Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Ever since I read Raina Telgemeier's Drama, I was enamored by her illustrations. I loved Drama. I read Smile next and loved that too. Then I read her Baby Sitter's Club graphic novels (even though I hadn't read the original books nor wanted to) and I loved those too. Then I sat waiting for her Sisters to come. I had the book penciled in my calendar against its release date and I just had to wait patiently, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the book to to get released. But when I saw it listed on NetGalley, I had to request it right away.

Sisters is being advertised as a sequel to Smile, but you don't have to read Smile to be able to follow Sisters. Since I had already read Smile, Sisters was like a return to a family I enjoyed reading about so much. When Raina was fourteen and her sister, Amara, nine, they go on a road trip along with their six year old brother, Will, and their mother, from California to Colorado. Their road trip turns out to be as eventful as you would expect it to be with three restless kids in the car, two of whom, Raina and Amara, have something to fight about every five minutes. But when they arrive at Colorado, after about a week, their cousins aren't exactly the playmates they hoped to meet.

There is a lot to love in Sisters. For one, the sibling rivalry is something almost anyone will relate to. All that meaningless bickering, the apparent disregard for one another's feelings, the desire to win any argument, and the secret wish to feel accepted by the other is both humorous and endearing to read about. Raina is at an age where makeup and looks are a big deal. Amara is at an age where all that pretty business is a bucket load of crap. They obviously don't see eye to eye.

The narration of the road trip is interspersed with a lot of flashback, starting with toddler Raina's deepest wish to have a baby sister only to be very disappointed by how long it would take the baby Amara to be old enough to play with her and how often the baby bawled. Anti-climax. These flashbacks were quite adorable to read - they did get along a lot better when they were very little, only to have sporadic fights now and then, and later full-blown arguments over everything.

If you haven't read any of Telgemeier's books, you are missing a whole lot. Even newbie comic book readers will enjoy the clear beautiful art, the humor lacing the book, and the sibling wars. Sisters releases on August 26th in the US, but if you don't have your hands on this book yet, there's Smile and Drama to fall in love with.

I received this book for free for review from the publisher, Scholastic Graphix, via NetGalley. Sisters by Raina Telgemeier releases in the US on August 26th.