Girl Stories
written and illustrated by Lauren R. Weinstein, 2006. New York: Henry Holt and Company. (0805078630).
Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.girlstoriescomics.com/home.html
Media: pen and ink with digital color
Awards and Honors: Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library; CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI)
Annotation: A collection of short semi-autobiographical comics about the awkwardness (and occasional hilarity) of the adolescence experience.
Personal Reaction:
I read Girl Stories immediately after reading Craig Thompson's acclaimed graphic novel, Blankets and I can't help but compare the two. While I appreciated the "heart on its sleeve" sincerity of Blankets, the extreme sentimentality of Thompson's memoir was overbearing at times. Girl Stories relates the experience of growing up as an outsider with tongue-in-cheek, dark humor. To be sure, Girl Stories is not the arching 600-page bildungsroman that is Blankets. While Thompson writes from a place not too far removed emotionally from the events depicted in his story, Weinstein uses the perspective gained from time to weave ridiculously entertaining tales of experiences that probably weren't at all funny at the time. From embarassing parents, to awkward school dances and first dates, Girl Stories relates the mortifying experiences of adolescence with a wittiness that's hard to dislike- I found myself laughing out loud at many of the vignettes.
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