The Adventures of Beanboy

January 2, 2012
Good-naturedly sardonic Tucker MacBean is a collector and aspiring creator of comic books, a preoccupation that he realizes doesn’t rank high “on the sliding scale of middle-school coolness.” He enters a contest to create a sidekick for his favorite superhero, convinced that a win will jump-start his popularity; he plans to give the prize—a college scholarship—to his overextended single mother, who’s juggling classes and work. Tucker joins the art club to prepare his entry, and Sam (a classmate who Tucker sees as “arch nemesis to the world”) is hired to babysit his special-needs brother after school. As Beanboy, Tucker’s invented sidekick, takes shape (Harkrader also contributes sketches and comics-style panel art throughout), Tucker displays his own heroism when he reaches out to Sam after discovering why she is so belligerent and defensive. Tucker’s rapport with his brother, concern for his mother, and frustration with his absent father (who now “only existed in
e-mails”) add emotional depth to Harkrader’s (Airball: My Life in Briefs) believable portrait of school and family life. Ages 9–12. Agent: Steven Chudney, the Chudney Agency.

July 1, 2012
Tucker, a quiet kid who likes to fly under the radar, decides to enter a comic book contest in hopes of winning a reward to help his struggling mother make ends meet. Tucker's creation of his superhero (Beanboy) intertwines with his own confrontations with the school bully. Sketches and comic book excerpts appear intermittently in this entertaining and inspiring story.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

December 1, 2011
Can drawing the winning entry for a comic-book contest solve all of Tucker MacBean's problems? Actually, the seventh-grader's ever-growing list of obstacles becomes the pressure cooker in which his own true character takes on power. This revelation becomes the kernel of truth needed to make his comic-book avatar, Beanboy, a winner. Harkrader builds realistic settings of complicated family relationships without requiring them to take center stage, including single-parent homes, special-needs siblings, living with grandparents and poverty. The action ramps up when the class bully, Sam Zawicki, is hired to babysit Tucker's younger brother, Beecher. Although there are an abundance of minor characters, it is the turbulent relationship between Tucker and Sam, crackling with villainous energy even as it warms, that sets the story's pace. As Tucker's real problems start to multiply, tension builds in his developing comic book--and with the contest deadline looming, Beanboy has not proven his mettle. The resolution of multiple problems, however, seems to fall like dominoes once Tucker sticks up for Sam at the school dance. Tucker realizes his own power to solve problems, resulting in an epiphany that contributes to be successful end to both his and Beanboy's adventures. With a full comic adventure that includes a farting superhero, this is an excellent recommendation for kids transitioning between graphic novels and traditional books. (Fiction. 8-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from February 1, 2012

Gr 4-7-Comic-book dweeb Tucker MacBean fervently waits each month for the latest issue of his beloved superhero comic, H2O. When the publishers announce a contest to design the protagonist's sidekick, the seventh grader sees it as the solution to his problems. The prize is a full college scholarship, which he hopes to win for his mother so that she can quit her job to focus on school and her boys-Tucker and his brother with special needs, Beecher. Standing in his way is his arch nemesis, combat-boot-wearing, death-glaring Sam (Samantha) Zawicki and the rules for the contest, which state that the prize cannot be transferred. Tucker's superhero has the ultimate weapon-stun gas from emitted flatulence-but the boy struggles to uncover within himself the fearless heart of a hero to serve as the model for the key element of his superhero. Harkrader has created superb characters in a story that interweaves Tucker's developing Beanboy comic and other illustrations, such as sticky-note communications between him and his mother. Fans of Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" (Scholastic) or Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (Abrams) books will embrace Tucker and his winsome, quirky friends and schoolmates.-Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
Grades 4-7 Thirteen-year-old comics aficionado Tucker MacBean enters a contest to create a sidekick for his favorite superhero, H2O, hoping to win a college scholarship for his divorced, overworked mother. His alter-ego creation, Beanboy, is strong, uses tendrils as lassos, and employs his gaseous tendencies for flight and as a malodorous weapon. As Beanboy's character and story develop, so does Tucker's own ability to respond to the injustices he sees all around himespecially those involving Sam, a girl in his class who uses bravado to battle the bullies who torment her. Harkrader, author of Airball: My Life in Briefs (2005), offers another knowing, funny, and sometimes moving look at middle-school issues. Secondary characters, especially Beecher (Tucker's younger brother with special needs) and Sam (whose gruff exterior hides a difficult family situation) are well developed, and black line illustrationspages from Tucker's comic that form a secondary narrativeadd to the book's appeal. Share this with fans of Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series. Sequels are promised.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)