Be Prepared

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.