Thursday, September 17, 2009

Hyperactive by Scott Christian Sava

This is a graphic novel about a young boy who goes to school and throughout the day is experiencing weird things; in gym class they are playing dodgeball and everything begins to slow down for him. Before he knows it he has hit everyone on the other team and he is the only one left standing. He finds out from his friend that everything wasn't slowing down, it was him that was speeding up. He goes home and tells his parents and they take him to the doctor and he finds out that his metabolism is in overdrive and that's what is causing things to go really fast for him. Later, he gets kidnapped because someone wants to steal his DNA but he gets out of it by using his super strength from his overactive metabolism.

This book was really fun to read and the graphics were amazing! The pages were very glossy and they made the colors stand out a lot. I thought it was kind of an interesting twist on graphic novels because I typically think of them as super hero comics. The boy in the story is somewhat of a super hero but it's not what you would usually expect since it is a young boy so I think it makes it really relatable to children. I picked this book because of the title "Hyperactive" because I was curious to see what it would be about. There is a lot being said about students being hyperactive and having hyperactive disorders so I was interested to see what was going to be discussed. The book didn't discuss hyperactivity really other than saying that it was the reason for making him go so fast but I did find that two main characters are boys. I thought this was interesting because when talking about schools there is always a stereotype that boys are distracted and can't focus and boys are usually the students who are diagnosed with disorders like ADHD. I would be concerned that this book would be promoting that thought and that stereotype so I would be cautious about having in my classroom. However, I also think that it is cool how the book makes it into an advantage (being super hero-like) instead of a disadvantage as it is often perceived so I think there are good points and bad points about using this book in a classroom.

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