Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid

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Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid

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Overview

Molly Bauer's first year of college is not the picture-perfect piece of art she'd always envisioned. On day one at PICA, Molly discovers that—through some horrible twist of fate—her full-ride scholarship has vanished! But the ancient texts (PICA's dusty financial aid documents) reveal a loophole. If Molly and 9 other art students win a single game of softball, they'll receive a massive athletic scholarship. Can Molly's crew of ragtag artists succeed in softball without dropping the ball?

The author of the New York Times best-selling Check, Please series, Ngozi Ukazu, returns with debut artist Madeline Rupert to bring an energetic young adult story about authenticity, old vs. new, and college failure. It also poses the question: “Is art school worth it?”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250193513
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	67,783
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ngozi Ukazu is a New York Times-bestselling author and the creator of Check, Please!, an online graphic novel whose printing campaign remains the most funded webcomics Kickstarter ever. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in Computing and The Arts, and later received a masters in sequential arts and comics. She enjoys trekking through nature, giving talks at colleges, and all things fandom. Since 2020, her cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker.

Mad Rupert is less than 5 feet tall and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. She got her start in online comics over ten years ago, and authors two ongoing webcomics: Sakana, a slice-of-life workplace comedy, and Robber-Robert, a sci-fi romance for mature readers. She has also worked extensively on comic adaptations of Cartoon Network properties like Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Steven Universe. When not making comics, Mad enjoys spending time with her partner and their very old dog, going to the gym, and playing Minecraft. ‘Mad’ is short for Madeline, she’s not actually angry.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

2023-11-17
A group of art students face their greatest challenge yet: being athletic.
Molly Bauer, a queer Black girl, is set to enter the Peachtree Institute of Collegiate Arts, her dream art college located in her hometown of Peachtree, North Carolina, on a full-ride scholarship. Unfortunately, due to various mishaps, Molly isn’t informed that her scholarship is no longer valid, and she’s shocked to learn that she owes $39,000 for her first year’s tuition. Her moms don’t have that kind of money. Desperate, she reviews the college’s scholarship documents and discovers a way to get free tuition—a sport scholarship given to every member of a team that wins a varsity-level game. Molly hatches a plan with her less-than-enthusiastic best friend, PICA dropout Ryan, who’s white. She convinces him to coach the softball team she pulls together—a racially diverse group of artists with varying degrees of athletic ability. Molly forms new friendships, but she learns things that change the way she views her hometown forever. The characters have well-developed personalities, and their interactions thoughtfully explore themes of teamwork, coming out of your shell, trusting in yourself, and learning to rely on others as the pressure to win a game mounts. The dynamic, full-color illustrations make effective use of varied perspectives and panel shapes, zooming in and out to ramp up the emotional tension and emphasize the nail-biting action on the field.
A heartfelt story of passion, teamwork, and overcoming the odds. (Graphic fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

11/27/2023
Molly Bauer—an aspiring architectural illustrator with dark brown skin, green braids, and two moms who own a hardware store—is excited about attending Peachtree Institute of the Collegiate Arts with a full-ride scholarship. Not even the cynicism of her dropout friend Ryan, who considers college an “intellectual Ponzi scheme,” can get her down. But a snafu with her tuition payment leads to desperate measures: when she learns about an obscure athletic scholarship that requires her to assemble a softball team and win one game, she recruits a ragtag crew, including white-cued furniture designer Virginia, who travels with her own handmade chair; Black-cued fashion student Faith, who is financially supported by her parents, with many strings attached; and secretive, East Asian–cued Susanna. In this jam-packed graphic novel romp, Ukazu (Check, Please!) portrays the successes and roadblocks—such as the $60,000-a-year price tag—of applying for art school. Paired with debut illustrator Rupert’s expressive character designs and detailed backgrounds, which enrich the work’s already savvy and humorous tone, the creators offer a jovial and highly enjoyable story that underscores issues surrounding financial precarity and educational inequity. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"The diverse ensemble cast is hilariously written, ingeniously personifying and exaggerating the delightfully weird, bombastic student body of an art school." – Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB), starred
"The characters have well-developed personalities, and their interactions thoughtfully explore themes of teamwork, coming out of your shell, trusting in yourself, and learning to rely on others as the pressure to win a game mounts." –Kirkus
"Ukazu, known for the Check, Please! graphic novel duology, has once again created an appealing coming-of-age college narrative." —School Library Journal
"Fans of Ukazu’s popular Check, Please! series will adore this crew of weirdos bonding and working together." –Booklist
"The creators offer a jovial and highly enjoyable story that underscores issues surrounding financial precarity and educational inequity." —Publishers Weekly
“A hilarious, kinetic, and blisteringly accurate portrait of art school from three masters of the craft. Ngozi, Mad, and K are at the top of their game.” – Gale Galligan, New York Times–bestselling adapter of The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels
“Pitch-perfect.” – Gaby Epstein, author of Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time

From the Publisher

02/01/2024
Gr 10 Up—Molly is an incoming freshman who is thrilled to be attending PICA—a prestigious art university in her hometown—when she discovers her scholarship has fallen through. Afraid to tell her two moms, she researches other options and finds a loophole that enables her to earn an athletic scholarship if she can field a softball team and win at least one game. An expected comedy of errors ensues as she assembles a motley group of artists and wrangles her art school dropout best friend to coach them. Molly is depicted as Black, and her group of teammates is a diverse mix of different cultures, sexualities, and sizes. Ukazu, known for the Check, Please! graphic novel duology, has once again created an appealing coming-of-age college narrative. Rupert has a fun and cartoony art style, bringing the college campus and ragtag team to life. However, a lot is stuffed into the story as it touches on gentrification, school loans, and whether paying for school is worth it; but the entire story receives a feel-good, though unrealistic, conclusion. VERDICT This breezy graphic novel tries a bit too hard to check all the boxes, but nevertheless is a charming story that will have readers rooting for Molly to persevere against the odds.—Nancy McKay

School Library Journal

Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid

Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid

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