Teen Titans: Beast Boy

Notes From Your Bookseller

Heartfelt and fun, this graphic origin story of Teen Titans’ very own Beast Boy is sure to please any DC Comics fan. Gabriel Picolo’s lively illustrations are the perfect complement to this original tale told by Kami Garcia.

A New York Times bestseller!

USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller!

Author Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures) and artist Gabriel Picolo, the creative duo behind the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller Teen Titans: Raven, take you on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance, while reminding us the value of true friendship-especially when life gets wild.

Garfield Logan has spent his entire life being overlooked. Even in a small town like Eden, Georgia, the seventeen-year-old with green streaks in his hair can’t find a way to stand out-and the clock is ticking. Senior year is almost over. If Gar doesn’t find a way to impress the social elite at Bull Creek High School, he will never know what it’s like to matter. Gar’s best friends, Stella and Tank, can’t understand why he cares what other people think, and they miss their funny, pizza-loving, video game-obsessed best friend.

Then Gar accepts a wild dare out of the blue. It impresses the popular kids, and his social status soars. But other things are changing, too. Gar grows six inches overnight. His voice drops, and suddenly, he’s stronger and faster. He’s finally getting everything he wanted, but his newfound popularity comes at a price. Gar has to work harder to impress his new friends. The dares keep getting bigger, and the stakes keep getting higher.

When Gar realizes the extent of his physical changes, he has to dig deep and face the truth about himself-and the people who truly matter-before his life spirals out of control.

Editorial Reviews

07/01/2020

Gr 8 Up–Garcia and Picolo reimagine Beast Boy, the green-skinned Teen Titan who can turn into any animal, as an undersize adolescent longing for the spotlight. Overlooked and self-deprecating to the point of self-defeat, 17-year-old Gar wishes he had a buffer body, romance with a popular classmate, and the adoration of internet viewers. His friends Stella and Tank derive acceptance and confidence from live-streaming video games and eating contests, respectively; Gar sees himself as merely their goofball sidekick. But when he decides to stop taking the daily supplement his scientist parents give him, an overnight growth spurt leads to a mature physique, attention from his crush, and the approval of the prank-obsessed social media crowd. He also starts to gain some strange powers–like a tree shrew, he can eat an incredibly hot pepper, and in gym class, he’s as quick as a cougar. He begins questioning his parents (why were they making him take that supplement?) just as the shady Slade Wilson enters the picture. Gar’s journey of self-discovery, including his friends’ concerns with dyslexia and the mistreatment of laboratory animals, is believable and accessible. Picolo’s art is crisp and angular; layouts rely on about four to five panels per page in wide shapes, as well as large spreads that use smaller bubbles to emphasize characters moving within them. The plot ends on a cliff-hanger, with a couple of plot hooks suggesting a sequel. VERDICT Gar the high schooler takes his first clawed steps from insecurity to gregarious performer in this adventure that pairs well with Garcia and Picolo’s Teen Titans: Raven.–Thomas Maluck, Richland Lib., SC
– School Library Journal

2020-07-08
A high school senior works to reinvent himself and inadvertently discovers his mutant superpowers.

Garfield Logan is a self-deprecating 17-year-old with green-streaked hair and an obsession with working out and eating so he can bulk his way up to becoming popular with girls. It’s almost the end of the school year, and nothing on his bucket list has been accomplished: He doesn’t have the girl, he doesn’t have the income from the pizza job he wants, and he is very much on the outside of the in crowd. Fed up with being alternately ignored and bullied by the cool kids, Gar completes an outrageous dare that instantly gains him a following and new nickname, Beast Boy. Precariously balancing his new popularity and some unexpected physical transformations with maintaining his true, close friendships, Gar successfully goes with the flow until things get dangerously out of hand. This follow-up to Teen Titans: Raven (2019) serves its purpose in providing an origin story for Beast Boy and connecting the series storylines with recurring characters but without the high-stakes action, intrigue, and depth of the former. Although the visuals are dotted with bursts of brightness and creative framing, the story is weakened by outdated language, insufficient character development, and a scattered plot. A neurodivergent character is identified within the text while racial diversity is represented in illustrations.

A quick read for fans. (author and illustrator forewords) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)
– Kirkus Reviews