Raina Telgemeier’s ‘Sisters’

I know I’m supposed to say that I’m familiar with Raina Telgemeier’s work because she’s won basically every award for YA fiction and/or comics ever, but actually I stumbled across her amazing graphic novel versions of The Baby-Sitters Club. Claudia Kishi’s outfits are on point, man. Would recommend the graphic version to anyone with a soft spot for the series, so, basically any girls in our thirties, then.

Sisters continues the autobiographical story from Smile, this time revisiting Raina’s relationship with her sister. The story hinges on a family vacation, driving cross-country to visit relatives, with flashbacks to other family memories.  I loved how some moments were so terribly dated (But familiar! I remember Walkman batteries as a precious commodity, too!) and some were universal (Some of my students are hitting the terrible stage of being no longer adorable little children but not quite independent teenagers, either).

My favorite part involves a certain pet snake escaping into a car. Like Raina, I also have a younger sister who wanted every animal ever as her pet, but my parents drew the line at fish, newts, hamsters, gerbils, a turtle, a rabbit, and a dog, so I had to wait for college to live with a pet snake.  Unlike Raina’s sister’s snake, my roommate Kristine’s snake never made an escape attempt… or at least, if it did, Kristine successfully hid it from me… (Note to self: Do not investigate this too closely.)

Sisters is a quiet story about sharing space with the people who share your genes, and about how the people who make you the craziest can also keep you sane.

Related articles

• Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
• Raina Telgemeier Shows Us How to Make a Graphic Novel
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier

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