Drama

Product Information

Camp Gay: Downplayed. While he's very energetic, flashy and loves theatre, he wears pretty traditionally masculine clothing and the only campy thing about him appearance wise is his long hair. Hilarious. . . . Telgemeier’s graphic artist skills make this novel a pleasure to read and re-read." Telgemeier draws up-by-their-book-bags characters who value hard work and seize a chance that has nothing to do with looks or even with love. . . . The better Telgemeier’s books sell, the less hand-wringing to do over the next generation. If this is what the youth of America are into, the kids are all right." It's one thing to dream it, it's another thing to build it.The protagonist. An energetic 7th Grade girl with a passion for theatre.

Her favorite author is Raina Telgemeier, who—if you don’t know already—-is the queen of middle school age graphic novels. Seriously, she’s ridiculously popular among the age groups of six to thirteen, and several of her books have won the prestigious Will Eisner Award in that age group. (The Eisner Award is basically the Oscar for the comic book/graphic novel industry.) Guts” is about a young girl named Raina who is afflicted with stomach pains and a constant fear of throwing up. (It’s a real phobia, by the way, called emetophobia.) Raina reluctantly goes to talk therapy after numerous doctors run tests and find that there is nothing physically wrong with her. The therapist helps her to realize that her problems with her stomach are caused by severe stress brought on by fears of doing well in school, puberty, and trying new foods. Every new stress, like her best friend moving away, seems to add to her problem. The therapist offers some useful methods, like mindfulness and relaxation techniques, to help her deal with them. Never, did anything of the sort cross my mind. Tell me, oh people who gave this 1 star because two boys kissed and one wore a dress to save the show because the lead girl was having hysterics and the understudy was nowhere to be found, tell me, if this story was about a boy and a GIRL would you say it shouldn't be on library shelves where kids could see a picture of them kissing? Would it need a warning label then? Should it be banned because there would be, horror of horrors, heterosexual activity in it? Nerdgasm: A more subtle, underplayed one when showing Jesse her favorite theatre book. A totally unsubtle one when visiting the fancy bookstore.Raina was a shy, rather cynical and sarcastic Jerk with a Heart of Gold (prior to maturing a bit and meeting better people) due to her negative body images and bullying friends. Callie is a much more lighthearted and idealistic Nice Girl thanks to her supportive circle of friends. And there was another girl in my class that was having some health issues, and she wasn’t the nicest girl. But like, when I learned about her health problems, it gave me perspective that I didn’t have before, which was, “Wow, somebody’s dealing with a lot.” Like, everybody’s going through something, and even if they don’t tell you what it is, it’s still there. And so, you know, being kind to each other is important. And for myself, I didn’t really know how to talk about what was happening with me, but I went to see a therapist. Raina also wisely stays away from portraying herself as a perfect, put upon victim. She's mouthy and obnoxious and kinda mean sometimes because dealing with mental health issues doesn't preclude you from being a jerk. This book was emotional. This book was painfully relatable. This book gave me a stomach ache. And I am ok with that.

But mostly what I hear is, “I see me. I see my sister. I see my brother. I see my friends, and it’s given me the confidence to be myself, or to stand up to people that are bullying me, or just to know that like braces are not forever.” They might be painful right now, but when kids read my story they go, “Well, she definitely had it worse than I did.” So I don’t know. I’ve heard from the loveliest kids. This is how I start telling stories is I look at old photographs, or I think about my seventh grade math teacher, Mr. Theodis, you know, he was a character. And so let’s you come up with just little bits of business from your life. I think it’s a good place to start spinning. So there is room for kids to write. There’s room for kids to draw. There’s room for kids to paste in photos. And they’re different sections of the book based on the books that I’ve done. So Smile talks about, you know, your experiences, your feelings. There is also high praise from The Gazette to Telgemeier for using the graphic novel style to present a more mature theme. [5] According to The Gazette: "Telgemeier does a wonderful job of being able to convey a theme usually meant for young adult readers, making it more accessible to the middle school audience the novel was written for." [5] From the School Library Journal: "there is discussion about how this graphic novel promotes a more positive view point when compared to other novels; however, this is not to say that Drama is without its prejudices." [12] The article by Abate suggests that, in attempting to make her novel more inclusive, Telgemeier inadvertently fits her characters into stereotypes. [12] This works directly against the perceived climax of her novel when Jesse fills in for Bonnie and kisses West on stage. [9] While I love the artwork in Raina’s graphic novels this is the first of her Smile series that I’ve actually finished reading. Given how popular her graphic novels are I think my not falling in love with them is probably an ‘it’s me, not you’ thing. And the gay characters were handled really well, for the most part. I liked that Justin was fleshed out, that he wasn't a queer stereotype. (Well, he was in that he was into theater, but he wasn't at all girly or perverted or anything like that.) I liked that he was portrayed as being entirely comfortable with his sexuality, and that everyone around him was, too. I liked that Telgemeier didn't make it an informed attribute, that he mentioned boys that he was attracted to more than once. The one thing that I didn't like in how the gay characters was the ending; I'll discuss this more later.Drama has been banned on multiple occasions in Texas. The state ACLU releases an annual banned books report, usually in conjunction with Banned Books Week. In the 2016-17 school year, Drama was the only banned book in the Texas ACLU’s findings. It was removed from the Franklin Independent School District. It was also banned from Chapel Hill Elementary in Mount Pleasant in 2014-15, as well as Kirbyville Middle School in 2015-16. Both Publishers Weekly [24] and the Washington Post [25] list Drama as one of the Best Books of 2012.