscing, and Jim is telling his side of the story. Then, there’s the 1980s, when Jim’s granddaughter is talking to her own granddaughter about the stories she heard, and finally, modern day when a professor discusses the impact of The Adventures of Huck Finn and the truths discovered through the years about Twain’s story.

The story does not shy away from the violence of slavery, the danger of trying to escape, and the hard truths that some in this nation still have to accept. There’s a section that discusses the false narrative created by confederates who claimed slavery wasn’t that bad, and authors like Margaret Mitchell who glorified the south in her novel Gone with the Wind.

I, for one, want to do more reading on the “real” Jim from Twain’s Huck Finn and will be using the author’s references. African American history’s long and painful history in this country needs to be amplified. This graphic novel is great for middle grade on up and could be used as a companion to Twain’s classic.

Just as an aside, I found it interesting in the introduction that the author points out how many times the N word was used in The Adventures of Huck Finn (something less than 1% of all words) and how he was going to use the word because that was the common vernacular of the time and he didn't want to erase history, right or wrong. But the ARC had the N word crossed out every time, so maybe the publisher wasn’t comfortable with the using of the word.

Moving and deep. An amazing reading that encourages reflection on people's narrative representation. I can see how it can be used for teaching, too. My favorite scene is when Jim's daughter says she "remembers" Huck from the stories her mother told her. I have very much appreciated the authors' linguistic choices, too.

Excellent retelling of Huckleberry Finn that prioritizes the perspectives of Jim and provides a radically different backstory and post-story for both characters.