Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

From a Christian perspective, this is one of the most concerning books we have ever read, let alone graphic novels. We will try and capture what Christian parents will want to know. This is a story of a girl who becomes bisexual after meeting a young girl. The gay crush that develops seems to be shown as something natural and unavoidable. This is the central storyline, but there is a lot involved. To make this really concerning, Katie does seem to wrestle with this in terms of her faith. We see, through her eyes, these same arguments the secular culture often brings that tickle the ears. “I don’t get it. At church we learned that God loves everyone and God made everyone too. If God made me so I can love girls and boys, how’s that wrong? Does that mean that God made a mistake?” (not taking the time to think that this false argument could be used to argue anything we ever wanted to do in our sinful, broken state. She goes on, “Isn’t love the greatest virtue? Isn’t God love? (shows verse references at this point). If I like girls, does that mean I’m not saved? Does that mean I’m going to hell?” A related huge concern is the treatment of the church. There is a subtle war waged against the church and the Christian faith. Katie is homeschooled and her family goes to church regularly. The first view we see of Katie, even before the core of the content above gets rolling, we already get a clue of where it is heading. The only people highlighted are a group of rude, judgmental girls who make fun of her clothes and the fact that she is homeschooled. In fact, the youth group is portrayed as full of cliques. This continues throughout, culminating towards the end with a clique, out of nowhere, verbally attacking Katie totally unprovoked, ending with one saying with an evil vindictive look, “What do you expect from Katie? She probably hasn’t even gotten her period” (more on this later). We see an angry looking pastor railing against gay marriage. This sets up a huge, and completely false and unfair comparison, where everyone in the book related with the church is shown this way, while everyone in line with secular, non-biblical, modern ideas is shown as kind, intelligent, open-minded, and so on. In fact, the rest of the world all seems “right”: At one point Katie comments, “Theatre was different from church or even (homeschool) co-op. Our director (female) had a boyfriend. And Miss Hannigan always wore a special pin (shows a rainbow-themed icon). Down the street from the theatre, a church flew a rainbow flag. I knew that some people didn’t think the way I felt was wrong or sinful”. She wonders what it would be like at that church, at which point the illustration shows two women arm-in-arm, smiling ear-to-ear. She says in this area downtown she could “breath easy. Just be myself”. Eventually her older sister begins to rail against attempts to keep marriage to the biblical definition, despite also being raised in a Christian home. This culminates near the end with two rallies, one with a group of angry white people yelling against gay marriage and another that is bright and happy, with a diverse set of joyful people all being loving and kind affirming gay marriage (this really is a summary of the picture the book gives from nearly cover to cover). One thing that comes up many times is the concept of a dress code for church activities. This is portrayed as unthinkable, being called “archaic” at one point and sexist at several others. Anyone who has tried to take their young and teen children to a busy pool or beach (to name just one example) has seen a glimpse of where this line of thinking has taken us. At one a girl comments “Love a good minidress” to which Katie responds, “It definitely wouldn’t pass my church’s dress code”. The response is, “For real? Ew” to which Katie says, “Yeah, it’s very ew”. Mom chimes in, “Well, you know girls, you can’t let small-minded dress code get in the way of personal expression… it’s almost like the folks who make up these rules are scared of us women being … independent free-thinkers who love our bodies”. She dreams of being free to spend Sundays either at this other church or doing nothing at all. Another good thing the book attacks is seen in a very subtle way, one that honestly makes no sense, where Katie comments that, “At youth group, I felt like these changes (after just referencing height and chest development in illustrations) were bad” as Katie looks at a sign advertising waiting for true love, a course on modesty and purity. We see shade thrown at the concept of a wife as a helpmate to a husband. There are several comments that Christians will recognize from secular propaganda, statements that sound so true and good, but are really meant to communicate a dangerous message when the full context is taken into account. For example, “If the world ever made you feel wrong for being different, please believe me. It’s not you, it’s them”. A respected female lawyer role model implies she would not worry about disappointing her parents to do what she loves, “don’t let others squish you into their box”. In a long author’s note at the end, it mentions being bisexual and says things like, “But here’s the great news: I wasn’t actually alone. There wasn’t actually anything wrong with me. My queerness has always been a marvelous part of the person I am!” The book ends in an uber-concerning way, providing websites and resources to young kids who want to explore this more. To make it worse, it says this is if kids “feel safe to access them”, never mentioning involving their parents. Also, several surface-level items that look like inconsistencies are brought up in passing about the Bible. Even though there is endless literature out there addressing these items, young readers will now know this. The concept of close-minded is used frequently in reference to those who hold to conservative Christian values. On top of all of this, this illustrated graphic novel that will inevitably end up in the hands of very young readers tackles puberty in a surprising amount of detail. At one point, after we read some material about her waiting to get her first period, we see an illustration of Katie in the bathroom looking down into her shorts, but realizing it was a false alarm. Eventually she does and Mom goes to get “pads” for her. Other items: The female author makes a dedication to her “wife”. The illustrator lists a “wife” in her bio at the end of the book as well. There is quite a bit around dating and crushes. Girls are constantly bringing up who is cute and such. Katie receives a birthday gift that is a book titled, “Dating! The Ultimate Guide to Guys”. There are references to Staying Alive, SpongeBob (illustrated), Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The term jerk appears. There are a few times we see bras of various types shown. Note: This is the sequel book to Growing Pangs. We flipped through that book and, while not a thorough review, can say that it is nowhere near the concern level of this book. But that makes it that much more concerning. Series that start one way and end another are a real challenge for kids and parents (or in the case of Percy Jackson, books that start one way and go off the rails in future follow-on series). Pray that God will continue to lead you to protection from dangerous content like this for your family and lead us to continue to find and provide guidance to Christian parents across the world.