This was a really wonderful upper middle grade or lower YA graphic novel about a 12-year-old who skips grade 8 and starts high school a year4.5 stars!
This was a really wonderful upper middle grade or lower YA graphic novel about a 12-year-old who skips grade 8 and starts high school a year early. Academically she's all good, but socially she is petrified of the teenagers and new environment. She's pretty lost until she meets Libby in English class, whom she sloooowly realizes she has a crush on. The great humour and the tenderly realized sister/sister relationship were my favourite parts. This book perfectly captures the agonizing ordeal of having a first crush in tweendom....more
Wow, wow, I've never read a book so visceral and heartbreaking while simultaneously so life-affirming and full of love. This is a collection of comicsWow, wow, I've never read a book so visceral and heartbreaking while simultaneously so life-affirming and full of love. This is a collection of comics the author made in the two years following the death of her partner of 22 years, Donimo. Leavitt writes in her introduction: “After Donimo's death, I continued living, which surprised me."
SOMETHING NOT NOTHING does so much more than nearly all the other comics I've read and does it so differently, it almost doesn't feel *like* a comic. But, of course, it is. The formal experimentation and abstract watercolour art pair perfectly with Leavitt's words, like:
"Honestly I kind of thought you'd be back. Probably after a year. If I could just keep it together and the house was clean and the dog alive."
On a trip to a beautiful place in nature: “Fuck the rocks and their ongoing never-ending lives.”
“Delight: Hold out your hand step forward bow your head fall and let yourself see the let yourself into the step aside let yourself fall until she has you and you are caught and her eyes and teeth and never so scared or so much bright”
Leavitt oftentimes finds just the perfect way to describe and depict the illogical way your brain works when you're grieving.
I know this sounds like a heavy book, and it is of course, of course I cried many times reading it, but it is so worth it....more
This is an ambitious, impressive graphic novel debut that is kind of like three stories in one. Set in rural Cape Breton, it stars a nonbinary person,This is an ambitious, impressive graphic novel debut that is kind of like three stories in one. Set in rural Cape Breton, it stars a nonbinary person, Drew, roughing it on their new property and building themselves a cabin, learning to use and maintain tools, felling trees for lumber, learning carpentry skills, and more. So that's story one.
It's also a beautiful love story between Drew and their dog Pony and their adventures exploring the woods. I loved Pony, what a character!
Story three: a narrative comprised of gender power fantasies and Drew's ferocious, assless-chaps-wearing, horseback-riding alter-ego, Vera Bushwack, into whom Drew escapes when they're in the zone chainsawing, dirt biking, or another engrossing physical activity.
This graphic novel is deeply feminist and has a lot to say about masculinity, sexual assault, and mansplaining. The art is expressive and mostly minimalist. Mostly each section has a one-coloured background with line drawings forgrounded, so when contrasting colours are used together (like in the drawing used on the cover) it has a great effect.
This was a super cute graphic novel for tweens set at a theatre summer camp! (Calling all theatre nerds!) Ash is excited about their last summer as a This was a super cute graphic novel for tweens set at a theatre summer camp! (Calling all theatre nerds!) Ash is excited about their last summer as a camper and wants it to be perfect but they're nervous about telling their BFF that they have a crush on her. Then, everything seems to be getting in the way of Ash and Ivy spending time together. Does Ivy like Ash back? Will Ash build the pumpkin carriage of their dreams for the production of Ella?
Great queer representation (nonbinary and bi for Ash and Ivy) as well as a tween messing up big time in their friendships and apologizing and repairing their relationships. Recommended for fans of Raina Telgemeier!...more