Home-Field Advantage (review)

What’s the secret to NFL success? Punishing physical training? Mental discipline? Fortitude and resilience? In the case of New York Giant Justin Tuck, it helped to have big sisters. Here the defensive end regales listeners with a childhood anecdote that finds him as a young boy with his defenses down, sweet-talked by his twin sibs Christale and Tiffany into allowing them to give him a haircut: “‘Sit,’ said Christale. ‘We’ll be done in a jiffy.’ . . .The twins seemed so sure they could do a good job that I sat.” One badly botched job and a bucket of tears later, Justin’s parents arrive to survey the damage and confront the twin stylists responsible for their young son’s “reverse mohawk.” Tuck’s narration is brief and breezy, concluding with a serious nod toward family bonds and a humorous one toward never quite trusting big sisters. Rodriguez’s watercolors are a stitch, tipsy-tilty with frenetic action, and fully capturing the smirky delight of the mischievous twins and the wide-eyed terror of the victimized little brother. When the action turns too horrifying to face directly, Rodriguez cleverly borrows the cinematic ploy of rendering the dark moment (disastrous haircut, looming parents) in elongated shadows. Legions of youngsters at some point suffer a sibling-, friend-, or self-mutilated hairdo. They’ll share the pain.