When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement. Both Emmie and Kate appear to be white, but school scenes reveal multiethnic classmates.Ĭlassic middle school themes come alive, but they fail to really go anywhere However, the repetition of Emmie’s description as quiet, shy, and disenfranchised becomes as grating as a nasal whine. Though readers may be puzzled by the device initially, Libenson’s rationale for the dual portrayals becomes clear in the end.
#INVISIBLE EMMIE REVIEWS FULL#
An artist using her doodles to illustrate the seventh-grade world, Emmie sees herself as someone with no voice, while the enigmatic, charismatic Kate is full of confidence and determined to push Emmie out of her comfort zone. Libenson uses two different illustration styles to distinguish between Emmie, the soft-spoken wallflower, and Kate, the outgoing girl of fabulousness. Emmie is a painfully shy girl who is forced to see and be seen one fateful day when a playful game with best friend Brianna turns into a nightmare. With doodle-illustrated prose chapters depicting Emmie’s world and entire comics-style sections depicting the popular Kate, Libenson takes readers inside the halls of middle school with the same nod to weirdness and eye-rolling angst as such format standards as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries. However, even end-of-the-world–level heartache can have surprising and comic consequences.Įmmie’s story is part of the growing subgenre that hybridizes the middle-grade and graphic novel.
#INVISIBLE EMMIE REVIEWS HOW TO#
It's a quick and easy read for parents, too, looking for help starting a conversation with their kids about how to stay close as their teens grow older.One bad day in seventh grade can feel like a lifetime. The references to "dirty magazines" and French kissing in Izzy's storyline are distractingly out of step with the tone of the overall book, unfortunately. She uses small glances, a few words, or a giggle to speak volumes about her characters' loneliness, irritation, hopes, and inner conflict.Īs she did in Invisible Emmie (Emmie plays a role in this story as well), Libenson unspools each girl's story on parallel tracks but with different styles: comic-style panels for Bri, and short text with plentiful illustrations for Izzy.
Libenson (creator of The Pajama Diaries strip) has a great feel for how middle school can turn relationships inside-out and upside-down in bewildering ways. In her second graphic novel, cartoonist Terri Libenson takes a fairly light plot and creates a thoughtful story about an emotionally turbulent - and important - day for two young teen girls. I don't need an author to plant these subjects in their "youth" book and make these important issues sound so nonchalant. I want to control the messaging and context when it comes to conversations with my children about porn and drugs. I'm not interested in my child checking out this author's books from the library. 2) Izzy references her a conversation between her mom and aunt reminiscing and laughing about "when I told you I slipped a xanax in Mom's oatmeal and you believed me". 1) Izzy references her older sister sneaking out of the house to visit a friend that Izzy's mom doesn't approve of and "they sneak-read her dad's dirty magazines in the bathroom".
There are two other items included in the book that I do not feel are appropriate for my children who are currently 10 and 11 years old.
No big deal but then it piqued my interest and I decided to read the whole book. I had to explain to my child what an "affair" is based on a reference that Izzy made at the beginning of the book. My 10 year old daughter checked this book out at the school library.
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