Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

As we often find in graphic novels, much of the content doesn’t line up with the cute and colorful content. In this book the beloved Aunt character dies in a car wreck. The young reader sees an illustration of her car post-accident. The main character is called to the school office. We see her devastated before the book cuts to a funeral wake scene. Much of the rest of the book deals with the ensuing borderline depression of the main children characters and mom. Surprisingly at the end this (again light-looking graphic novel) book sends children to websites and phone numbers (including one you can text) instead of their parents for dealing with difficult times like this. The book opens in a pretty confusing way, with a customer at a bake shop being asked “What kind of feeling are you looking for today?” We find this family can bake feelings into bakery goods and the book speaks about this as if it is totally normal. If you feel uneasy about that, it gets quite a bit more dicey later when negative feelings (due to the tragedy above) end up getting transferred from the depressed main character to the eaters, who get very sick (leaving her lethargic and unfeeling for a time, which becomes addictive to her). Again, remember this is a short, colorful graphic novel that will attract many young readers. On hearing about a bird laying an egg, the main character comments that she thought the bird was a male. The best friend replies, “Gender non conformists. We’re everywhere”. We learn this friend has “two dads” (“But then my other Dad said…”). Then at the very end, even though there was no mention in the story itself, that this character who is clearly female is “non-binary”. The illustrator shares that they “really wanted their outfits and style to reflect their gender expression”. The main character’s mother is sadly not really much of a part of her life. The book portrays this as not really a big deal: “Don’t you miss your mom when she’s gone?” gets the reply “No. It’s always been like this. And I get to talk to her at night (on the phone). And Aunt Gina is always here”. Friends cover for each other when doing wrong. The following statement is made: “This totally proves Cthulhu is real” The term jerk is used