MEND

Fourteen-year-old Recca details her experience of her parents’ divorce through a graphic medium.

Growing up middle class in Las Vegas, brown-haired Sophia had what looked like the perfect family. However, when she was 8, after loud and violent fights, her parents made an announcement of their imminent divorce. Sophia was heartbroken and candidly portrays her feelings both through her own words and illustrations by Kim and Leach (Click, 2018, etc.). Earlier praise from a teacher for her caring nature guides Sophia to patch her parents’ fractured relationship, and the outcome is exceptional: Her mother and father seemingly put their issues behind them and focus on successful co-parenting. Although the portrayal is authentically voiced, Sophia’s circumstance is unusual; not all young readers will be able to bridge the dissolution of their parents’ relationship so easily, potentially giving them false hope. The full-color art has moments of idiosyncrasy, with Sophia drawn to look disturbingly mature in close-up shots. Other panels show Sophia literally bisected by a line; even younger readers will be able to glean meaning from this. There is a quiet but continuous undercurrent of Christian faith throughout. Like Sophia’s family, nearly all persons depicted are white; the few scenes with any persons of color exist only in what appears to be a social services office.

Perhaps not for everyone but an honest exploration of a personal subject.