MMGM and #IMWAYR: Lucy in the Sky, Best Friends, and more!

Hey y'all! I'm exhausted at this very moment on Saturday, but that doesn't mean I can't format a post of two great MG graphic novels for you. Let's dive in!

Middle Grade

Lucy in the Sky

Written by Kiara Brinkman and illustrated by Sean Chiki (they're a couple!)

Graphic novel · 2021

Recommended by Karen Yingling

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· · · The publisher says: · · ·

It’s the first day of seventh grade, and everything is going downhill for Lucy Sutcliffe. At school, she has the feeling her friends are all leaving her behind. At home, her single father is in a rut, and her perpetually traveling photojournalist mother is more absent than ever. Worst of all, Lucy’s grandmother is undergoing chemotherapy and is no longer the warm, vibrant presence that her family has come to depend on.

But everything changes the day Lucy discovers a box of her father’s Beatles records. Inspired by their music, she gets a drum set and forms an all-girl rock band with her friends. But can she keep the band together when petty rivalries, unrequited crushes, and outside pressures threaten to tear it apart?

· · · · · ·

So here's a story. A few weeks ago, this book was sitting in one of several bags of books to donate. I was overwhelmed by all the books I had yet to read, and even though my attitude is usually to read all the graphic novels because they're not too long, I decided some just weren't going to be my thing.

Then I found myself worrying about all the books I might have put in those bags that would actually be good if I gave them a shot. When I created a mental image of those books, it was basically Lucy in the Sky and...well...that's it.

So I went back through the bags and pulled out, like, 3 books, including this one—the other 37-odd books are still set to be donated.

And thank gosh I did, because this ended up being one of my favorite graphic novels ever. Ever! It was love by page 50.

I'm genuinely tempted to make comparisons to Goodbye Stranger (my favorite book) here, both because they actually do tackle some similar topics in similar ways, and because they both brought me the same sense of warmth and safety that tends to turn a book into a favorite.

One topic both of these books have in common is exploring how friend groups evolve as the people within them evolve, during the time of rapid development that is middle school. Our protagonist, Lucy, is balancing longtime friendships with Vanessa and Rupa with a budding new friendship with Georgianna—and these friendships don't all fit together as neatly as the perfectly posed picture on the book cover might indicate.

Vanessa embodies the old friend who Lucy might be growing apart from—their interests and concerns have diverged (like when it comes to crushes and romance), even as the degree to which these girls know each other is revealed. Meanwhile, Georgianna is the new friend who meets Lucy where she's at (the two girls bond quickly over music), but there's that implicit understanding that she doesn't know Lucy as well as the other girls. It's a situation with potential for both meaningful connections and chaos, as Vanessa and Georgianna embody the opposing ideas of "I've known Lucy" and "I get Lucy."

And as for Rupa? She ends up stuck in the middle of the chaos, and her ability to stay clearheaded makes her a favorite character of mine.

Something I want to comment on too is how this book forces readers to have compassion not just for Lucy, but for her friends too. Georgianna and Rupa deal with opposite but still equally frustrating parents that don't make things any easier for them. And although I wished for a slightly more explicit fair shake for Vanessa too, it's still quite clear in the story how Vanessa's stress about boys and dating—which might be easy to label as frivolous—is really just another kind of growing up, with its own challenges and intensity.

So that's friendship. (And no, I haven't talked about the band—we'll get to that, sort of.) Another way in which this book reminds me of Goodbye Stranger is its emphasis on family. And gosh, if you think the friendship dynamics sound pretty rich here, just get a load of the family dynamics. Lucy's dad, Daniel, is a loving single father who is consistent about being there for his daughter—whether that means taking her to the park so she can feed the ducks, bonding with her over the Beatles, or helping her face the challenges of growing up. (Daniel is the absolute best, for the record.)

The duo is in close contact with Cookie, Lucy's mom's mother (and yes, Daniel's ex-mother-in-law)—she is a spirited woman who Lucy loves to pieces and whose energy lets her bake like a fiend, impart wisdom about her family, and even get up and dance, all despite undergoing treatment for cancer (yeah...it can't all be fun).

And then there's Isabel, Lucy's mom and Cookie's daughter, who works hard to be close to Lucy but always keeps (physical) distance—she's a photographer who travels the world shooting different locations for magazines.

Every one of these characters is both precious and flawed, and there is so much richness in the challenges that they face. At one point, we see Daniel struggling under the weight of maintaining a co-parenting relationship with the woman he once loved, and obviously shares a lot of history with. And Isabel is so complex—it's tempting to say she's a bad mother for traveling the world and leaving her daughter behind, but when you imagine Lucy being shuttled between homes to see a mother always wishing for more, one starts to wonder if there are advantages to the dynamic they've built. (Of course, what Lucy thinks of the situation is also another matter.)

What I love most about the family dynamics in Lucy in the Sky is how Lucy doesn't act in obvious ways. She's unafraid to call her grandmother her best friend, and for better or worse, her feelings about how her mom shows up in her life aren't raw anymore—the idea of her dad dating someone new doesn't scare her in the ways it scares other MG protagonists. This book doesn't chart the same ground as other MG stories, and I love that about it.

Lucy herself reminds me of the protagonist of Goodbye Stranger, Bridge, in a surprising number of ways. In both books, while the other characters in the story might be summarized in a few adjectives or sentences, the protagonists are harder to define, because they defy definition. Like Bridge, Lucy embodies every adjective and every aspect of human experience—other characters can be described in relation to her, but she herself is expansive. Also like Bridge, Lucy is quietly fierce—she loves what she loves, does what she wants, and is generally unafraid of judgment from the world. Rooting for Lucy is the easiest thing in the world, let me tell you.

This story feels so real, for so many reasons. It's uncommonly deep for an MG graphic novel, especially one clocking in at just 288 pages. Eavesdropping on the characters' dialogue is genuinely a pleasure—you learn things you didn't know before, laugh at the banter, and feel what the characters are feeling. (Seriously, now I want to go back and revoke my dialogue praise from other books.) Also like in Goodbye Stranger, the characters never behave to make a point to the reader—rather than understanding themes immediately, Lucy has to process them, learning them at one point and acting on them much later. The characters are also unafraid to change—Lucy can be in favor of something on one page, and mad about it the next, not because she's being ridiculous but because that's how human emotions work. Above all else, this story reminds me of Goodbye Stranger in its willingness to meander, to luxuriate in the moments of everyday life rather than racing to a pre-planned conclusion.

Oh, and it also helps that the art is phenomenal—the page layouts alone (like the overhead shot of school lunch, or the woozily-shaped panels during a scene of strange emotions) could be the topic of a whole blog post, or more.

I want to conclude this review by tackling music—a constant and essential throughline of this story. I think what ultimately stands out to me, watching Lucy grow to love the Beatles and draw inspiration from them in crafting her four-kid band, is how music serves as a means for these characters to try on different ways of being, to test out emotions and mindsets like someone tries on clothes before finding the truly authentic outfit. And also, music serves as a window through which Lucy can observe other human relationships—like those of the Beatles themselves—and understand that she isn't alone in trying to find meaning in the mess of friendship, family, and love.

This book actually reminds me of another graphic novel too, Operatic, in its use of music specifically as a means of cracking open the box of MG life and getting to an essential truth: the process of growing up is itself beautiful.

For what could be more beautiful than pushing through the weeds and finding...yourself?

Best Friends

Written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Graphic novel · 2019

Series recommended by Sue Jackson, Aaron Cleaveley, and Linda Browne

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· · · The publisher says: · · ·

Follow your heart. Find your people.

Sixth grade is supposed to be perfect. Shannon’s got a sure spot in the in-crowd called The Group, and her best friend is their leader, Jen, the most popular girl in school. 

But the rules are always changing, and Shannon has to scramble to keep up. She never knows which TV shows are cool, what songs to listen to, and who she’s allowed to talk to. Who makes these rules, anyway? And does Shannon have to follow them?

· · · · · ·

I loved this just as much as Real Friends, and I suspect I will love it just as much as book three in this graphic memoir trilogy, Friends Forever! I'm not going to repeat all my praise about Real Friends, but I will share some additional thoughts on this book specifically.

FYI, this review doesn't spoil Real Friends, except for one paragraph that I've tagged below so you can skip it.

I think it's so powerful how Shannon Hale is willing to openly acknowledge the mistakes she made as a child—mistakes ranging from inaction, to unintentionally hurting someone, to even intentionally hurting someone. I can't imagine it's easy to say on a public scale, "These are the things I've done wrong," but I can imagine it will be so cathartic for young readers to know that they aren't the only people who have regrets or get things wrong.

And child Shannon doesn't get everything wrong, I'm happy to report—in fact, Best Friends is just as full of the excitement (and trepidation, to be sure, but also excitement) of making big, brave choices that ultimately pay off for our protagonist/author.

This book also includes a more thorough look at Shannon's experience with anxiety and OCD, which is briefly examined in book 1. As someone with anxiety and OCD myself, pretty much every moment hit home for me—especially one moment, tying things back to two paragraphs ago, when child Shannon beats herself up over past mistakes she's made. Navigating middle school is hard enough, and doing it while juggling intense fears and self-criticism only makes it harder.

Like in Real Friends, interspersed within this book are sequences based on real stories Shannon wrote as a child. And there are two things I love about these, one being that they brilliantly parallel the questions and struggles on child Shannon's mind—it's clear that she used these stories as a way of processing her experiences as a kid and finding hope in the process. And the other thing I love is how her stories are treated with so much respect—these are actual words Shannon Hale wrote in sixth grade, not shoved in a box or deemed childish, but instead brought to life with beautiful art by illustrator LeUyen Pham.

*Slight spoilers in this paragraph only* I did also love the chance to see further into the mind of Jenny, one of the girls at school who Shannon has always had a contentious relationship with. A couple of scenes hint at how Jenny isn't cruel for cruelty's sake—she's cruel because it's the only way she's learned for processing the pain of childhood. *End of slight spoilers*

I did also want to call out this book's keen exploration of sexism and how it affected Shannon's ability to envision her adult life. We see pressures ranging from TV shows to the old, dead men taught in literature classes, and these pressures try to tell Shannon that she needs to make herself presentable to boys and ignore her own dreams. There's also one particular scene that, in the context of our world, is a frightening but oh-so-real look at how boys grow up to become men who won't take "no" for an answer.

I feel like I'm making Best Friends sound sad, and indeed, this book has a keen understanding of the struggles that make us all too anxious to escape childhood. But Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham have crafted this book with a gentle touch and deep respect for their young readers. Ultimately, child Shannon is able to keep going because of hope—hope that as she gets older, things will get easier, and she'll meet her true friends. Thinking back to my own childhood—where hope sustained me through the pain, and I eventually made meaningful friendships and grew into my authentic self—I can confirm that sometimes, hanging in there really does work.

And I think Best Friends will help so many young readers hang in there, and find happiness in the end.

Bookish thoughts:

I think (unless I recklessly change plans) that I'm going to embark on a big Raina Telgemeier re-read of Smile, Sisters, Guts, Drama, and Ghosts. It's been so long since I've read any of her books, and I'd love to look at them with a slightly more careful lens than I did upon first reading. (Plus, Ghosts is literally so good and I miss it...)

If you could go re-read any book or author right now (which you can, just saying 😉), who would you pick?

That's all, y'all—happy reading! ✨✨