Sisters - Raina Telgemeier

Let me begin with a little bit of back story. The first time I met Raina was during a conference in Vancouver, BC. She was one of our keynote speakers and at the time she was still raking in the acclaim for Smile. Only a short time later, I was serving on the Stonewall Book Awards committee for the American Library Association (ALA) when Drama came across my desk, and I found myself getting super excited as I read through. So, naturally, when I saw an ARC of Sisters at the most recent ALA conference, I did a little jig, giggled a bit, and drew more than a few stares. Needless to say, this will be a very positive review!

 First of all, I love the cover, which mimics the comedy and tragedy masks, giving insight into the complexities at play within Raina Telgemeier's most recent graphic novel. In this book, Raina, her sister and brother, and her mother all get ready to go on a road trip to visit relatives. Her father isn't coming along, so it's just her and her sister in the back seat for most of the trip, and the drama (sorry, I couldn't resist the reference!) builds for the rest of the book.

 What I love about this book in particular is that not only are readers treated to a dramatic exploration of sibling relationship dynamics, but Telgemeier also provides flashbacks throughout in order to give readers even more character development to enjoy. 
As a young girl, Raina wanted a sister. A sequence of images showing Raina's pleading with her parents culminates in a hilarious image that reflects the lack of forethought that so many young people have when the desire for a sibling enters their heads. The sisters, and later their brother, are so wonderfully rendered that I felt like I was growing up with them and taking part in their road trip adventure.

 The road trip is fabulous and I couldn't help but relate. When Raina forgets to use the restroom at a gas station, only find out it's two hours to the next rest stop, and when the batteries on her walkman die, I laughed out loud. The whole book is at once funny and heartwarming, relatable and complex, dealing with sibling rivalry, parental separation, the death of pets, and even a rogue snake. Whether you are a fan of Raina Telgemeier from previous exposure to her other work, or if you're totally new to graphic novels, you will find much to love in Sisters.

 Highly Recommended

 (Note: This review is from an Advance Reading Copy - Out August 26, 2014)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Living - Matt De La Peña

Image
The Living  recently received an Honor from the Pura Belpré committee. The award recognizes of a work which best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. As I was at the awards announcements, and having known people who served on the committee in the past, I was intrigued. I had read the winning title and the other honor titles, and was impressed with the choices. So here's my review of The Living : The novel begins with Shy, a young guy working for a snazzy cruise line, offering water to people on the Lido Deck of the ship to combat the heat. Everything is going pretty well until an older gentleman comes out and starts spouting of weird, disconcerting phrases: "You have seen the face of evil."Shy doesn't quite know what to think, so he moves on to a couple of ladies on the other side of the deck. Just as he's handing them their water bottles, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and realizes the old guy h...
Read more

The Music of What Happens - Bill Konigsberg

Image
Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever. Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart. Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most. This is a phenomenal book, in my humble opinion. There aren't too many books dealing with male sexual abuse, particularly in YA. Sex and sexuality are messy parts of young adulthood, but what this book does really well is discuss consent and the ways in which physical cues can be misinte...
Read more

Girls Like Us - Gail Giles

Image
I have now gone out and made sure that I have all of the books longlisted for the National Book Award. I read and reviewed a number of these previously, so now I have five left to read and review. This is one of those five (but would I expect anything less from the fabulous team at Candlewick?) Girls Like Us  is a unique novel in a number of respects, most notably in the fact that both protagonists are identified (and self-identified) as mentally disabled in some way. Biddy has a learning disability that she was born with, while Quincy is a young girl who is disabled due to the fact that her mother's boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick, disfiguring her and damaging her brain. Once the two girls graduate from school, they move into a house together, becoming caregivers for both each other and an older woman, Elizabeth. The two must rely on each other for comfort, knowledge, and emotional strength, and Elizabeth manages to help them along the way. While I had moments of wo...
Read more