Spinning by Tillie Walden

Spinning by Tillie Walden 

Review by Lauren

source: copy from publisher; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add on Goodreads): It was the same every morning. Wake up, grab the ice skates, and head to the rink while the world was still dark.
Weekends were spent in glitter and tights at competitions. Perform. Smile. And do it again.
She was good. She won. And she hated it.

For ten years, figure skating was Tillie Walden's life. She woke before dawn for morning lessons, went straight to group practice after school, and spent weekends competing at ice rinks across the state. It was a central piece of her identity, her safe haven from the stress of school, bullies, and family. But over time, as she switched schools, got into art, and fell in love with her first girlfriend, she began to question how the close-minded world of figure skating fit in with the rest of her life, and whether all the work was worth it given the reality: that she, and her friends on the figure skating team, were nowhere close to Olympic hopefuls. It all led to one question: What was the point? The more Tillie thought about it, the more Tillie realized she'd outgrown her passion--and she finally needed to find her own voice.

Review: I love graphic memoirs; it's such an interesting way to learn about a person. Spinning is about the time in Tillie Walden's life when she was a figure skater. She wasn't aiming for the Olympics, but she did practice before and after school and took part in competitions. After awhile though, she started to realize that figure skating wasn't necessarily her lifelong dream. She was falling more in love with art. She was also falling for girls, something that she didn't let anyone in her figure skating life know about.

Spinning is a thick novel, but it reads quick. The artwork is done in black and white, with some strategic yellow here and there. It's easy to read and I think a lot of teens could relate to Tillie. You don't have to like someone of the same sex, or even be involved in something so intense as figure skating. Spinning, at its heart, is about learning who you are and growing into the person you want to be.

Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash

Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash

Review by Lauren

source: copy from library; all opinions are my own

Official Summary: Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She’s from Atlanta, she’s never kissed a guy, she’s into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing . . . until one confounding moment. A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie’s savant-like proficiency at the camp’s rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it’s too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.

Review: I love graphic books, and it's always interesting to see how people use this medium when the story is not fiction, but based on their own life. Honor Girl is the story of a teenage Maggie Thrash attending an all-girl's camp, and how one summer, she starts to develop feelings for an older counselor Erin, who happens to be female.

source

Maggie is surprised to find herself liking Erin, but she never feels a hatred or disgust at her feelings and I loved this! I can't say I appreciate the author doing this, because she's just saying what happened. What I mean is that I'm glad Maggie was fairly okay with her feelings when she realized them. Sure, it might be weird or awkward at first, when you think you only like boys, but it's not something to be ashamed and Maggie wasn't.

Erin even seems to reciprocate her feelings, but she's still older than Maggie...not  to mention a counselor to Maggie's camp attendant status. It would be similar to a young teacher falling for their teen pupil. Not too far apart in age, but the power dynamic is a bit off, even if Erin isn't Maggie's counselor.

The one thing I think that people might have an issue with is the ending. I liked how Maggie concluded things to allow for answers, but at the same time, you kind of hope for a certain ending. Granted, this is a true story, and it's true to the end.

Would you read this one? Have you read any other graphic memoirs?