Instructive and visually adorable.
Kiki is an ordinary teen who enjoys making art and spending time with her closest friends, Joyce and Imani.
She’s curious, enthusiastic, and caring—but she also struggles with aspects of her daily life, like completing tasks, remembering things, managing time, summoning motivation, and regulating her emotions. A web search for her symptoms leads her to wonder whether she has ADHD. The idea is new and intimidating, but it could finally help Kiki reframe her life and question what normal really means. In addition to anecdotes that demonstrate how the problems her ADHD causes affect Kiki’s relationships, schoolwork, and happiness, German debut author Varnel, who initially explored her own ADHD struggles through her “ADHD Alien” webcomic, uses creative analogies and imagery to break down Kiki’s symptoms. For example, Kiki’s uncontrollable emotions are visualized as adorable little cats that rapidly grow too large, and her time blindness manifests as a landscape of broken clocks. These creative ways of presenting neurodivergence, as well as art that leans deeply into candy colors and hyperstylized cuteness, are endearing. Kiki and her friends communicate in contrived ways to make informative points about living with ADHD and supporting a friend who has it, and the book is most valuable for the newly diagnosed and those who care about them. Kiki and Joyce present white, and Kiki has tiny antennae. Imani reads Black.
Instructive and visually adorable. (coping strategies, resources and further reading) (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780593325551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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