Link + Hud: Sharks & Minnows

Link + Hud #2

by Jerome Pumphrey, Jarrett Pumphrey

Link and Hud are back with more mischief and mayhem in the series “full of Black boy joy, brother love, and silliness” ( Book Riot ). Lincoln and Hudson Dupré are ready for their summer vacation at the coast. The ocean is perfect for their imagined escapades, but when their dad cuts their trip short, it seems like the end of Link and Hud’s aquatic adventures―until they run into the ultra-competitive Donaldson brothers, who are on the neighborhood swim team. The Sharks and Coach Strickler will do anything to win and they’re not particularly welcoming. Well, if Link and Hud can’t join the Sharks, they’ll set up their own “swim team,” with events like deep-sea treasure hunting and supersonic water walking. When Coach Strickler tries to shut down their team, Link and Hud and their Mighty Minnows must outswim and outsmart the Sharks to keep the fun afloat. With warm and authentic humor, real-life brothers Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey have blended prose and graphic novel–style illustrations to craft a unique and subversive new series. Black-and-white illustrations throughout

Genres: Middle Grade

192 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2025

About the author

Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator and writer, originally from Houston, TX.

Since 2016 he has been a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He works primarily from his home office near Austin, TX, where he lives with his wife, daughter and son.

Reviews

[The Page Ladies Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

Link and Hud are brothers, best frenemies, and absolute chaos in human form. When the A/C breaks and Mom bans screens, they’re forced to entertain themselves the old-fashioned way by turning their backyard into shark-infested waters and launching a full-blown game of Sharks and Minnows.

This book is pure summer energy: messy, loud, creative, and hilarious. Told in a tag-team style from each brother’s POV, it reads like you're stuck right between them and loving it. The illustrations? SO good. Think graphic-novel-meets-chapter-book, perfect for kids who'd rather draw a shark than read about one.

It’s silly. It’s smart. It nails the sibling dynamic. And bonus: Link and Hud are Black boys just being boys, front and center in all their goofy glory.

Perfect for: reluctant readers, kids with wild imaginations, or anyone who’s ever argued over game rules with a sibling.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the first installment of Link + Hud, this is a mixed format, humorous book that is part graphic novel, part traditional prose, part autobiography, and plenty of sketches to be keep readers engaged and understanding what they are reading. The traditional text formatted sections are the real life adventures of the boys and sketches are included while the graphic panels exaggerate and change the basic elements of the plot into a far more imaginative variation.

The two brothers are high-energy and that often leads to mistakes and messes but they generally fix the problems they cause but this summer, their hijinks with tubes of sunscreen lead to the closing of the outdoor pool they love and force them inside where they discover that water aerobics and swim team practices may make their time in that pool very limited. Joining the competitive Sharks seems the only answer but Coach Strickler, aka Coach Squishler due to his always wet and squeaky shoes, runs a tight ship with very little joy in the swimming. Another mishap, this time with mass quantities of pickle balls, leads to the coach watching the boys diving and swimming for balls showing their skills and getting quite a workout and he adapts his team’s training to a much more fun format that also leads to improved swim times. Win and win for the Dupre boys once again.

Plenty of humor, mixed format and well under 200 pages make this a winner for libraries, home, school and public, serving kids 7-10 years old. No profanity, violence or sexual content with Black representation, a strong and positive Black family structure and friends from a variety of backgrounds.

Note: Each book in the series can stand alone.

Thanks for the print arc, Norton Young Readers.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Link and Hud Dupre have gotten themselves banned from the Minnows swimming pool for bad behavior. There another pool at the rec, the Shark Tank. Do Link and Hud have what it takes to be members of the Sharks swim team?