Why read Trampoline?

Book cover of Trampoline: An Illustrated Novel

Book description

Dawn Jewell is fifteen. She is restless, curious, and wry. She listens to Black Flag, speaks her mind, and joins her grandmother's fight against mountaintop removal mining almost in spite of herself. "I write by ear," says Robert Gipe, and Dawn's voice is the essence of his debut novel, Trampoline.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Trampoline as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Meredith Sue Willis

Author

Kentucky writer Robert Gipe’s graphic novel is about a teen-age girl growing up in Appalachia.

Dawn tells the story of her drug-dealing junk-food-scarfing Kentucky family and their dilemmas. Like Maynard’s characters, Gipe’s border stereotypes, or would, if Gipe didn’t know and respect his people so well. These are the descendants of the hunters of Hunter’s Horn and the battling miners of Storming Heaven.

There is also a strong political thread about Dawn's grandmother who is an organizer against mountaintop removal. The novel has the bonus of Gipe’s wry little black and white illustrations.

From Meredith's list on The best great American novels from Appalachia.