Booklist Reviews
After a particularly bad bout of the flu in fourth grade, Raina keeps having stomach aches and intense feelings about food and germs. The thought of being near a sick person sends her into a panic, and conflicts among her friends at school and embarrassment about bodily functions in general certainly don't help matters. In this third graphic memoir, Telgemeier describes her childhood anxiety in an approachable, nonjudgmental way and emphasizes how useful talk therapy can be. Her depiction of her spiraling anxious thoughts, often in noxious greens and crowded by negative self-talk in bulky fonts, nicely show both how isolating anxiety can feel and how physical it can be. Telgemeier's particular talent for rendering evocative facial expressions with only a few carefully placed marks makes the pain, worry, and panic in Raina's face and body language unmistakable. As in Smile (2009) and Sisters (2014), Telgemeier gets to the heart of middle-school experiences, from the playground jokes to the minefield of shifting friendships, and the many, many fans of her work will be enchanted by this as well.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Telgemeier is a force unto herself in kids graphic novels. Trust me, this will have a lengthy wait list. Grades 3-6. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Horn Book Guide Reviews
Color by Braden Lamb. In this graphic memoir chronicling her fourth-grade year, Telgemeier (Smile; Sisters) sensitively captures the traumas of anxiety. A stomach bug ushers in a fear of vomiting; as her phobia worsens, she starts missing school, limiting foods, and engaging in compulsive behaviors. Telgemeier expertly uses scale and perspective to animate the terror of panic attacks. She also addresses the insecurities of tween female friendships, the stigma of therapy, and the onset of puberty. Copyright 2021 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
Horn Book Magazine Reviews
In this graphic memoir chronicling her fourth-grade year, Telgemeier (Smile; Sisters, rev. 11/14) shares her childhood experiences with anxiety. A bout with a stomach bug ushers in emetophobia (fear of vomiting), leaving young Raina trembling and plagued by digestion issues during moments of insecurity, as when making a class presentation. As her phobia worsens, she starts missing school, limiting what she eats, and engaging in compulsive behaviors to self-soothe and manage her loss of self-control. Her parents take her to a therapist, who guides her in coping with her phobia and panic attacks. Sensitively capturing the traumas of anxiety ("Can you be sick even if you're not sick? Can you be healthy even if you hurt?" Raina wonders), Telgemeier also addresses the insecurities of tween female friendships, the stigma of therapy, and the onset of puberty. She expertly uses scale and perspective to animate the terror of panic attacks; in one bile-colored spread, Raina falls through the very floor tiles, gasping and screaming. There's a fair amount of bodily-function humor—the book's last panel features a big "FARRRRRT!"—but it's never at the expense of the book's serious subject matter. In a closing note, Telgemeier recommends that readers experiencing anxiety talk to a trusted adult and acknowledges that her own anxiety is ongoing but manageable, "just part of who I am." julie Danielson September/October p.120 Copyright 2019 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick. Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina's mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn't sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina's nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious "what if"s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from chee r to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American. With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
With disarming candor and in her now instantly recognizable panel artwork, Eisner Award–winner Telgemeier weaves a tangle of personal preadolescent traumas into another compelling graphic memoir. A bout of stomach flu and some unpleasant encounters with food create in young Raina's mind a swirling miasma of fear that she'll throw up. This anxiety blights her school days (she freezes during a class presentation with her best friend and lashes out at a bullying schoolmate) and extends into fears about sickness and schoolwork, and frustrations with her raucous household. Telgemeier frames the girl's panic attacks accessibly as sickly circles of green crowded with big, blocky words ("pain drowning choking death bad at math"). Raina's parents take her to see therapist Lauren, who helps her to ground her fears and gain enough emotional strength to reconcile herself to changing friend dynamics, and an IBS diagnosis clarifies the way that mind and body can intertwine. Moments of middle school drama are portrayed with credibility, and the story both normalizes therapy and shows a child developing useful coping mechanisms for anxiety in a way that will reassure, even inspire, readers. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.School Library Journal Reviews