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susannah1215's review
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Lovely art. Separation from mom/ Moscow is the most poignant part, but moat is actually about friend rejection rather than the unique circumstances of Dasha's life. Story a little more simplistic than what I perhaps hoped for.
jwinchell's review
3.0
This art is stunning--I could look at full page spreads of Dasha's self-portraits all day. And her depictions of cities and streets and living rooms and classrooms--complex and sparse and controlled and warm in places. The story is also good: Dasha's loneliness and angsty tween-ness comes through with earnestness and truth. But the part that was missing for me was context--an explanatory comma, if you will--about a more macro picture of what it meant to grow up in Moscow in the 90s. Without an informational note about the coup of Gorbachev or how emigration was a draw or why Yeltsin was so celebrated. Maybe my desire for this shows how much of an outsider I am, and maybe that's ok. But I've been thinking about the "explanatory comma" after listening to a great Code Switch episode, and here I think it would have helped draw a wider audience and promote greater understanding--even if it is annoying or tedious for the storyteller to do. But maybe my tween readers will connect to it nonetheless.
sducharme's review
4.0
I loved the style of this graphic memoir - less "comic" and more illustrated. It's a bit more text heavy than most, but still a fast read. The character, Dasha, gives a chronological account of the year when her mother moves to the US for work and leaves her behind with the grandparents. We get a comprehensive look at her life: school, friends, crushes, worries. The tones are dark but she always has spots of pink on her cheeks - sometimes a dark blush, sometimes just a hint of color - which makes her seem full of life and "real" amid a Soviet-era grey setting.
I bought this for our school library and was hoping it would give a picture of life during that time period, but it's really more about her personal adolescent experience which (kind of) could have been set anywhere.
I bought this for our school library and was hoping it would give a picture of life during that time period, but it's really more about her personal adolescent experience which (kind of) could have been set anywhere.
knbee's review
3.0
Oh, these illustrations! They are absolutely why I picked up the book in the first place. So adorable. The story itself is interesting- girl coming of age in early 90's Moscow while her mom studies in the U.S.- though I would not say that the writing is superb. But oh, these illustrations!
molly_dettmann's review
2.0
Super boring. Nothing really happens. And it's totally a picture book, not a graphic novel.
brenda8's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
4.0
Sometimes it's hard to understand about how life continues and changes when major historical events are happening in a region or country. This book helps to see that even in the middle of confusion and chaos, people still try to find sense and continue with their lives. But missing loved one will always be the hardest part.