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.

This was a pretty good retelling of Huck Finn. The illustrations are really great and detailed. I would have loved this version when I was a younger kid.

GoodNESS! What a tearjerker, eh? I certainly don’t want to spoil it, but I about lost it during the visions. I think that is vague enough for y’all to get good and curious. This was so well written that I started questioning whether I knew the story of Huckleberry Finn. I had an absolute blast with this graphic novel. There is such an exceptional amount of United States history, even a few tidbits that would make people clutch their metaphorical pearls.

This is such a beautiful, consumable way of teaching. Honestly, younger generations would eat up history if presented in this manner. I know this was a retelling; however, there was a lot mentioned that should be considered in textbooks.

What a treat of an ARC! Thank you, Netgalley!

David F Walker has created an intriguing look at American fiction. This take on Mark Twain promises and delivers an interesting text. Finally a version of this story that I would not mind teaching in my classroom.

Thank you to Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the arc for this deeply thought provoking, informative graphic novel. Like their earlier work on the Black Panthers, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson challenge the reader to expand their thinking on the Mark Twain novel "Huckleberry Finn". This is not a comfortable graphic novel, however it is one that should be paired with the novel it expands on and discussed in depth with high school students in American Literature. The opportunity to address common themes such as the reliability of a narrator, the author's purpose, the use of now offensive language, etc. should not be missed. It is highly likely I will reread this graphic novel when we purchase it for our collection, as well as ask to attend the appropriate grade level English PLC to share this work with teachers.

A smart, savvy retelling - inevitably many will compare to Percival Everett's James, but to me this has a very different feel and works for an audience of wider age groups.

Wow! This graphic novel is my introduction to the author and illustrator and it exceeded my expectations. I’ll admit, based on the title, I wasn’t expecting much; but it delivered on so many levels. Much like Percival Everett’s James, this is a reimagining of the character, Jim, featured in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and addresses the tale from Jim’s perspective. It gives us a holistic view of his life as a family man (father, brother, uncle), soldier, freedom fighter, community leader, and enslaved man. We learn about his loves, losses, wants, and needs within the context of the Twain novel and beyond. Poetic liberties were taken, and I was all for it – we get modern day views from his (fictional) descendants, who relied on oral histories to counter the stereotypical and racist propaganda promoted in various forms of media.

Recommended for middle-grade and up.

Thanks to the publisher, Ten Speed Graphics, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

This is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s point of view. The author, who is Black, says that he brought in family history, stories passed down, as did his co-author. Some stories are not in the history books, and that is how the stories of families travel through the generations, when things were not written down.

I have always hated stories where the characters are made to speak in dialogue that is not natural for them, that it makes them the other, to whomever is telling the story. Look, how ignorant they are, that they dont’ speak proper English. Kate Beaton gave a wonderful lecture on this very topic where her people of Kate Breton were made to look like country bumpkins by the writers from the main part of Canada.

The only time that Jim talks in dialect, is when he is trying to hide from white men who would do him harm if he showed intelligence.
I love this retelling. It makes more sense, and the story is told in the present, in the near past, and when the story took place. That may sound odd, but it all works well together.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book will be published on the 15th of October 2024.