Just an ok graphic in my opinion.
I mostly enjoyed the historical aspect of the zoot suit riots especially with the info given in the back of the GN. The artwork was basic?! Sorry.
The inclusion of the lizard is different and unique the story did seem to put everyone in specific boxes (good guys, bad.. yadda yadda).
It is a decent piece for the younger teens to acquaint them with this bit of history but a bit cliche and not anything particular to make it stand out to me.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this Arc.

This wonderful mix of sci-fi and real-life collide in this graphic novel about the story of two girls, Cuata and Flaca, who go up against the powers that be and challenge societal norms along with the help of a mysterious stranger in a Zoot Suit.

An interesting blend of historical fiction and monster movie scifi. Taking place during the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 Los Angeles, the story has two Latinx twin sisters, Flaca and Cuata, who find a lizard man of an unknown species who has been separated from his people by the actions of humans, and they decide to help him get back to his people and keep him from getting captured by the military. Chulit0 (as the girls call him) bears a strong resemblance to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, making him a handy symbol of the "other," and his people's displacement by humans represents the Mexican-American communities in Los Angeles being displaced by whites. An author's note gives a detailed history of the Zoot Suit Riots, which I hadn't heard about before; an ugly race-based event that had even the LA Times publishing an article about how to attack and de-suit a Zoot Suiter, stoking even more violence. The artwork has a minimalistic retro feel, and fits the story well. This is a quick, fun adventure story, and I learned an important bit of history too.

#LizardinaZootSuit #NetGalley

I had only a vague familiarity with the zoot suit riots (really, all I knew was that it was racially motivated), and was pleased with how much I learned from this graphic novel. Flaca and Cuata are great characters, true to life and kind.

While I agree that it didn't necessarily need to be science fiction (replace the lizard in the zoot suit with some other human foreigner and nothing really would have changed), it added a nice conspiracy element to the story and will attract readers who might avoid a straight historical story.

I, probably like many, didn't know much about the Zoot Suit Riots and the culture of the time. I loved the setting, especially the sense of community, and the characters. There were a lot of Spanish terms that I was unfamiliar with that I wished had been defined in a footnote or glossary. The story reminded me of E.T.

A ripping adventure comic that has a unique historical setting. Being British, there are periods of American history with which I am not familiar. The novel comes with historical notes explaining the racist beatings dolled out by naval recruits and the societal impacts that they had.

The art here is fluid, and the choice of having a rather simple colour palette is a good one. There is a real sense of place and time. Flaca and Cuata are characters that I as a reader quickly grew fond of and I’d urge the Finnegan to write further stories featuring them.

The spirit of the story reminded of the Back to the Future films. The action is thrilling; the dialogue is tight, and, there is a cast of memorable characters. The good girls are brave, and the villains are nefarious. One of the strongest compliment I can give the book is that made me want to learn more about when it was set and see these characters have further adventures. Great fun.

A fascinating way to introduce young people to the Zoot Suit riots and attacks on Latinx people in the 40's. I also enjoyed that it centered around girls, because they're not often the center of stories about the 40s and Zoot Suit culture. An excellent and strange mash up of genres.

What an interesting story! I had fun reading this and really liked the art style! The plot was definitely interesting and I mean, how cool is a lizard in a suite!

A bit different from what I expected, both in plot and art style. Loved the Mexican American setting, loved learning about the Zoot Suit Riots of the time , loved the minimalistic art style.

What I didn't like: some action scenes were a bit hard to follow, and the story was pretty cliche (some compassionate people helping an animal/ monster isn't exactly fresh) Like other reviewers have said, maybe it could've worked just fine without the lizard at all, just straightforward historical fiction about the riots; the lizard people aren't developed at all, anyway.

Flaca and Cuata are heading home when they get into a fight with a sailor. As they run away, the meet a lizard creature and befriend it. Whilst the men who were looking for the creature, the two girls try to help the lizard find it's family. This graphic novel is short and interesting, only because of the history behind it. However, I didn't particularly like it as I found the lizard unnecessary and it could have been a comic just about the zoot-suite riots, which I had never heard about. Also, I wasn't a particular fan of the art style but that is more of a personal preference. Overall, even though I didn't like it, I found it interesting to learn something new and it was a fun way to do so.

Set during the era of the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 Los Angeles, the story follows two Hispanic sisters who befriend a lizard man. He's lost and separated from his family while being pursued by a scientist and a racist sailor. I think you can see where the story is headed from here. The art is a little simplistic at times and looks a little blown up, but it serves its purpose. It does a good job of conveying the story as there aren't that many words.

This is a great all-ages story. It doesn't shy away from history's warts, showing how poorly Latinos were treated by the sailors in the area. At the time, there was a naval base placed right in the middle of the heavily Latino, Chavez Ravine. The book follows up with several pages describing the actual Zoot Suit Riots and how they came about. I think it's important we keep in mind our failures of the past so we don't repeat them in the future.

This is a very mixed bag. On the plus side, the art is engaging, the characters are detailed and interesting, and the author does a great job of giving the flavor of Los Angeles during this period without hitting us over the head with too much exposition. On the down side the plot is pretty cliched, and there really doesn't seem to be a good reason to have the subterranean race of lizard people there in the first place. They are fairly flat and don't work even as a metaphor for manifest destiny and the USA's historical treatment of indigenous peoples. I think it may have been better as a straightforward story about the Zoot Suit Riots and racial tensions in LA in the 20th century.

With the Zoot Suit Riots as a backdrop two teenage Chicana sisters find a juvenile lizard-man creature and try to get him back to his family.

The story is just okay but it does a good job of incorporating the lizard-man as a stand in for the "other" - someone different - the monster that is hunted by government forces when it is actually peaceful and harmless. It's basically a good guys and bad guys type of thing with everyone fitting neatly into their required roles. The characters are suitable for young teens.

The afterward that gives a brief description of the Zoot Suit Riots is a highlight of the book.

***Thanks to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Lizard in a Zoot Suit is a fantastical little novel that packs a punch with history, fantasy and action!

Flaca and Cuata are heading home when they get into a brawl with some sailors. As they escape, they discover a lizard creature and befriend it. Suddenly, the government is after their lizard friend which causes much chaos. Meanwhile, the Lizard in a Zoot Suit is trying to find his own family since he lost them years ago. Will friendship prevail? Will our fancy smancy Lizard friend find his family? Will Cuata's skirt ever be brought up by her Mother?!

I thought this book was super fun! It's short and sweet yet packed full of action and adventure. There's not a ton of dialogue, but the pictures tell the story just perfectly.

At the end of the book, there's a little section describing the Zoot Suit riots. I found it super intriguing to read about, since I hadn't been reminded of this since grade school. I'm always down for a little educational break within or after the novel.

Also, best title ever. Just saying.

Overall, I think this book is a real success! It's a fun, little comic that will bring lots of joy and excitement to readers. It reminds me of The Shape of Water without the R rated content.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Lerner Publishing group for this wonderful opportunity to pick up this book. I hope to see more of Marco Finnegan soon!

Well I certainly ended up grateful for the chance to read this book. The main core of it, an adventure for two teenaged girls of Mexican heritage in LA in the 1940s, is perhaps a little too broad, a little too childish, and a little too simplistic. For I think I'm actually crediting the post-script, the non-fiction part of this volume, as the greater success and perhaps of the greater interest. I had no idea at all, here in the UK, about the Zoot Suit Riots – a manic week where US Navy idiots were intent on duffing up Latinx (whatever that means) people principally because of their colour and because of their choice of wardrobe.

I knew of the Yellow Peril, with people from Asia the brunt of American racial animosity, and of course that was soon followed by a Red one, but this book brought something new to my attention, the Mexican equivalent, where people were intent on chasing down the 'other', whether that be a token sewer-dwelling lizard monster or Mexicanos. The drama has all the spirit of the 50s B-movies it sets out to attain, with dodgy men of dubious motive seeking the lizard man, and some people seeing with non-prejudicial eyes in retaliation. The fact does remain that that's a little too slender a story for a graphic novel – although I would still recommend this for junior readers, and I would still thank this book for teaching me something I ought to have known. Four stars is slightly generous perhaps, but for exceeding my expectations and for correcting my ignorance it feels about right.

Ok... but WHY a lizard though? This could have been basically the exact same story without the lizard, and could have been a great comic about the zoot-suit riots in Los Angeles in the 1940's and the messed up relations between whites and Hispanics at the time. The lizard was cute and stuff but kind of unnecessary to tell the story this was trying to tell.

Interesting Spin

As a graphic novel presentation of the 1943 Zoot Suit riots in L.A., this book is very successful. Read the historical summary at the end of the book before you start the story and you'll find yourself right in the middle of the era and the action. Telling the tale from the point of view of two sisters who were in the middle of the events is an effective way to immerse the reader in the period and the unfolding conflict.

I'm not quite sure why we had to have a lizard alien as part of the story, although that certainly jazzed things up. I guess he represents kindness or cooperation or justice or resistance, or another aspect of oppression and fear of the alien. He certainly adds something to the cover, and looks good disguised in a zoot suit.

Bottom line, the riots are something readers should be aware of, especially now. This book does a fine job of bringing that all into focus. The lizard is just an amusing, and at least not annoying, bonus. That was fine by me.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Fantastic, bombastic — I wish I’d thought of it. A visually compelling reading experience worth sharing.