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  • Bluffton: My Summers with Buster by Matt Phelan
  • Elizabeth Bush
Phelan, Matt . Bluffton: My Summers with Buster; written and illus. by Matt Phelan. Candlewick, 2013. [240p]. ISBN 978-0-7636-5079-7 $22.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8.

In the pre-air conditioning days of the early twentieth century, when theaters were too sweltering to draw a summer crowd, a gang of vaudevillians, including the Keaton family act, retired to Bluffton, Michigan for summer holidays by the lake. In this graphic novel, Phelan imagines a friendship between the son of a local hardware-store owner, beguiled by the adventurous lives of the troupers, and young Buster Keaton, quietly longing for the peace and stability of a permanent home. Phelan supplies the salient details of Keaton's childhood for readers who are unlikely to know him and gently debunks the glamour of the child star's life: Buster has no formal schooling, must constantly deceive child labor monitors regarding his age, and must stoically endure the physical hardships of the family's "knockabout" act. Narrator Henry's restless ambition is treated with equal compassion and respect, and although his solo juggling act in the local talent show results in epic failure and a broken arm, the nonjudgmental reaction of family and friends helps him recover quickly from his embarrassment. Indeed, although Keaton is the marquee draw for this title, Henry claims the leading role in what turns out to be a thoughtful Bildungsroman. The leisurely pace of long summer days and changing seasons over a three-year span is augmented by successions of gracefully rendered wordless frames that slow the action and keep the focus on the narrator's development. A note on Buster Keaton's career is appended, and the final copy will feature full-color illustrations.

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