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116th out of 427 books
—
351 voters
21: The Story of Roberto Clemente
"21" is a graphic biography of baseball star Roberto Clemente and chronicles the star's early days growing up in rural Puerto Rico, the highlights of his career, the prejudice he faced, and his humanitarian mission.
Hardcover, 200 pages
Published
April 12th 2011
by Fantagraphics
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Apr 21, 2013
Marcia
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Marcia Vining
Santiago, Wilfred. "21": The Story of Roberto Clemente : A Graphic Novel. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics, 2011. Print.
Genre: Biography
Format: Print, Graphic Novel
Selection Process: Cornog, M. (2011). 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. Library Journal, 136(12), 64-65.
"21" The Story of Roberto Clemente is a graphic novel biography. This is the story of Clemente from his poor beginnings in Puerto Rico to stardom in the United States, playing for the Pittsburg Pirates. While at first a bit...more
Santiago, Wilfred. "21": The Story of Roberto Clemente : A Graphic Novel. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics, 2011. Print.
Genre: Biography
Format: Print, Graphic Novel
Selection Process: Cornog, M. (2011). 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente. Library Journal, 136(12), 64-65.
"21" The Story of Roberto Clemente is a graphic novel biography. This is the story of Clemente from his poor beginnings in Puerto Rico to stardom in the United States, playing for the Pittsburg Pirates. While at first a bit...more
Roberto Clemente's name adorns the annual Major League Baseball award for the sport's most humanitarian athletes. Not just the first great Puerto Rican baseballer (and some would argue still the greatest) to play in the United States, Clemente famously and often quietly displayed the best of humanity. In this emotionally moving biography, the Puerto Rican Wilfred Santiago magnificently chronicles the often tragic life of this icon. Beginning with Clemente's final game, where he collected his 3,0...more
A lovely graphic novel that in THIS reviewer's amateur opinion tries to do a bit too much and accomplishes a little too little. Santiago's artistry and style is impeccable; his narrative, plotting, and pacing leaves something to be desired. I would have preferred a more focused account of some part of the amazing life of Roberto Clemente -- perhaps his rise from the Caribbean to the major leagues? Or his career? or his triumphs and tragic death? But trying to do all this in the span of a couple...more
While this graphic novel was visually stunning in places, with this nearly sepia tone feel to it images, interesting paneling and a nice mix of text with more traditional comic word balloons and captions, its narrative just wasn't that interesting.
It might be that already well-aware of the life and achievements of Roberto Clemente, this example of telling his story wasn't meant for me, but even if I weren't it seemed very simple and straightforward (and in some places disjointed) re-telling of a...more
It might be that already well-aware of the life and achievements of Roberto Clemente, this example of telling his story wasn't meant for me, but even if I weren't it seemed very simple and straightforward (and in some places disjointed) re-telling of a...more
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I loved this graphic biography of Roberto Clemente. The story of his life is remarkable beginning with his childhood in Puerto Rico and continuing through his fame as a major league baseball player. So the story is inspirational but there was also enough baseball and social history in here to make it a more substantial book. With that said, what really made this book for me was the art. The subdued color palette (I love those browns and greys against the yellow accents) allows the expressiveness...more
While at times a little confusingly structured, 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago brilliantly captures the life of one of baseball's greats. Santiago uses jumps in time that at first seem arbitrary. It soon becomes clear that he's not interested in telling a linear story about Clemente, but rather touching upon parts of the ballplayer's sadly short but stellar life. I really felt like I had a grasp on Roberto the family man, ballplayer, and humanitarian by the end of the book...more
This graphic novel follows Clemente’s life from poverty and tragedy as a young boy in Puerto Rico (his sister dies in a fire) to his many years playing baseball and being well-regarded for his skill as well as his philanthropy. His struggles with being a player of color in the 1950s and 60s is well covered, as well as his private life. There are some sidebars that discuss Puerto Rican history. The orange and brown color scheme fits with the time period.
Strengths: Students who liked the Satchel P...more
Strengths: Students who liked the Satchel P...more
Rich illustrations in a very subdued, but beautiful palate. The book pivots around the 30 September 1972 game in which Clemente collected his 3,000th hit, but the majority of it examines different moments in Clemente's life - growing up in Puerto Rico, the death of his sister and brother, his time with the Santurce Crabbers and Montreal Royals, his early career with the Pirates, his charitable work in Puerto Rico, and his courtship of his eventual wife, Vera Zabala. At times the book tries to do...more
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Vignettes of Clemente's life, his career in baseball, and the history of Puerto Rico. I enjoyed the art -- great variety in styles make the frames jump out of the pages. The lettering in many places lacks contrast with the background, making it difficult to read, but I found this a minor annoyance. I found the beginning, Clemente's youth and family, to be a jumble -- you can't tell what is happening or who the people are. There are also some anecdotes that are represented in a single frame that...more
The artwork was my favorite part of the graphic novel--lush and exciting--but I found the story hard to follow at times. I'm sure part of this is due to the fact that I'm not much of a sports person and therefore knew relatively little about Clemente, but the narrative jumped around in time a lot and the characters and events of his early years in PR seemed muddled. I would have liked Santiago to have spent more time elaborating on episodes of Clemente's life where instead he seemed just to glos...more
I wanted to like this more, but the art was very confusing. And I am a pretty literate graphic novel reader! But when you can't tell characters in the family apart, and there seem to be gaps in the action, it just distracts me from the story. (Or maybe I am getting old!) I was interested to know more about this famous Puerto Rican baseball player, since all I really knew was his tragic death in a plane crash, and I did learn about his life and career. But the art was not a style I really like. D...more
I feel kind of bad for giving this 2 stars but it's just not that great. It's disjointed. It would be hard to follow for someone without prior knowledge of Clemente. Basically it's not a good telling of Clemente's life. The art is good but the rest of it is unfortunately sorely lacking.
(And this is the second book I've read this year without page numbers. What's up with that?! People, please include page numbers in your book, not having them is not cute or arty it's just annoying and inconvenie...more
(And this is the second book I've read this year without page numbers. What's up with that?! People, please include page numbers in your book, not having them is not cute or arty it's just annoying and inconvenie...more
I was blown away by Santiago's account of Clemente's life and career. Clemente is more than a famous baseball player; he is a man that has overcome many adversities, and Santiago blends Clemente's passion for the game with his passion for life in one novel.
Honestly, before reading "21," I did not know much about Clemente at all, nor was I interested. Now, I continue to read about him because Santiago's powerful graphic novel sparked my interest.
Honestly, before reading "21," I did not know much about Clemente at all, nor was I interested. Now, I continue to read about him because Santiago's powerful graphic novel sparked my interest.
Yeah, um, ok. Getting convinced by other people's reviews -- this book really had no sense of context for someone who wasn't pretty familiar with Clemente already. The art was great, I think if there had been a better sense of story it wouldn't have seemed so repetitive. Look, I love baseball, I basically love comic books about baseball, but uh.. I think this was mostly about Puerto Rico? Definitely trying to be too many things at once.
Visually beautiful, it works well on certain levels but mostly flails. The narrative was disjointed and most characters are not properly introduced. It's a very dry biographical work but that does not excuse it from being interesting. As a huge baseball fan, I'm sad to see that Santiago swung and missed at a wonderful opportunity to work his beautiful art toward building lush characters and themes.
Now I love baseball and growing up in my house I always heard of Roberto Clementine but only in his name. So when I saw this I thought why not read it. I enjoyed the sepia tone feel making feel more old timey and the pictures an text went along with each other well. However it wasn't really that interesting even for someone who is really into baseball but I learned more about him.
Great color, although the drawing feels a bit childrens-book or cartoonish to me. A very nice package, with a good sense of history and detail, but ultimately too dry -- just straightahead biography, very little in the way of novelistic detail or historical contextualization.
a gorgeouslooking book though -- very rich color printing, good size, paper stock. (trying to be nice here)
a gorgeouslooking book though -- very rich color printing, good size, paper stock. (trying to be nice here)
Confused as to why it's listed on Goodreads with a publication date of 2008, but on Amazon with a publication date of April 12, 2011?
This is important because books are only eligible for YALSA's 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens booklist if they were published between September 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011. Hoping that it's just a typo/mistake on Goodreads.com...
This is important because books are only eligible for YALSA's 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens booklist if they were published between September 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011. Hoping that it's just a typo/mistake on Goodreads.com...
This book started off pretty slowly and was kind of a jumbled mess at first, but it picks up about halfway through. I think I would have enjoyed reading a regular biography of Clemente more than reading this, just because I felt like I only got glimpses of his life rather than the whole story. However, the artwork in this graphic novel is fantastic.
My opinion is like many other reviews. This was a great story on how Roberto rose to fame. But at points in the story it was very disjointed and I kept getting the characters confused. Especially at the beginning when they were switching back and forth between Roberto and Momen. I kept thinking Momen was another child in the family.
This book is absolutely gorgeous. Santiago is an amazing illustrator; however, the text is a disservice both to the illustrations and Roberto Clemente’s story. Having said that I would like nothing better than to have a print of the frame with the frightened little boy saying “Mommy, There’s a Yankee under the bed.”
A beautiful graphic novel biography for teens or adults. Though confusing at times, I enjoyed that the biography was not written chronologically, but jumped around through different periods in Roberto's life. The orange, tan, and black coloring gave the illustrations a unique and antique feel. The action of the baseball games was very well captured in the illustrations.
I don't know what was going on, and it may have been my fault, but I swear that this book was a mess. Sometimes I wondered if I wasn't reading a right-to-left manga, the panels seemed so strangely thrown together! And the story itself -- what I could make of it -- was ho hum at best.
Chicago author, quite unique style, trying to capture serious racial, cultural and political issues and the action of baseball... his tragic death is worked through the text in places.... I didn't love it, but found the style interesting, and the text reflects a lot of research.
Lazy review:
It's fine. I don't really have too many feelings about it. I didn't particularly like the art, but it was nice. Sometimes the layout got confusing, and it could be twice as long. But it's a non-fiction baseball book, so it's kind of great regardless.
It's fine. I don't really have too many feelings about it. I didn't particularly like the art, but it was nice. Sometimes the layout got confusing, and it could be twice as long. But it's a non-fiction baseball book, so it's kind of great regardless.
I really wanted to like this more, being a comic fan, a baseball fan, and a Pittsburgher. The artwork is great but the storytelling style is extremely disjointed -- like an explosion of fragmented memories -- that I found it very hard to follow what was going on.
May 19, 2013
Edna
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
graphic-novel,
biography,
young-adult,
baseball,
diversity,
prejudices,
discrimination,
1960s,
1970s,
puerto-rico
Amazing and dynamic graphic illustrations depict the life of one of America's best baseball players who excelled as a athlete, as a gentleman and a humanitarian despite a time in our history where discrimination was obvious and blatant.
This graphic novel begins with Clemente's childhood in rural Puerto Rico and follows him through his rise in Major League baseball. It depicts his awe-inspiring career as a right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the prejudice he faced, and his humanitarian mission.
It took me a while to get into this story because it doesn't introduce new characters very well; it just jumps in and it's hard to keep up. However, I did get really interested about a third of the way in. The illustrations are fun...more
It took me a while to get into this story because it doesn't introduce new characters very well; it just jumps in and it's hard to keep up. However, I did get really interested about a third of the way in. The illustrations are fun...more
Disjointed graphic novel version of the inspiring life of Roberto Clemente. I usually love graphic novels, but might do better to read a more traditional biography--had trouble following the narrative here.
I really didn't know anything about Clemente, and now I know a little bit. The style of the book was very interesting, but it jumped around too much for me, especially in Clemente's childhood. I found it challenging to keep track of all his family members and how they impacted him.
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