Best Friends

Best Friends is the follow-up to Real Friends, a very well-received, well-reviewed graphic memoir about the ups and downs of elementary school friendships. In this book, things get even more complicated when Shannon gets to sixth grade, the final grade of elementary school. Her friendships seem to carry higher stakes, as the oldest girls in school become the most popular and also have the most power to level at outliers and less social children. 

Being in the popular group brings its own pressures, and things get weird when some of her friends start doing things to purposely test Shannon's loyalty and trustworthiness. Also, she does not seem to watch the same TV shows or listen to the same music they do, which makes her feel out of touch and uncool. And on top of everything else, some of the friends start hitting puberty and turning their attentions to boys in complicated, often confusing ways.

Not only is Shannon dealing with a lot of moving parts in terms of school, friends, and gender politics, she also has to deal with her own struggles with anxiety. These manifest in stomachaches, very dark thoughts (about loved ones dying or her house burning down), and OCD tendencies, and they also hinder her confidence. One of her coping mechanisms is to channel her feelings into her creative writing, here a story of Princess Alexandra who finds a magic jewel with mysterious powers. She is quite imaginatively playful in general, an aspect of her personality that the popular girls just don't seem to get.

By the end of the book, and the onset of middle school, she learns more about what works for her and what satisfies her in terms of friendships and future aspirations. Not everything ends in tidy fashion, and I appreciated the attention paid to a realistic portrait of a young person's emotional life. I think that there is much here for younger (and even older) readers to relate to and even find solace in.

This book is another collaboration between author Shannon Hale and artist LeUyen Pham. The back pages of the book feature a lot of information about them and how they collaborate, and they seem like they are having a blast working together. Hale is a prolific children's book and YA author, and she has a few graphic novels under her belt, too, including Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack. Pham has drawn a good number of children's books, including The Bear Who Wasn't There, and has worked with Hale before on a series of The Princess in Black books. Both creators speak about their work on Best Friends in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called the book "insightful, introspective, and important." Sam Wildman opined, "I can relate to almost every panel on every page and I know young readers will feel the same." Ayla Jaganjac wrote that it was "amazing."

Best Friends was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more about it here. The third book in this series, Friends Forever, (about life in 8th grade) is due out in August.

Guts

For YA graphic novel fans, Raina Telgemeier is a superstar author. Her books like Smile and Drama are omnipresent in schools, bookstores, libraries, and book club catalogs. She is also a multiple award winner, and her works are consistently at the top of sales charts. Her two prior memoirs dealt with her relationships, mainly with friends and family. They have been some of her strongest and most well received books, and this third one Guts gets even more personal and insightful as she tackles a personal demon that many avoid discussing: dealing with anxiety.

It starts with a seeming bout of illness and nausea, but over time Raina gradually learns that her gastrointestinal and mental states have profound effects on each other. This manifests in bouts of self-doubt, confusion, and isolating herself, all of which form a negative feedback loop. Increasingly unsure of how to deal, and with some support from her parents, she eventually starts seeing a therapist who helps her recognize and deal with the circumstances,

Much of what makes this book successful is just how frank and candid it is about the issues, and it certainly benefits from Telgemeier's time getting perspective on her own life. Additionally, the clean and vibrant illustrations help convey the whole enterprise in a powerful and direct way. This is a book of powerful emotions and feelings, and it conveys them all seamlessly. Perhaps the best comparison I have seen for her style is with Lynn Johnston, the creator of the long-running comic strip For Better, For Worse. That strip could transition from drama to humor to poignant moments and still pack a wallop, just like Telgemeier's works can. Part of what I think makes Telgemeier's work so popular, in my opinion, is that she flat out makes high-octane comics.

All of the reviews I have seen about this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews concluded, "With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many." Michael Cavna remarked that one of the big positives about this book was that it "should prove to be a conversation-starter between children and adults." Scott Stossel stated that "this book’s warmth, humanity and humor — it ends with a sonorous and well-earned fart — provides a balm more soul-soothing than any pill." Irene Velentzas wrote, "It is Telgemeier’s mastery of the comics form that lends work like Guts its universal appeal, its widespread popularity, and makes her work highly deserving of sustained attention and further critical inquiry."

Guts was published by Scholastic, and they offer a PDF preview and more here.