Praise for Guts:
#1 USA Today Bestseller
#1 New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Best Comic of 2019
New York Times Best Children's Book of 2019
Washington Post Best Graphic Novel of the Year
Forbes Best Graphic Novel of 2019, Honorable Mention
NPR Best Book/Book Concierge
TIME Best Book of the Year
Amazon Top 20 Children's Book of 2019
Today.com Best Kids' Book of 2019
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
School Library Journal Best Graphic Novel of the Year
A 2020 CBC Children’s & Teen Choice Book Award Winner
* "The story both normalizes therapy and shows a child developing useful coping mechanisms for anxiety in a way that will reassure, even inspire, readers." Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "A must." School Library Journal, starred review
"A compassionate and accessible look at one girl's struggles with anxiety." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Praise for Smile:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Winner
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book
"Irresistible, funny, and touching." Kirkus Reviews
"One of the most widely loved kids' graphic novels in recent history." Booklist
"It hits home partly because there is nothing else out there like it." The New York Times Book Review
Praise for Sisters:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Winner
* "A wonderfully charming tale of family and sisters that anyone can bond with." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* "Poignant and laugh-out-loud funny." Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "Utterly relatable for anyone with siblings." School Library Journal, starred review
Praise for Drama:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
An ALA Stonewall Honor Book
* "Telgemeier is prodigiously talented at telling cheerful stories with realistic portrayals of middle-school characters." Booklist, starred review
* "Pitch-perfect." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* "Another dead-on look at the confusing world of middle school." Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "An entertaining and enlightening read." School Library Journal, starred review
Praise for Ghosts:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
* "Telgemeier has her finger on the pulse of middle-grade readers, and this might be her best yet." Booklist, starred review
* "Superior visual storytelling." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* "Telgemeier nudges readers toward the edge of their comfort zone, but she never leaves them alone there." Publishers Weekly, starred review
2019-05-12
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 cheer 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)