The Tyrell Show: Season One

Volume XXIX / Issue 5 - September 30 / 2018
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The Tyrell Show: Season One

Author: 
Miles Grose
Illustrated by: 
Shaz Lym
New York, NY: Scholastic, (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada), 2022
153 pp., trade pbk., $15.99
ISBN: 
9781338767216
Grades: 
Grades 5-7
Ages: 
Ages 10-12
Review by: 
Sheryl Lee
3
Excerpt: 

Episode 13: Brain Freeze

Soooo that was horrible. I’m sure you would like to hear about it, but if it’s okay with you, I think I would rather talk about something else, like “brain freeze” - has that ever happened to you? Do you know what that is? It’s when you have something to eat or drink that is really cold and you eat or drink it too fast. What happens is you get this strange pain in your head that makes you close your eyes and say to yourself, “What is going on?!” Kind of like my audition... I know I said I didn’t want to talk about it, but if I’m being honest, I really can’t think of anything else.

Okay, so, where did I leave off in the last podcast? Oh yeah, the meanest teacher in the school, Mr. Attucks, was making me audition first. So there I was walking up to the stage. I was trying to stay calm and breathe like my mom had told me to do. The problem was I actually think I forgot to breathe, I was too busy looking at all the faces of the kids in my class. They were all just staring at me; some of them even looked like they were ready to laugh at me. They weren't actually laughing, but I could tell they were ready to.

Miles Grose’s The Tyrell Show: Season One is a fresh take on diary fiction in the form of a internal podcast by sixth grader Tyrell. Tyrell is a pre-teen encountering social and emotional challenges of a sixth grade elementary student. As the audience, we are listening to everything Tyrell chooses to share with us, including the moments he wants to escape from his reality and feelings. As it is an internal podcast, Tyrell may ramble on about what is happening in his life at this very moment and then suddenly sidetrack to another completely unrelated topic. For example, Tyrell is feeling a bit down about how uneventful sixth grade is, and so he withdraws from his audience, and, after some time passes, he speaks to us again but about odd sandwiches that his mother makes and not what is bothering him. The flow of continuous rambling from the protagonist portrays the thinking patterns of some adolescents.

Tyrell does include special guests that pop up in his internal podcast, people like his parents, best friend Boogie, or his older sister Al. Readers follow Tyrell’s journey from the start of his sixth grade year to the finale of the big Grade 6 show at the end of the first semester. Tyrell faces a lot of ups and downs during these first few months of school, but he overcomes them with the help of various people in his life, such as his parents or best friends’ mom. The Tyrell Show: Season One has a comical tone, but unfortunately it comes at the expense of Tyrell’s mishaps!

Like most juvenile diary fiction, there are pictures and speaking/thinking bubbles scattered throughout the chapters to help simplify the text of each chapter. The graphics drawn by Shaz Lym are drawn in black and white, and the characters are drawn as cartoon-like depictions of humans. Many of the characters in this book, including Tyrell, are visibly of black descent. The black characters of this book are not stereotypically drawn alike. For example, different characters have different hairstyles, like corn rolls or an afro. The illustrations help narrate the story and show the live dialogue happening in the story.

Overall, The Tyrell Show: Season One is a refreshing BIPOC version of the popular diary fiction of a middle schooler.

Recommended
Reviewer: 

Sheryl Lee, a teacher-librarian in the New Westminster School District, is a mother of two elementary-aged children.