Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

NOTE: This review is based solely on the graphic novel adaptation of this book and does not include anything related to the original book. There is also a part of the plot that may surprise some parents given the light graphic novel format. Jackie’s mom is deployed with the military. Her dad is shown working at a beach. Early on we see him sitting inappropriately too close to another woman he works with. This causes Jackie to wonder if this is the reason he has been arriving home really late and being gone for long blocks of time. Their dad takes the girls to church, which is great, but it happens right when the book has seriously implied he is having an affair. The book’s intent is to weave this into a surprising happy ending with the revelation that everything was misunderstood and dad was actually doing something really good for the family… but the problem for Christians is that, honestly, much of the behavior of the dad with another woman besides his wife was actually very inappropriate for a married man. As a part of the flow of the main storyline, Jacky does something extremely dangerous. She climbs out of her window at night, goes across town and climbs to the very top of a large ferris wheel. She actually does this again, this time getting caught. When dad punishes her, she does something just as dangerous, sneaking out again, buying a bus ticket and travelling to Princeton college completely on her own to visit her sister. To make this even worse, her teacher basically tells Jacky they are going to ignore her dad and do it anyway (Wow!). Also, while we don’t want to overstate this, Jackie borders on being rude and disrespectful a few times to get a laugh. At one point she is disrespectful to a sub, calling them a “half-wit”. A teacher in detention is shown as saying “Blah Blah Blah”. A teacher makes a rude comment to Jackie and we see an illustration of what can only be described as an evil drawing of her. Here are a few other items to be aware of: One sister is described as “a little boy crazy”. She says that she has a boy “on deck” (as in next up to pursue/date) and describes him as “a hunk”. Someone says “I think I’m in Heaven” in a flippant way. A man is shown in drawn in a cartoonish way with stereotypical devil horns and tail. Girls throw up and the term “barf” is used. Jackie admits to joking to keep people from laughing at her. Jackie jokes about Charlie Brown wearing a dress. Jackie points out that a woman’s bathing suit “shows off a lot of skin”. A group of girls make a racist sounding comment to one of Jackie’s friends. She retaliates by personally insulting the girl who leads the group in a very rude way. Unfortunately, the book just cuts to another scene, not showing this as wrong. Jackie talks two friends into skipping school. Later Jacky gets really angry with her dad. Several illustrations show a demon-looking creature on her shoulder encouraging her to take action against him. Oddly, when she decides she can’t tell her mom (about the other woman) she comments that she has a “little devil” inside her. The movies/shows Die Hard, Ghost, Birds, Saturday Night Live and Titanic are all referenced in passing. Jackie also brings up the horror movie Cujo. The following terms are used: idiot brigade