I am really torn on reviewing the graphic novel Americus by MK Reed (illustrations by Jonathan Hill) because while I can easily embrace the theme of libraries as refuges for readers, especially teens, the hammer comes down so hard on those pushing for censorship that rather than appearing as threatening they come across as laughable. Reed has made cartoon villains here and for me that diminished their power and made the whole book funny rather than the serious message of literacy and empowerment it could have been. But still, the artwork is great (very realistic) and the way Reed makes the books in question (a fantasy series) come alive for the story's protagonist and thus for the reader is really quite sweet. I just wish the whole thing hadn't come across as a very special moral lesson in the process.

The story is simple - Neil Barton has a best friend and together they are addicted to the "The Adventures of Apathea Ravenchilde" which they check out from their local public library in smalltown Kansas. (As soon as Kansas was part of the story I knew where this one was headed.) The librarian is fabulous, Neil's single-parent mom is nice and Danny is a great friend and even though school is unbearably dull (Reed has a lot of fun with this) and both boys are geeks to the extreme it's okay because they have each other and good books and really, not much is so different from their lives than any other disaffected teen. And then Danny's mom gets her hands on Apathea and all hell breaks loose.

What you end up with is a massive clash between fantasy and religion, or what I like to call the same thing that has been going on since ages before Harry Potter was a dream in JK Rowling's head. Things get really personal in Danny's household as he challenges his mother and then seems to toss down the "I'm gay" bomb. He gets sent off to military school (because being with a bunch of guys is what you do with your newly out teen son who you don't want to be out?) and mom goes full on toward removing Apathea from the library and Neil must marshall everything he's got to stop her and there is a boatload of adults screaming at each other and the librarian fretting and Neil wishing Danny hadn't left (and making a few more friends) and the reader wondering if Danny really is gay or just angry at his mom and if that matters and mostly if his mother is going to explode while screaming at everyone.

The point is made that libraries are good and people who don't value every book ever written are bad. Also, adults scream at each other a lot. The thing is, I really agree with all of this (well, not all the screaming) (or that every book ever written is valuable) but I think the book could have used a lot more nuance. It's sort of like warning kids about stranger danger all the time when all too often the folks to worry about are the ones you know. Danny's mom and her friends are just way too over-the-top to be believed and Neil and Danny and their librarian are too perfect. Reed gives us a blue and red world when really it's purple who make the decisions. Does this sort of thing happen in Kansas? I don't know. But if we as readers are supposed to learn that it is realistic then I needed some more questions to be asked and more explanation to be presented about just why (other than a lot of Christian boilerplate) adults act this way. I guess I just needed something more than what I found in Americus which for all my frustrations was still a perfectly fine book. It left me frustrated though and a little disappointed which is why I'm still so conflicted on how to write this review.

SIGH.