Nobody Particular

Reviews

Review from Booklist

Gr. 6-12. Diane Wilson was a fourth-generation shrimper in Calhoun County, Texas, until June 20, 1989, when something happened that changed her life "in a flash." Reading the local newspaper, she discovered that she was living in one of the most polluted counties in America. It was the beginning of her transformation from "nobody particular--just a shrimper and momma" into a savvy environmental activist who courageously took on a giant corporation, her local community, and even the Environmental Protection Agency in her tireless quest to save the local bays and their ecology. In telling Wilson's story, Bang uses a format that is part picture book and part graphic novel. The story, in hand-lettered text and speech balloons, is in bordered squares containing panels of black-and-white cartoon art, which are printed over double-page spreads of beautifully executed full-color depictions of the bays' ecosystem, chemical pollution, and shrimp farming. The disparate elements work together well to offer an imperative wake-up call to readers who take the environment for granted, at the same time presenting a riveting, emotional story of how single individuals can make a difference in a world of bewildering complexity. Michael Cart

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From Amazon.com

Think of her as Erin Brockovich on a shrimp boat. This unassuming, working-class mom, a fourth-generation East Texas shrimper--"no education, no money, no clout," she says--turned her life upside down to fight the good fight against chemical plants that were destroying her livelihood and the bays she held dear. This comic-book-style biography of unlikely activist Diane Wilson follows her radical transformation, from the first days of pulling up nothing in her nets to her hunger strike, law suits, and run-ins with the EPA.

The format might lead you to believe this is strictly kids' stuff, but Wilson and author and Caldecott Honor artist Molly Bang manage to pack a lot of information into the book's mostly black-and-white panels (maybe a little too much for some younger folks). But readers of all ages will find inspiration in this political, feminist tale of how one person--"nobody particular," says Wilson--can fight big business and win. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes