Hope Larson.  Chiggers.  Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008.  170 pages.  Age 10 to 14.

Summer camp, because it is a completely contained social situation, is the perfect arena to explore the waxing and waning and various facets of friendship.  Yet, my first read-through, the word “nondescript” came to mind a number of times.  It took me half the novel before I could easily distinguish between the characters, and had to rely on cues like the number of piercings or presence of freckles (although, after paying more attention in my second reading, I found it hard to believe that I missed how the main character, Abby, frequently sports an adorable Holly Hunter-shaped mouth).  After a third go, I’ve decided to read everything Hope Larson has ever written.

The story is fine.  Believability is only strained when Abby gushes over what a great DM boy-of-interest must be.  Love is a 20-sided die?  I kid, but there are frequent doses of nerdiness, during which characters sport elf ears.  My favorite panels pull the characters out of their immediate physical context.  In one panel, Abby sprouts wings and is surrounded by fantasy creatures under a raincloud of uncool..ness.  In others, there are giant question marks or flying exam papers.  I also like how shared silences are drawn as elipsis-filled thought boxes.  The little things add up here.

Now, I’m not the type who’d scream at or run from your average bug, but anything that reportedly burrows in the unholiest of places is distressing.  The upshot?  As one character explains the trombicula alfreddugesi (chigger) to the others, she is shown wearing lab goggles that make her look sciency.  (Well, I think “sciency” is a good word for it, since the explanation is scientifically inaccurate.)  The story breaks for other educational moments, where the reader learns how to make a proper friendship bracelet or play Egyptian rat screw, but not at the expense of narrative flow.

You can read the another story featuring Abby, at Hope Larson’s website.

other reviews:
Comics in the Classroom | A Fuse #8 Production