This graphic novel is about Hazel who takes on a summer job. In this summer job she meets all types of kids from different backgrounds. Hazel has been homeschooled all her life because her mother dealt with public school issues she didnt want her daughter to go through. This graphic novel deals with family, relationships, bullying, and working issues.

I felt like there was so much missing from this graphic novel. I feel like there wasnt a finish thought with any of the issues and so I was confused when it suddenly ended. I did like the pictures.

I was provided an e-arc from netgalley to read and review

I unfortunately missed the opportunity to read

The artwork is beautiful, however the characters and representation was poorly done. The art wasn’t enough to save the book from a low rating. I was really disappointed.

To be honest, I am still unsure how I feel about this graphic novel. I read it in one sitting and I was expecting a fun illustrated tale about a teenager finding herself while working a challenging summer job. In reality, this was a sort of memoir about a homeschooled, teenager learning more about how her privilege can affect her interactions with people and the lifestyle her ethnicity and her upbringing have afforded her.
I read the authors note in the back and I am just not sure the book always fulfilled the purpose the author set out to prove. In fact, the portrayal of some of the characters and the writing/dialogue itself kind of did the opposite.
I did enjoy the art in this and would be curious to see if the next thing this author puts out would land better with me.

I really appreciate that this book is about white privilege. I live in a community that is predominantly white, but with sizable Latinx and Black populations as well. No Ivy League was a great reminder for me to check my privilege and I think it will be for my teens as well, but in a way that is not too preachy. I also liked the ways in which homeschooling was touched upon throughout.

'No Ivy League' with story and art by Hazel Newlevant is a graphic novel based on the author's own experiences with a summer job in Portland.

Hazel is a homeschooler trying to save up money for a concert. When a job shows up to clear ivy from a large park in Portland, she takes it. She finds herself surrounded by other kids from different backgrounds. She wants to fit in, but feels like an outsider. She learns through an incident that this is a group of at-risk youth, and it causes her to check her privilege and see things differently.

I liked this story of learning to get along with others. It has a frankness and honesty that is refreshing. The black and white art works for the story. It's not a story I'd recommend to younger readers due to some of the story content, but it's fine for older teen readers. I feel like there is a lot here, and it doesn't get resolved, but maybe that leaves things open for reflection and discussion. Perhaps the author is still grappling with things that happened.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a free advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel comes out August 20th.

3 ⭐️

This graphic novel follows 17 year old Hazel for the duration of a job she had clearing ivy from a park for one summer as a teen. Hazel is homeschooled and through working this job she is introduced to kids from different backgrounds than she’s seen during her sheltered life.

Likes:
-I thought this was a quick read.
-I liked how Hazel definitely showed some character growth from the beginning to the end of the book and realized that her own little bubble of the world isn’t all that’s out there

Dislikes:
-I felt like it tried to do too much in one stand alone graphic novel. It had the main plot of hazel realizing that other races and other socioeconomic levels existed, and it also had the side plot of her entering a homeschool video contest. I see why they’re connected but I could’ve dealt without the side plot.
-there’s also a side plot where she, a 17 yo, has the hots for her mentor, a 33yo, and has a few awkward conversations with him and a fantasy dream which made me feel uncomfortable.

I went into this story blind. Based on the notes from the author at the beginning of the story I was expecting something amazing, or something deeply personal like Gender Queer, or March. Instead this was a mash of ideas all leading up to some big conflict reveal to have it peter out worse than a bug out of gas. Hazel is homeschooled. She is working on winning a homeschool contest, and gets a summer job helping to remove ivy from parks. While there she is sexually harassed and puts a stop to it. But then feels guilty the guy lost his job. A job he needs because he is an at-risk-youth of color. Then she finds out that she is homeschooled because her mother had problems with integration bussing in her own childhood. This book skips from theme to theme but never really takes time to develop either. It is a memoir, and while it took the author 10 years to create, we don’t really get to see that creation, or the lessons behind the actions.
August 6

Hazel’s journey of stepping out of her comfort zone as a homeschooler and taking a new job with other kids her age causes her to learn about many things, for example she learns a lot about racial identity and white privilege. The author made some great points on those topics and I enjoyed watching Hazel grow in that aspect. However I felt the story started to also be a commentary on sexuality and relationships, but that side of it kind of dropped off and was never really discussed or wrapped up in the end. The things that happened concerning relationships was confusing to me, and I’m not really sure what the message was intended to be about that, so it felt like extra, unnecessary filler. While it did bring more depth to the story, I really wish those topics would have been explored much more than they were.
Over all it was an interesting read and a story that kept me involved the entire time. I would recommend it, I just don’t consider it a favorite or exceptionally wowing.

I appreciate the effort of writing a memoir of white privilige in a graphic novel format.
I was disappointed by the end, it felt rushed. I just wish the themes were a little bit more explored because it had the potential. I hope the final edition will be a little bit longer.
It was also a bit hard to read sometimes due to its unfinished status.
But i loved the illustrations and the topics this grapic novel raised and challenged.

3.5/5
a very nice autobiographical graphic novel, in wich the author/MC confronts the reality of the world that homeschooling didn't let her see. it's not mindblowing nor game changing, but seeing how her perception of the world changes because (or thanks to) a summer job in a national park was interesting. i liked the art, the author definitly has her own style and worked hard on it, defining it. The MC is very mature, however very naive since she's lived a very privileged life. When all she knows is challenged, she has very mature and intelligent reactions.
Overall, i would recommand, it is a very nice, quick summer read.

I never read anything about someone being home school so I thought that was interesting. I definitely was interested to see how she was going to fit in at the summer job.
The main character Hazel did experience some sexual harassment at the workplace and I feel like the managers handled it appropriately.

Firstly would like to thank netgalley for a arc of this graphic novel In exchange for a honest review.

This graphic novel follows Hazel who all their life has been homeschooled and sheltered from the real world, so doesn’t really understand much about how much white privilege they has.
So when they get a summer job to work with a bunch of other teenagers around their age who are not homeschooled as they are and sees the diverse group of people with different backgrounds,races and so on. This really wakes up Hazel to a world they has never really seen or endured so is very interested to educate themselves.

Through this book we do see Hazel come into situations where they really do see their white privilege when one point of this book we see one of Hazel’s co workers who is black says something disrespectful about Hazel, they report it and he gets punished and chucked out of the job. But when someone else said something to a black girl It was pushed u set the rug and went unpunished.

This book definitely delved a little into a topic that is very major problem and has been a problem in society for years and years and which continue to keep happening everyday.

I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book I liked the images and because I read a arc copy a few pages were missing fully drawn art but was still great to see/ read and will be cool to see how it has been drawn in the finished copies.

Overall this graphic novel was a 3 stars for me, it’s definitely has important issues raised all through this that everyone should read but some parts of this graphic novel were a little bit like meh.

Well this was...something. It wasn't terrible, but this felt quite pointless, surface level and shallow. If this was drawn out into a longer novel, or even just tried to approach less topics I would be okay with it. So many things could have been done with this. The author briefly mentions white privilege, sexual harassment in the workplace, homeschooling, bullying, dating a younger/older person, etc. YET NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE FULLY FLUSHED OUT OR PROPERLY DISCUSSED!!!! It annoyed me so much that that's the reason I gave this one star. I constantly thought I was missing pages, but nope. Here we be. Sigh

Hmm, this was something. I like the art style and the plot was quite good, but I didn't feel any kind of connection with the main character. I get it that is a memoir and the main discussion is about privileges and such. We understand that Hazel changes her way of thinking and understand her surround better now she's in the 'real world', but we don't read that we just have to guess that is what happend. Anyway, it was a good book but I don't think that's something I will read it again. Though I expected great things from this author in the future. The art style is a plus, I really liked the colors and the illustration in it.

I didn't realize this was a graphic novel memoir until I got into it. "No Ivy League" explores homeschooled teenage girl, Hazel's, experiences of working a summer job clearing ivy with a diverse group of workmates. Hazel being homeschooled has to face her own white and middle class privilege, as well as relating to peers outside of her homeschooling bubble.
Unfortunately I felt that these themes weren't taken far enough and the ending was very abrupt, leaving lots unresolved. It's a good start and great for homeschool students trying to relate to others. But I think this needed some expanding and development to really achieve what it was trying to.

Review to be posted on my blog in early August, and on Goodreads later in August.

I received this graphic novel from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

A homeschooled girl gets the chance of the summer when she decides to join a youth crew to work and free trees from ivy. It will be a summer of discovery, flirting, romance, tons and tons of ivy, some Frisbee, and finding friends.

I am always interested in stories about kids who are homeschooled. It is such a foreign concept to me, I never heard about it until I saw it pop up in English books taking place in the US. I did some research and while there are some people homeschooled in my country it is like a tiny percentage and you really REALLY need a proper/important reason to homeschool your kid.
So, I am always curious to see characters who are homeschooled and see how they are doing. How they view life, and how they feel about not going to public school.

And in this one Hazel gets thrown in the deep end when she goes to work for a youth group thingie called No Ivy League. The kids get rid of the ivy that is cover trees, but they also have fun activities like Frisbee and other such activities. She meets all sorts of people, quite a few of them are people of colour. She finds common grounds, but also is confused at times. She has a hard time fitting in with the group.

Thanks to this experience she learns more about race.

I did think it was a bit weird that they didn't get the movie about Ivy until like later in the work group thingie. Wouldn't that be the first to show people? Same goes for identifying plants?

Then suddenly, page 147/148 are sketches? Is that done for a reason or did the author run out of time before the ARC was uploaded? It is really a shame those two pages were done this way as it kind of ruined a big moment. Oh, and later on page 151,152, 159, 160, 183, 184, 187, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209 are also sketches. Um... I had a hard time reading those pages, so yeah, I am deducing a bit of the rating because of these. I get this is an ARC, I get that it may be unfinished, but this just seemed like really random pages to be unfinished. Plus, it really got me out of the story. Especially since the whole ending was just one big sketch... Meh.

I don't get why people were acting shitty with Hazel when she reported Obasi. Hello, that dude just came to her and asked her to suck his dick. That is sexual harassment. I don't care that he needed this job, if he needed this job so badly he should just have acted better and more mature instead of acting like a little prick. :|

Next up I didn't get why everyone was so against Hazel and Anson dating and making fun of it. So what if it is 2 years difference? They are both teens, 15 and 17, and sorry I don't get the fuss and why people tease her about it. Anson's mom was also eh. So she called her boo because she needed to hear his voice and mom thinks that Hazel is needy? What? That is just how a relationship works.

There is also a competition and I would have loved to see Hazel's animation for real. At times I forgot about the competition being around, but then it would be mentioned, and at the end we even get the results (and no, I won't spoil anything).

All in all, I had a pretty good time reading this one. It was interesting, it fits with the current season, and it was wonderful to see Hazel grow.

When I first looked at this book, I'd assumed it was about Ivy League schools but as it turned out, was the memoir of Hazel Newlevant, told through a graphic novel depicting the summer she joined No Ivy League, a program for at-risk teens to clear invasive species in state parks.

Hazel Newlevant, a vegan, home-schooled, and extremely sheltered girl finds a summer job working alongside other teens from different backgrounds leading to realize just how naive and ignorant she's been. A coming of the age story as Hazel forms new perceptions on the world around her regarding privilege and inequality in society.

While No Ivy League does an excellent job depicting Hazel's emotions and reactions, I wish there was some more depth in exploring some of the overarching themes though I did like the portrayal of trying to find a sense of belonging.

Highly recommended for older fans of Smile and Rollergirl

*Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing a free ARC

FORMAT READ: eBook (Adobe Digital Editions)
READ FOR: coming-of-age- themes
TW: Cursing, Under-Age Relationships
*All my reviews are spoiler-free unless stated otherwise*

OVERALL: 3.5/5

This was.. interesting… (in a good way)

This is a story I probably would not have picked up nor would I have enjoyed if it wasn’t a graphic novel. The illustrations gave the story a lot of life and it was able to translate what the author wants to show well.

The book tackled problems that Hazel, as girl who grew up homeschooled and sheltered, encounters when she meets other kids who grew up practically the opposite of her environment. I like how you can clearly see the difference in her headspace and how her actions/reactions differ from the those that in the “No Ivy League” with her.

((you also learn a bit about Ivy plants :D))

There is a lot of mature themes in this novel so consider yourself warned because I was not. I was a bit shaken at the beginning but it proved to be important in the plot. It also makes for a good coming-of-age novel. There are important lessons that I think a lot of people can benefit from.

Though, there some topics that I felt like were never closed properly and just simply ended.

I really enjoyed seeing Hazel develop as a character and I have to admit that I was rooting for her every step of the way. I loved seeing her grow and I feel like she is someone that a lot of people can relate to at one point in their lives. I think she was a great protagonist and I really enjoyed reading about her. Even though I’m still not the biggest fan of how awful most of the No Ivy League people were to her (this was one of the things that I felt wasn't closed properly).

This was also not a long read so it's easy to get through.

PLOT: ★★★☆☆
CHARACTERS: ★★★★☆
THEMES: ★★★★☆
ILLUSTRATIONS: ★★★★★
PAGE TURNER: ★★★★☆

Thank you to Lion Forge for sending me an ARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This book is released on August 20, 2019.

We love a good graphic novel! I think this one was interesting but a little confusing. The preface the author writes before the graphic novel begins lead me to believe this was going to be hard hitting and hard to read... but it wasn’t that at all.

The underlying theme was about how white privilege is confusing for those who are “sheltered” (in this case, the main character is homeschooled). I wish it would have been fleshed out a little better to really get that theme across. The characters weren’t as developed as I would have liked either but I did enjoy the relationship and friendships she shared with her two close friends.

E-arc provided by NetGalley!