SHIRLEY & JAMILA SAVE THEIR SUMMER

When Jamila Waheed meets fellow 10-year-old Shirley Bones at a garage sale, she’s hopeful she’s made her first neighborhood friend.

Shirley’s mother is sending her to camp for the summer, against her will. When Jamila confesses that she’s in the same situation, Shirley, who’s a bit of an oddball, says that she’ll convince her mother to convince Jamila’s mother to let them skip camp and spend time together instead. Jamila is skeptical, but Shirley comes through, and before long, the two girls are spending their days together on the nearby basketball court. But instead of practicing, like Jamila, Shirley makes it her home base for doing detective work. When Jamila joins Shirley, the two begin to forge a true friendship—one that their latest case puts to the test. This fast-paced graphic novel set in Canada features a diverse cast of characters featured in drawings teeming with movement, detail, and life. Jamila is a brown-skinned Muslim girl, and Shirley is white. Goerz is a master of character development, making no one into a villain and no one into a saint and giving each a fascinating role to play. While Jamila and Shirley’s friendship is the highlight, it’s only one of many deeply satisfactory layers of storytelling.

An action-packed graphic novel about finding—and forgiving—our closest friends.