Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and O so Truthful!
Review: This book is enjoyable for the whole family! McGruder has our whole family cracking up from the youngest of us,10 yrs. old, to the oldest- 51 yrs. old, and everyone of us in between. We all need a laugh once in a while and this book provides it for everyone. No matter what you usually read, or what your background is, you will enjoy this collection.
Rating:
Summary: Break Yo'self, fool! Don't listen to the haters!
Review: As a teenager, I'd have to say Aaron McGruder is probably the one guy in the world who makes politics funny, excluding those guys who make it nerdy funny. I listen to rap, and yeah, I read the newspaper, so I understand every strip, but even if you don't do either, the book is funny for everybody. Unless you're ignorant. How the cover is racist is beyond me--obviously these people have never heard of the rap group Wu-tang Clan, who happen to be immensely popular. That he makes fun of a white girl who is clueless about black culture--well, you just can't take a joke. He's making fun of suburban white rich kids who think they're "gangstas", callin' themselves the "OG" when they probably don't even know what that is. That girl had never seen a black person yet listened to rap. Aaron was highlighting the stupidity of these kids listening to rap. And that he's ugly...Well, those people just have insecurity issues. McGruder tries his best to keep it fresh (you suckas!), pertinent, and thought provoking. And he almost always succeeds.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing "editorial" on the comics page
Review: I am 16 years old and I thoroughly enjoyed "A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury." Aarom McGruder incorporates current affairs with comedy and satire to create a refreshing comic on the funny pages. This collection of The Boondocks comics is the usual combination of McGruder making strong, yet funny, political and cultural commentary from a young black male's perspective. The characters are well balanced between Huey Freeman's radical socialist views, Riley's struggling attempts to be America's stereotypical young black male, and their grandfather's general problems incorporating his experiences as a black male in America.
I personally think that Aaron McGruder is one of the best political commentators in todays society and has found an original way to convey his personal feelings about current-affairs.
Primarily, the most important aspect of the comic is that it's funny, and addresses the audiences on two different levels. I like to compare McGruder's comedic style to Gary Larson's Far Side comics, for McGruder can make the stip funny on two different levels, one to the younger and less-informed crowd, and another to which the strip primarily addresses, the well-informed on current affairs population which can get another meaning below the basic dialogue of the strip.
While some of the strong political opinions might not be as appealing to the right-wing crowd, this treasury is still worth a good read and is humorous in all it's references to politics and modern American culture.
Rating: 
Summary: It's just a comic !!!!!
Review: I think this comic compilation was funny. At times it could be over the top, but it is just a comic people. It's not a novel. It's a comic strip with fictional characters. I really think people are reading too much into this comic strip. It's meant to entertain, nothing more. I just think people need to relax and take it for what it is. Funny!
Rating:
Summary: Wow, how about that?
Review: To see these spirited reviews, both positive and negative, has been eye-opening, if not enlightening. I'm glad to see people from both sides weighing in not only on the book, but on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) and the results of McGruder's commentary as well.
First off, I would like to review the book. I will establish a little context first; I am an Asian-American college student who attends a "liberal" school. You can read however much into that you would like. I read The Boondocks regularly, but I have not read the other collections. I am a fan, but not a devoted follower...yet.
"A Right to Be Hostile" provides hilarity and wit from front cover to back. As a minority, I found myself laughing at how McGruder illustrates the polarity between White Society and these "Pilgrims in an unholy land." But is the polarity exaggerated?
There's a strip on page 34 where a white woman and her daughter are walking on a sidewalk. When the mother sees puny Riley, complete with wifebeater, she, as Riley recalls to Huey, "straight-up YANKS her daughter to the other side of the street!" (McGruder's emphasis).
Huey: Knowing you, you're probably PROUD of that incident
Riley: NO DOUBT! It's about time folks here recognize who runs this place!!
It's funny to hear young Riley boasting about how he lords over white suburbia like some "ghettoized" criminal kingpin. But underneath the incisive humor and exaggeration are real issues, in this case racism. I've had moments where I felt discriminated against, though not in as blatant a form as presented in the strip. McGruder's strength is that he addresses and attacks these real issues of racism and politics. It would not be The Boondocks without McGruder addressing these issues.
To see other reviewers lambasting McGruder and this book simply because of his leftist, socialist views frustrates me because they simply do not see the point. McGruder isn't telling his readers to accept his viewpoints. All he's saying is to "Read, Dummy!" Think about the exaggerations. Maybe there's some truth behind them.
One reviewer claimed The Boondocks was deteriorating because of the focus on the two main characters, Huey and Riley, and the constant anti-Bush propaganda McGruder espoused. I consider this a fair critique, but even McGruder claims that this direction "was a better alternative than doing a bunch of insincere family humor" in his introduction to "A Right." "Honesty is the best policy"; if Trudeau suddenly shunned any politcal topic from his comic, how would longtime fans react? I realize that the tone may have become a little more somber, a little more disillusioned, a little more "Huey-ish" but I would argue that the comic is no less effective, and no less humorous even with its constant critique on the Bush administration. The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, and Doonesbury are just a few widely regarded sources of satire that frequently use politics as a source, but I don't recall seeing or hearing of such disagreement about any of them.
Moreover, comics have survived, even thrived upon a focus on select characters, namely "Calvin and Hobbes" created by Bill Watterson, one of McGruder's comic heroes.
But I digress. I find McGruder's book extremely appealing in its incisive satire of many issues people are afraid to discuss: black culture, American patriotism, politics, racism, alienation and disenfranchisement. To be honest, I find myself drawing comparisons to Wattersons's "C and H"; I enjoy the sharp dialogue about life from two youthful yet intelligent and underappreciated characters. The dialogue alone merits enough entertainment.
If Watterson un-retired and became a liberal black counterculturalist, the comic might look something like this.
Rating:
Summary: Very Much on Point
Review: I always read the strips&this Book covers so much&speaks volumes on current events&themes. it would be so cool to Have Aaron Mcgruder&Michael Moore to colab on a Documentary Project. imagine the two Creative visions coming together? I always get to different takes on various subject matters&Points.once you start reading you can't stop.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, Not One of the Greats
Review: McGruder's "The Boondocks" is a decent comic strip. It has its fair share of funniness, sharp wit, and politically trenchant observation. Right-wingers probably won't find it funny, but if like seeing the powerful criticized via mocking humor, you'll probably like this.
But there are several detriments to the strip, even if you agree with McGruder's political and social outlook. He gets a lot of credit for presenting a minority perspective in the comics (certainly a good thing) but maybe too much - he's not totally alone in this. Perhaps your local paper doesn't carry "Curtis" or "Baldo".
There are many occasions when he gets so worked up about the point he's making that he seemingly doesn't bother to even include any joke to it. There are times when the strip reads less like a comic, more like a shouted rant.
It doesn't help that McGruder doesn't draw facial expressions well - Huey Freeman usually looks the same whether he's supposed to be angry (most common), surprised, amused or whatever. The characters simply don't emote via the illustrations. (I have high hopes for "Birth of a Nation", written by McGruder but drawn by a far superior artist Kyle Baker.)
Lastly, character development has fallen by the wayside in favor of the politics. Doonesbury, for example, is highly political --- but the characters get to develop personalities and histories, and Trudeau lets the politics can thus be brought out from a personal angle (ie BD losing a leg in Iraq). McGruder doesn't bother with this approach and has let interesting/funny supporting characters disappear.
Boondocks makes me laugh relatively often, I like it, but I wouldn't rate it as one of the great strips.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and O so Truthful!
Review: This book is enjoyable for the whole family! McGruder has our whole family cracking up from the youngest of us,10 yrs. old, to the oldest- 51 yrs. old, and everyone of us in between. We all need a laugh once in a while and this book provides it for everyone. No matter what you usually read, or what your background is, you will enjoy this collection.
Rating:
Summary: THE TRUTH HURTS...
Review: It seems to me that the negative ratings are all directed at the man himself and not the contents of the book! Why are people so angry about the BOONDOCKS? It is a comic strip which is loosley based on events which actually occur in the world, just as stand up comedy (Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy etc.) and weekly sitcoms and TV shows (Chris Rock, David Chappelle etc.) What makes it entertaining is it pokes fun at real life situations and puts a twist of humor to it. And those who get offended typically feel that way because THE TRUTH HURTS, and they don't want to see that things are that way, but they feel much more comfortable with their blinders on. The world is not an oyster for everyone! And for the one reviewer (Michael Casey) who gave 5 stars and then went on a tangent about McGruder being a Socialists but yet accepting money for his book and using the money to buy material things; where in the socialists doctrine does it say one must be poor and have no money?!?!? Lesson #1: 5 stars means you liked it Silly! Lesson #2:You should do more reading! NOT JUST CARTOON STRIPS!!! Lesson #3: See lesson number 1 and 2...LOL
Rating:
Summary: This is awesome
Review: Maybe my opinion is a little swayed, but anything related to The Boondocks is on the top of my list. Being from a tiny town, I can, in a way, relate to how Huey and Riley feel. Of course, I can't fully, being a white female, but the books are awesome. McGruder writes some of the funniest things I've ever read, but they still make a person think. He's taken subjects that were previously "tabooed" and put them into book form for the entire world to see. As long as this man pumps out the books, I will be pumping out the cash to buy them.
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