Jimmy the Greatest! (review)

In this picture book from an award-winning Colombian author and illustrator, Jimmy's been growing up in a one-donkey seaside town in Latin America, where there's nowhere to go except church and the boxing gym. The gym owner has just realized that Jimmy (who looks initially to be a young teen) is big enough to get in the game, and since there's not much else to do, Jimmy starts to train. He even puts on his unused glasses to read a box of clippings about Muhammad Ali, and Jimmy recognizes a kindred spirit there: Jimmy's shoes had been stolen, and Ali's bike had been stolen; most convincingly, Ali was "handsome and smart like me!" As Jimmy's interest in boxing grows, so does his confidence and quiet commitment to his town, and when his trainer leaves for a bigger career in bigger places, Jimmy is content to stay. If Sara Varon (Robot Dreams, BCCB 11/07) drew humans, these are the humans she would draw: bug-eyed, amiable, and far too intent on their own insular world to mug self-consciously for a picture-book audience; though Jimmy and most of his fellow gym rats are dark-skinned, characters appear in the full palette of human colors. Comic-book conventions definitely influence Yockteng's artwork; although the scenes follow a traditional half or full spread format, motion lines and repeated ropes, knife blades, and legs are cleverly used devices to convey action. In a splendid example of the power of showing rather than telling, the final view of Jimmy's town, with its power lines, extra buildings, increased animal population, and bright blue refrigerator demonstrate visually how Jimmy's decision to remain to support his community has made everyone's life a little easier: "We dance and we box and we don't sit around waiting to go someplace else." Now that's something worth thinking about.