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A review by jecoats
Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega
5.0
My wife - an educator in Highland Park - had recently purchased this graphic novel, so I decided to search Goodreads for any awards it may have won. I was happy to discover that it was the 2023 recipient of the Pura Belpré Award, which is presented to a Latinx writer whose work best celebrates the authentic Latinx cultural experience.
The book focuses on Marlene, a young girl trying to navigate the “typical” adolescent concerns of middle school, friends, and family. However, it seems something is making her life even more difficult: her frizzy locks of curly hair. Marlene’s mother takes her to the salon nearly every week so Marlene can have straighter hair and be more accepted by society. Marlene feels caught between two conflicting ideologies: be yourself or be the presentable young lady your family and others want you to be. Marlene simply wants others to look past what they perceive as an imperfection and embrace her for who she is. Eventually, with the help of her Tía Ruby, Marlene figures out how to properly care for her hair, and how to properly care for and accept herself as well.
The graphic novel has a simple plot and structure. There are only 14 major scenes that drive the story across 213 pages. But this is to the book's benefit. In telling a simple story, author Claribel A. Ortega is able to pack a lot of emotion into each page. We really get to know Marlene, her mother, Tía Ruby, and Marlene’s best friend, Camilla. The emotions and conflicts presented in the story feel genuine and authentic - Marlene feels like a real young middle school student dealing with bullies, feelings of jealousy and outrage, and a mother that wants her to fit in with society's ideals of beauty and behavior. When Marlene cries, we feel her sadness. When she discovers she can manage her frizzy hair, we feel her joy and excitement.
The art by Rose Bousamra is gorgeous. She uses a very soft palette filled with brown and red tones, as well as a lot of pink and lavender shades. This color palette creates an almost dream-like quality, which helps elevate a few of the graphic novel’s more fantastical moments where we see Marlene imagining herself as a famous singer or a superhero. Outside of those fantasy moments, the artwork also helps ground the book in reality as the characters are well designed, and the overall style of the illustrations stay consistent throughout the book. Bousamra also does a masterful job demonstrating the different characters' ages through her designs. She doesn’t take to creating over exaggerations or caricatures of older characters (or younger characters), and instead uses subtle lines and accents to create characters that are distinguishable from one another.
Frizzy would be an excellent title for both middle and high school students because the universal themes of the story would resonate with most pre-teens and teenagers. The story would be a wonderful mirror for our Latinx and female students as well as Marlene is a delightful protagonist (one of my favorite literary protagonists to date, in fact). The conflict depicted in Frizzy felt authentic (to this middle aged white cis man), and the dialogue seems genuine and fits the narrative. I also think that Frizzy would help students from the dominant culture develop a better understanding of their Latinx female peers and the issues they face as members of their community. Frizzy is also just a flat-out joy to read and contains genuinely humorous and touching moments.
The book focuses on Marlene, a young girl trying to navigate the “typical” adolescent concerns of middle school, friends, and family. However, it seems something is making her life even more difficult: her frizzy locks of curly hair. Marlene’s mother takes her to the salon nearly every week so Marlene can have straighter hair and be more accepted by society. Marlene feels caught between two conflicting ideologies: be yourself or be the presentable young lady your family and others want you to be. Marlene simply wants others to look past what they perceive as an imperfection and embrace her for who she is. Eventually, with the help of her Tía Ruby, Marlene figures out how to properly care for her hair, and how to properly care for and accept herself as well.
The graphic novel has a simple plot and structure. There are only 14 major scenes that drive the story across 213 pages. But this is to the book's benefit. In telling a simple story, author Claribel A. Ortega is able to pack a lot of emotion into each page. We really get to know Marlene, her mother, Tía Ruby, and Marlene’s best friend, Camilla. The emotions and conflicts presented in the story feel genuine and authentic - Marlene feels like a real young middle school student dealing with bullies, feelings of jealousy and outrage, and a mother that wants her to fit in with society's ideals of beauty and behavior. When Marlene cries, we feel her sadness. When she discovers she can manage her frizzy hair, we feel her joy and excitement.
The art by Rose Bousamra is gorgeous. She uses a very soft palette filled with brown and red tones, as well as a lot of pink and lavender shades. This color palette creates an almost dream-like quality, which helps elevate a few of the graphic novel’s more fantastical moments where we see Marlene imagining herself as a famous singer or a superhero. Outside of those fantasy moments, the artwork also helps ground the book in reality as the characters are well designed, and the overall style of the illustrations stay consistent throughout the book. Bousamra also does a masterful job demonstrating the different characters' ages through her designs. She doesn’t take to creating over exaggerations or caricatures of older characters (or younger characters), and instead uses subtle lines and accents to create characters that are distinguishable from one another.
Frizzy would be an excellent title for both middle and high school students because the universal themes of the story would resonate with most pre-teens and teenagers. The story would be a wonderful mirror for our Latinx and female students as well as Marlene is a delightful protagonist (one of my favorite literary protagonists to date, in fact). The conflict depicted in Frizzy felt authentic (to this middle aged white cis man), and the dialogue seems genuine and fits the narrative. I also think that Frizzy would help students from the dominant culture develop a better understanding of their Latinx female peers and the issues they face as members of their community. Frizzy is also just a flat-out joy to read and contains genuinely humorous and touching moments.