Curlfriends: New in Town by Sharee Miller
Graphic Novel
Charlie is getting ready to start middle school. She is used to these first days of fresh starts. Her dad is in the Air Force, so they are always moving. But this move is going to be their last. She needs to make a good impression. She has been studying fashion magazines all summer so she can make the best impression.
As she walks into the school on her first day, the janitor spills a bucket of water on her. Her clothes are soaked, so is her hair, and she lost one of her contacts. She ends up putting on her glasses and a dorky sweatshirt she had in her backpack. Surprisingly, there is a girl in the bathroom who fixes her hair super fast, so she isn’t even late for her first class. Through that first girl, she meets two other girls, and she has someone to eat lunch with and partners for a group project coming up. I thought that ended up being a pretty good first day.
Charlie is still stressed about the impression she is making. She can’t let anything go. Maybe I was too big of a nerd in middle school, or maybe I had it easy because I never moved, so I had the same friends since kindergarten. But I couldn’t understand why she didn’t just relax! She is constantly worried that she isn’t wearing the right clothes or that her glasses are too dorky, or that she doesn’t like the right trendy drinks. She is pretending to be a completely different person, while these new girls clearly have no issue. Really? No one is even commenting on what she is wearing. They are all so different from one another, yet they all get along! Why is she so stressed? I understand that she is in middle school, but it feels like it’s a bit much.
I get that this was the point of the book by the end but oh man, it was stressing me out! Just be yourself!!!
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