Book: Drama
Author: Raina Telgemeier
Published: 2012 (Graphix)
Pages: 233
The last thing teen fiction needs is condescension, so I
will swear on my two library cards that when I say this graphic novel is
adorable, I don’t mean it that way. I mean it in the “these bright colors and
fun lines warm my heart to the approximate setting of ‘fuzzy’” way.
This is about a young high school kid who loves being on the
tech crew in drama club, and she’s so comfortable and happy in her setting that
it’s a joy to watch (literally, on one level) her navigate her crush and invent
ways for a fake cannon to really go boom for their latest production. She’s so
comfortable in her own skin that all the issues are refreshingly about, like,
actual personalities and how they get along, with a gentle, non-explicit but
obvious dose of sexual identity thrown in.
I shouldn’t say “thrown in;” the sexual identity thing ends
up being a bit of a driving force, but as a completely normal obstacle that
isn’t weird or icky, just a little unfortunate when it doesn’t match with her
own romantic expectations of her crush.
And it also saves the play in – here is this word again but
you put rounded edges and magenta on enough bits of a drawing and I will keep
using it – adorable way that I won’t tell you about because you really should
read it. So: read it!
This one goes back to the library. I’m going to start making
a list of books I check out from the library and like enough to keep so I can
go Amazon crazy one of these days.
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