Be Prepared
Ratings34
Average rating3.9
Wow, Ashley really likes a book about a coming of age story that is set at a summer camp...WHAT A SURPRISE! If you couldn't tell from my previous reviews some kid getting to learn more about themselves in the summer is my jam!
Anyway, this book is based on the experiences of Vera Brosogol when they were young. Be sure to read the authors notes at the very end. I was impressed that she took so much time to accurately describe her experiences and talk to other people who also were a part of it. She also took the time to visit the camp again to make sketches. Memories change over time, it's good to admit that and make a good story out of it too connect with the reader.
The illustrations are cute and expressive, obviously there was a lot of care put into this entire book. I really enjoy the whole roller coaster of emotions, really reflects childhood search for self and friends. I could really connect with this book, especially the parts with angst, trying to make friends, and being lonely.
I also love the humor in this book. My favorite is when she was at the birthday party and gifted a beautiful card and her ‘friend' who tossed it in the trash. She opened the next gift, ecstatic that is was a chamber pot accessory for her doll! Has some fun bits like that and subtle expressions or non-verbal ques that add to this read.
I highly recommend! ~Ashley
As someone who had both awful and amazing summer camp experiences, I could very much relate to Vera - her excitement, her disappointment, her eventual resetting of expectations. Love the art style!
A cute story about how summer camp kind of sucks, which jibes with my experiences. I'm unimpressed by the artwork; the limited color palette was a weird choice.
Irrelevant side note: given this is autobiographical, the idea of a military-themed summer camp for children of Russian descent in the US is unsettling and good fodder for a conspiracy story about long-term infiltration.
This was such a great story. I relate to the main character there are few things more miserable than being alone in a crowd.
Well written story about the perils of summer camp and friendship for an upper elementary/ middle school audience. Liked the inner look at Russian Orthodoxy and how true to the time the characters were - like the social hierarchy of owning American Girl dolls! I was a kid who dreamed of the summer camps I read about/saw on TV but never got to go, so would have loved this book as a young kid.
I love autobiographical comics, even the slightly embellished ones. I guess especially the slightly embellished ones, since, as Vera Brosgol puts in in the author's notes, “Days go by when nothing interesting happens. then too much happens, but to the wrong people.” The book, however, is still full of actual events and experiences, and the author also notes that the emotions are definitely real.
As a Russian-Lithuanian, I found this book very relatable. Even though Lithuanians are culturally much closer to Russians than Americans, I still had my share of feeling like an alien in my own country.
I was very surprised that Vera spoke English at home. Her brother, as far as I understood, has never even seen Russia, so how come they both knew how to speak the language if the used English? Maybe that was just done in the comics for simplicity, but all the Russian dialogues were written with the angular brackets < >. But then, she wasn't the only one. At the Russian camp, all the kids and teens interacted in English and only used Russian to talk to their superiors.
The story itself is very engaging. The reader immediately empathises with little Vera and she grows a lot as a character. Despite the difficulties she faces, Vera is inventive, so she finds a way to adapt. At the same time, you do realize she's still 10, and some hardships are too much :( However, sad emotions are nicely mixed with happy ones, and Vera meets different people with different attitudes. I also enjoyed the art a lot.
On the other hand, I kinda feel like the times the bullied Vera would become a bully herself were not addressed that well. Sure, they rarely are in life, but I thought it could be something worth embellishing a bit.
I LOVE summer camp and summer camp stories, even stories about a girl who does NOT like summer camp. Which, to be fair, Vera's summer camp sounds pretty brutal. I love the honesty in this memoir(ish) graphic novel–in another book we'd see Vera learning a lesson and befriending the girl who liked her art, but Vera never quite gave up on wanting acceptance from the older, popular girls, and there's something to that. This is funny and cringey and intensely relatable.
Also the art is SO good and expressive, I loved it. And I died at the knockoff American Girl doll named “Complicity”.
Naturally I'm going to say it's a good readalike for Raina Telgemeier fans. It's also a great match for the raw ambiguity of Shannon Hale's graphic memoir Real Friends.
I've loved Vera Brosgol's word since Leave Me Alone. This is a memoir/graphic novel of four weeks she spent at camp. It is, by turns, hilarious and heartbreakingly realistic. LOVED IT!