MMGM and #IMWAYR: The Do-Over and more!
Hello, hello! I am hours away from submitting my final assignment for my first semester of grad school (🥳), and I've finally had the chance to get back into reading for fun, thank goodness. I've missed you all, so I wanted to poke my head in today and share my reading exploits. Let's do it!
Middle Grade
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| Left to right: Florence, Millie (our protagonist), Claire, and Gabby. |
Dear Rosie
Written and illustrated by Meghan Boehman and Rachael Briner
Additional writing and coloring by Tom Pickwood
Graphic novel · 2023
· · · The publisher says: · · ·
Seventh-grader Millie has the best friends in the whole world: Florence, Claire, Gabby, and Rosie, but when Rosie dies in a car accident everything changes. Rocked by grief, the remaining four girls struggle to move on. Millie barely understands her normal pre-teen feelings, let alone the messy ones left behind by Rosie, so she outruns her emotions by throwing herself into a mystery: a cryptic notebook abandoned at her family's laundromat. Could the clues in the notebook be related to Rosie?
Together, Millie and her friends embark on a heartwarming journey to heal from the loss of Rosie and end up finding more than they ever could have even imagined.
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The aesthetic of this book is on point. The historic and welcoming town (inspired by a real town in Maryland), the town destinations from bagel shops to laundromats, the woodland animals who populate the story, and even the characters’ rooms and the details they hold—it’s wonderful to look at. The talking-animal vibe makes me think a little bit of Summer Camp Island, Animal Crossing, or maybe even Arthur.
Also, there’s something really compassionate in this story about four young girls navigating grief together, pushing through intense feelings, rash decisions, numbness, and a lack of consideration by others. Seeing the solace the characters find at the story’s end (and the visual metaphors used to represent it) is so satisfying.
That said, I don’t think the characters are as well-developed as I would like. The story felt a little rushed, and I noticed several plot holes (like the fact that one character wasn’t grounded for all eternity after something she did). And one character had an online boyfriend, and the messaging surrounding that seemed to be that it was unacceptable and horrifying and needed to be stopped, which I think is missing some important nuances.
Still, this story is a mood, and I’m here for it. And watching Millie’s interactions with an elder tortoise and supposed former strongman named Mr. DeAlba was just too good to pass up.
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| Left to right: Zoe, Mariana (our protagonist), and Everly. |
The Do-Over
Written by Rodrigo Vargas and illustrated by Coni Yovaniniz
Graphic novel · 2023
· · · The publisher says: · · ·
Shy Mariana is looking for her chance to shine. She's having trouble making friends after a cross-country move to Ohio, plus, her dad refuses to let her help out at his hair salon, despite the fact that she's a social media expert!
So when she meets science whiz Zoe and creative maven Everly, and the three decide to start their own hair styling studio, she finally finds the friends—and the calling—she’s been searching for. The trio's studio, True Colors, is a smash hit, and the girls are having a blast. Not to mention, Mariana loves helping her fellow middle-school clients express themselves.
But with the town Harvest Fest on the horizon and a line of customers always at the door, the friends have to scale up quickly, and they don't always agree on how. Can Mariana find the courage to speak up for what she wants? And does True Colors have what it takes to succeed in business and friendship?
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Oh my gosh, I loved this book! It looked so absurdly cute and fun that I figured, by Murphy's law, it was bound to disappoint me in some way. But actually, there’s as much craft and compassion here as there is heart!
There’s joy and sweetness on every page of The Do-Over, and in large part, that’s because of our delightful core trio of friends. Zoe is always ready to focus and make a plan for success, and Everly is overflowing with excitement and a love for self-expression. And Mariana, our protagonist, leans into her shy and quiet instincts to empathize and make space for other people’s emotions (a skill of introverts that I don’t think many people acknowledge). The chibi art style (reminiscent of Just Roll with It) and visual gags throughout the story add plenty of punch and giddiness to the girls’ exploits.
The publisher compares The Do-Over to Kayla Miller’s Click series, and I think one major similarity is how exciting it is to watch the girls create their own salon, in the same way it’s exciting to watch Olive make a short film in Crunch. The specifics of how the salon is decorated and marketed, and how the hairstyles are designed and executed, are surprisingly rich and totally fun. The girls come together to make a supportive, inviting space for each client, and watching their energy makes me want to go do some giant project myself!
Circling back to Mariana’s shyness, as a Socially Anxious Mess™, I related deeply to Mariana’s struggles with seeing people she wants to get to know, but having trouble taking that first step of saying literally anything at all to them. I also felt the book gets at something profound about how being our authentic selves and letting our interests and uniqueness shine is easier said than done.
And as the icing on the cake, Mariana’s wonderful family gets plenty of attention too. There’s tension between Mariana and her father and fellow hairstylist Carlos, but it never overshadows their loving relationship, full of jokes and empathy. And Mariana’s abuela and tÃo VÃctor, who own a restaurant together, are the sweetest too. (I hope we see more of them in the sequel!) Also, I said Mariana’s family is the icing on the cake, and there is literal cake (or panetón) in the story, which makes me so hungry. I love the diverse cast and inclusion of Spanish dialogue in the book too.
One last thing—grief actually works its way into The Do-Over too, but not in the usual suffocating MG book style. Here, grief is a detail that influences characters’ experiences but doesn’t take over their lives or suck the joy out of the story. And with all the compassion and love that these characters radiate toward one another, it’s easy to see how Mariana and her circle can navigate even these most challenging of human emotions.
