*Chiggers — Recommended
- Posted by Johanna on April 6, 2008 at 11:27 am
- Category: Graphic Novel Reviews
- CREDITS: by Hope Larson
- PUBLISHER: Simon and Schuster; $9.99 US
Hope Larson tells the story of a girl’s stay at summer camp. Abby has been looking forward to returning and catching up with friends from the previous year. One of her friends promised they’d hang out together all the time, but she’s been made a Camp Assistant, and her duties leave her busier than expected. Another girl goes home early, infected with the bugs of the title. Then there’s Shasta, the new girl. She and Abby have lots of interests in common, but the other girls ostracize her. Abby’s torn between someone she likes and fitting in with the group.
The girls are all growing up at different rates, and Abby’s feeling left out because she’s not worried about whether boys are looking at her or giggling over rock band singers. (Yet older girls enjoy talking with her because she hasn’t yet discovered artifice and pretension.) All of the moments are realistic, with believable dialogue and an ear for how teens sound and feel. The girls’ behavior ranges from tentative outreach to dirty tricks, capturing a wide range of interactions.
Larson’s smoothly flowing style has been compared to “visual poetry”, and that lyrical feel continues here. Very few items (besides the panel borders and the bunk beds) are drawn with straight lines; everything’s wavy, which gives the book a natural feel suitable to the story setting, especially in scenes set outdoors. Her rain storms are palpable.
Larson makes the most of the comic medium by including symbolic panels — girls gossiping together are shown growing thorny vines out of their mouths, for example, or itchy scratching fills a panel to show how annoying the sound is to the listener. It’s beautiful visual thinking that reaches the reader emotionally.
There are a couple of fun extras included naturally in the story: how to play a card game and how to make a friendship bracelet. (You knot colored thread to make a braided band, which you tie around your wrist. You never take it off, until it falls off, and then you get to make a wish. I remember doing this in school, so I was thrilled to be reminded of the details.) Chiggers combines the best of Larson’s previous books — from Gray Horses, discovering friendship in a new place, and from Salamander Dream, growing up in a natural setting.
A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.
April 7, 2008 at 10:52 AM
This looks delightful!
June 19, 2008 at 7:04 AM
[...] (Simon & Schuster) — I loved it! Hope Larson’s best yet! And I love that the publisher knows their audience, putting out a hardcover (for the [...]
June 25, 2008 at 10:43 PM
[...] I put Liz Prince’s Delayed Replays over top of that part of the cover. I picked up the Chiggers hardcover from Hope Larson. Because it’s covered in paper, instead of sketching inside the [...]
September 25, 2008 at 1:12 PM
[...] Larson, author of Chiggers, has some insightful statements, including how her life might have been different if her pitch to [...]
November 9, 2009 at 11:56 PM
[...] and Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes) and featuring short comic inserts by Hope Larson (Chiggers) and Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim). That’s my favorite part of going to the [...]
December 2, 2009 at 9:58 AM
[...] Chiggers [...]
April 13, 2010 at 4:03 PM
[...] than the one before, from Salamander Dream (2005) to Gray Horses (2006) to 2008’s Chiggers and now Mercury. [...]
May 19, 2010 at 6:34 PM
[...] do you find out what girls want in comics? Try asking them! Author Hope Larson (Mercury, Chiggers) conducted an informal survey among her LiveJournal and Twitter followers, asking almost 200 girls [...]
July 25, 2010 at 6:25 AM
[...] about summer camp have been popular for years in comics, perhaps to distract kids being sent off or to show those at [...]
August 3, 2010 at 1:06 PM
this is an awesome book
January 6, 2012 at 10:33 AM
gr8 book i love Hope Larson. Abby Life is gr8 @ camp. Rose is a camp leader assistant. The new girl @ camp Shasta got struck by lighting and everybody hates her and calls her BS. Abbys 2 only real friends are Rose And Shasta. She likes Teal. SOME CUSS WORDS IN THIS BOOK BUT NOT THAT MANY
January 31, 2012 at 5:33 PM
I was very dismayed when I purchased this title for the elementary school library. It was publicised as being a second-grade level reading book. There is a lot of inappropriate language and questionable scenarios. I think it is irrespsonbile for Bound-to-Stay-Bound books to market this book for children.