Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The main concern here is one that our readers will likely be familiar with. This is an adult’s biography of their childhood in a graphic novel, now referred to as a ‘graphic memoir’. We discuss this in more detail in the next section. The focus of the majority of this book is on the pain of losing a best friend to the ‘cool group’, the pain of being outside of that group looking in, and the pain and consequences of being in that group and trying to be seen as cool enough to stay there. This content is painful to read through. It is very emotional. There are rude comments, lying, changing yourself to try and be accepted, excluding others. At one point a boy spits on her. Shannon gets so upset that at one point she imagines dying (no suicide is implied) and attempting to run away (comes back after feeling guilty). Shannon’s older sister is obviously hurting herself and turns that into absolutely horrible treatment of her sister. At one point she slaps her. At another she stands over her while she is in her bed, inches from her head screaming, including telling her how much her friends really hate her. Other times she looks so angry and wicked that Shannon hides in the bushes. There are quite a few other points of potential concern to know about. A graphic shows Shannon at a young age imagining being a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. She comments that all girls wanted to be one. It shows people yelling, “Love us!” and they make a comment that “everyone wants us”. Later Shannon gets so excited about something she kisses her friend on the cheek (this seems platonic, but may confuse some young readers). Similarly, she is shown wearing a rainbow pin, but again seems innocent. In an odd scene, two boys run up. One grabs Shannon so his friend can run up, grab her friend and start kissing her (seemingly forced). To make it worse, when Shannon fights them off and saves her, the friend gets upset at Shannon and says that she wanted him to kiss her. Shannon responds that he should have asked and had no right grabbing her. Some drawings show a shark or sabretooth tiger eating people. At one point the girls call boys to have them rate the girls in the group on looks and personality. There are also some slightly scary images of a large bear. At one point Mom curses (shows random characters for it). The word “Turdmongers” appears several times near the end. While we do mention spiritual content below, it is safe to say many will see this as a mixed bag. While she prays, she also wishes on dandelions. A few times Jesus is shown drawn in a graphic, but some may see these as not completely revenant.