Be Prepared

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.