Readers of this site will already be aware of our heartache over “graphic memoirs”, where an adult tells, typically without much filtering, a story from a portion of their life, but in a graphic novel format that will inevitably be read by very young readers attracted to the colorful format. Our experience is the content almost never matches with the inevitable audience.

There is quite a bit of content and discussion from the main character, Alyssa, that will surprise parents given the format and cover. This type of content keeps coming throughout. She makes a comment after returning from summer that “everyone has grown boobs” with an additional comment that she “has no boobs yet” (as we say often, please keep the inevitable young audience of graphic novels in mind). When she is thinking how she would want to change the world she provides shallow answers saying she would “make all boys cuter and nicer” and “stop acne and periods”. We see her sneak online and on one page we see an email convo saying, “OMG, did you see them french kissing after school today?!” She also passes notes in class and hides a bad test grade from her mom. We should also mention that there is quite a bit of self-loathing type inner-dialog.

There is some boy-focused content, such as “OMG, he’s gotten so cute since last year.” She ‘prays’ for her arm to brush another boys. She imagines a lightly romantic movie scene. She kisses a random classmate during truth or dare. She sneaks out of school with boys and gets caught, justifying herself saying, “I am only tempted to do things because everyone else seems to be allowed to do whatever they want” (never shown as wrong). One girl says that she would never date a boy who wasn’t hispanic or black. At one point Alyssa looks up a boys ‘astrological sign’ and sees it is “most compatible” with her own’, commenting that “the stars were aligned”.

Alyssa also makes a comment that at her Catholic church “we have to go to church all the time”. There is an image of a preacher and he is yelling “Lake of Fire!” (partially blocked, but this seems clear to be what it is supposed to say). She prays, but only at a disaster with no other sign of a faith. In fact we see plenty of opposing things, like wishing she had a crystal ball. We also see another example of a continuing unfortunate trend in kids books underplaying the devastation of divorce on a child’s life.

The main 9/11 content may be heavy for some readers, especially those younger kids generally drawn to graphic novels with cute covers. At one point, a point that feels like it is supposed to be the climax, Alyssa yells that “We all just want to yell at the world that we are all people with the same morals and our gods all want us to live in peace” (obviously a well-meaning, but completely misguided comment Christian parents will want in front of their children on such an important topic).

A few other items that you will want to be aware of as a Christian parent:

There is a reference to someone being a Scorpio.

The main character is described as being “shoe obsessed”.

“OMG” and its longer spelled out form are used several times. Dumbass is used a couple times.

The following are referenced: Backstreet Boys, Usher, Mariah (presumably Mariah Carey).

We hear that popular kids “can go online whenever they want” and that “the nerdy boys are all terrified of them”.

We see a disturbing image where Alyssa looks in a mirror and sees an evil reflection with horns.

Mentions a hotel being haunted. We see a flippant picture of the ‘god’ Jupiter saying he is the ‘god’ of “good hair days”.

Someone comments on a self-portrait that “you straight up look like a crackhead”.