This is another of the increasingly popular ‘graphic memoirs’ that we are not at all a fan of. Here an adult author attempts to remember and retell a part of their time growing up (in this case middle school) in a ‘cute’ graphic format that inevitably leads to it being put in front of very young kids who we would never target with a biography. This leads to very young children reading content that we Christians would never want them to. All while the secular world gives these books awards.

There is quite a bit of focus on romantic content as a crush develops over a European trip. To make things worse, early we hear a girl saying she intends “to have a summer romance with some hot Euro boy” and later pointing out cute boys in a crowd. Boys turn on a TV and begin gawking at full nudity (not shown), closing with the reading seeing “Bom-chikka-wow-wow” as the scene fades.

In one country kids can drink at 14. Main character is not quite 14, but still drinks. A drunk character in public is shown getting sick due to drinking too much (somewhat graphically shown and discussed). Many kids are shown smoking. Group of kids sneak into a nightclub. Main character sneaks into a Tennis event and steals a bike.

While handled tastefully and leading to a sweet response by the main character, there is a flashback where a girl from school has “an accident”, which we find out is “girl stuff”. This may be something some parents won’t want coming up from a graphic novel.

Graphic memoir content leads to strange older references being put in front of children. In this case we see references to James Dean, Knight Rider, John McEnroe, Disco, Saturday Night Fever and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We see a buddha necklace and a reference to karma (“this isn’t how karma is supposed to work”).

We see the terms idiot, shut up, this sucks, oh my God, good Lord and crotch. A couple instances like “chop off your head” and “shut your face”. We hear a reference to someone being called “the ugliest girl in school”.