Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Svetlana Chmakova is quickly moving up my list of graphic novelists to keep track of.  Both my older girlies loved Awkward and now we’re passing Brave around; it started with my 8-year-old, but I picked it up yesterday and finished it just before it was time to turn out my light.

I kind of loved it.

For the first little bit I didn’t actually expect to; Jensen seemed less relatable to me personally, at least at first.   The more I read, however, the more engrossed I was.  I remember being at the edge of a group, worrying about keeping your place and your friends; I remember finding a new group of people unexpectedly, the sheer wonder and joy of it.  I was afraid for a few pages that the school dress code plot line would go places that annoyed me, but the way it was handled was open-ended in a way that worked nicely for the story.  Brave is a book with rather a strong message–a moral to the story, so to speak–but it completely works.  Graphic novels with depth and breadth that are still appropriate for my 8-year-old aren’t as easy to find as I might prefer, but Chmakova has written at least two–AND Crush, another companion to Awkward and Brave looks to be due out this October.  My girlies–and I–will be waiting!