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136 reviews for:
Cici's Journal: The Adventures of a Writer-In-Training
Aurélie Neyret, Joris Chamblain
3.94 AVERAGE
136 reviews for:
Cici's Journal: The Adventures of a Writer-In-Training
Aurélie Neyret, Joris Chamblain
3.94 AVERAGE
I heard about this book from an author I follow an twitter, and found a used copy at Powell's. I'm so glad I did, as it is absolutely lovely! The book actually includes the first two parts, and each part is a different story and investigation by Cici. Both were cute and quite touching, and provided some good lessons along the way - and the artwork was perfect for the stories. So happy I got this, and can't wait to share it with my daughter <3
A sweet story about a young girl who dreams of being an author, and chases mysteries in her neighborhood in order to find stories that will hopefully fuel her writing. In the first story, Cici and her friends see a mystery man entering and exiting a specific place in the forest at strange hours, covered in paint, carrying paint tins, and occasionally accompanied by a brightly colored bird. In the second story, Cici sees an old woman taking the bus at the same every Tuesday, always traveling with the same library book and looking very sad. The first story is very much about the mystery itself and filling in Cici's world, but the second is about how she inadvertently pushes her friends away by getting too wrapped up in her mysteries, and seeing them only when she needs a favor. These stories are very different from other comics about middle school-aged girls, and tackle the complexity of friendship from a different angle. It's not about having difficulty making friends or feeling like an outcast - on the contrary, Cici has a way of drawing people to her - but rather about the difficulty of maintaining friendships, especially as one grows and changes.
The art is very beautiful and warm, and the small town is thoroughly filled in so that it feels welcoming and alive. I was a bit disappointed in Erica's character, because while Cici and Lena's big characteristics are tied to something creative (storytelling and photography, respectively) Erica's main character aspect is that she's a grump?? That felt a bit flat. It makes sense that she'd be mad at Cici because Cici really is being a bad friend, but at the same time, Erica felt a bit less filled in as a person.
The art is very beautiful and warm, and the small town is thoroughly filled in so that it feels welcoming and alive. I was a bit disappointed in Erica's character, because while Cici and Lena's big characteristics are tied to something creative (storytelling and photography, respectively) Erica's main character aspect is that she's a grump?? That felt a bit flat. It makes sense that she'd be mad at Cici because Cici really is being a bad friend, but at the same time, Erica felt a bit less filled in as a person.
The whole moment I was reading this, I kept on thinking how great a reading material this is for my pupils of age 8 and 9.
The art style and color palette are definitely some of the elements that made me keep reading this.
The art style and color palette are definitely some of the elements that made me keep reading this.
Cici dreams of being a famous writer someday, a novelist maybe! To start out, though, she's practicing by journaling like a reporter and finding mysteries in her small town.
The construction of the book was a fun amalgamation of comic book panels, handwritten journal entries, and photographs. Since this was an arc there were some panels that were harder to see than others, such as the photographs, but the general layout gave a good impression of what the book would look like in its final form. Neyret's artwork was very bright in it's panels, eye catching and soft around the edges. My favorite scenes were the library panels from the second story. There was a magical quality to the different sections of the library, from the children's shelves to the history section.
As for the characters, Cici was difficult to like as a main character. As good as a spy as she thought she was, her skills of observation needed a lot of work. She wasn't trustworthy either, constantly lying to her mother and her friends and never suffering any consequences for those actions (another thing that frustrated me - Cici never got in trouble for anything).
Erica, one of Cici's best friends, seemed like the voice of reason in their small group. While Cici badmouthed her quite a bit, saying nearly every time she spoke about Erica that all she did was complain, Erica had good reason to say the things she did about Cici. How she kept asking them to lie, how she needed them as cover stories, things like that. I understood why she got angry at Cici and why they finally fought near the end of the book.
Cici doesn't always have the best decision making skills. Her friendship with Ms. Flores at the onset of the book from Cici's perspective is a close one, but in her own words she doesn't know much about Ms. Flores, her mother doesn't like that she hangs out with her so much, and she has to lie to her mother about the amount of time she spends at the Flores house. That struck me as really strange, especially since this book seems to take place in the present. I think the story as a whole, from the zoo in the first story onward, would have worked better in an earlier time period, perhaps in that of Kit the American Girl or Harriet the Spy. The liberties of their time periods would have melded better
There was something about Cici's voice that I found hard to really like. The way that she communicated throughout her journal entries, the way she thought, these passages all sounded like the way an adult thought a ten-year-old child would say things or think things rather than the way such a child would actually say or think. Her voice, the writing behind it, wasn't wholly believable. It wasn't a painful interpretation, but it wasn't as good as it could have been.
Cici's Journal might be suited to a young crowd that won't pick at the story lines as I have or character building, but I'm not sure they'll be wholly satisfied with the characters having little to no consequences and disregard for friendships.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The construction of the book was a fun amalgamation of comic book panels, handwritten journal entries, and photographs. Since this was an arc there were some panels that were harder to see than others, such as the photographs, but the general layout gave a good impression of what the book would look like in its final form. Neyret's artwork was very bright in it's panels, eye catching and soft around the edges. My favorite scenes were the library panels from the second story. There was a magical quality to the different sections of the library, from the children's shelves to the history section.
As for the characters, Cici was difficult to like as a main character. As good as a spy as she thought she was, her skills of observation needed a lot of work. She wasn't trustworthy either, constantly lying to her mother and her friends and never suffering any consequences for those actions (another thing that frustrated me - Cici never got in trouble for anything).
Erica, one of Cici's best friends, seemed like the voice of reason in their small group. While Cici badmouthed her quite a bit, saying nearly every time she spoke about Erica that all she did was complain, Erica had good reason to say the things she did about Cici. How she kept asking them to lie, how she needed them as cover stories, things like that. I understood why she got angry at Cici and why they finally fought near the end of the book.
Cici doesn't always have the best decision making skills. Her friendship with Ms. Flores at the onset of the book from Cici's perspective is a close one, but in her own words she doesn't know much about Ms. Flores, her mother doesn't like that she hangs out with her so much, and she has to lie to her mother about the amount of time she spends at the Flores house. That struck me as really strange, especially since this book seems to take place in the present. I think the story as a whole, from the zoo in the first story onward, would have worked better in an earlier time period, perhaps in that of Kit the American Girl or Harriet the Spy. The liberties of their time periods would have melded better
There was something about Cici's voice that I found hard to really like. The way that she communicated throughout her journal entries, the way she thought, these passages all sounded like the way an adult thought a ten-year-old child would say things or think things rather than the way such a child would actually say or think. Her voice, the writing behind it, wasn't wholly believable. It wasn't a painful interpretation, but it wasn't as good as it could have been.
Cici's Journal might be suited to a young crowd that won't pick at the story lines as I have or character building, but I'm not sure they'll be wholly satisfied with the characters having little to no consequences and disregard for friendships.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
The art is so beautiful and the stories are good, but I'm not sure they'll have a lot of appeal for the target age group.
The art is so beautiful and the stories are good, but I'm not sure they'll have a lot of appeal for the target age group.