Sisters

Sisters by Raina Telgemeier, 197 pages

Telgemeier’s graphic novels are based loosely on her own life growing up. This particular book focuses on a road trip made by her family from California to Colorado and back again for a family reunion. Raina and her sister, Amara, don’t get along at all, and never have. This is shown vividly through flashbacks scenes from their lives, starting when Raina was very young and begging for a sister to play with. She has the usual reactions when Amara is still a baby about her being no fun but as they get older, despite the fact that they both love to draw, they never click and often have screaming matches about almost anything. One major bone of contention is that Amara loves nature and animals and Raina doesn’t. When Raina’s parents decide that Raina should get her own room, they also allow Amara to get a snake. The snake becomes a major part of the story, because Raina hates even having it in the house. This is actually a really good story about a realistic sister relationship. Almost any kid with siblings would find something to relate to in the book and even kids without siblings would probably find a lot of humor in the story.