Earlier this year I did a series of posts of Stories About Girls: books that featured female main characters, with a broad range of types of books and subject matter. I tried to pick a lot of books that both girls and boys would enjoy reading, acknowledging that kids benefit from reading about both genders.
I’m still collecting stories and books for a future list, but for now, here’s this:
An excerpt from Friends With Boys, when Maggie first enters her classroom.
Faith Erin Hicks, the artist of Brain Camp (among other things) is returning to her roots. She got her start in webcomics, and First Second Books is allowing her to serialize her upcoming graphic novel, Friends With Boys, before its publication in February 2012. It’s a return to her roots in another way as well — the story is about a girl named Maggie, who has three older brothers, going to public school for the first time in ninth grade after being homeschooled. Hicks herself also has three brothers and was homeschooled until high school, so she really knows what she’s talking about.
Friends With Boys is wonderfully illustrated, and you really get a sense of Maggie’s anxiety in the face of this huge change in her life. Her brothers (including a set of twins) are great characters, too, and I look forward to seeing them throughout the story. Oh, and there’s also a ghost from the local graveyard, though so far I haven’t seen much of her yet.
Hicks is posting a page each weekday, and has started including some comments about her artistic process or pointing out little Easter eggs hidden in the images. The serialization started in July, so you’ve got about 35 pages to read so far, with 211 total. Go have a look!
Oh, and in case you missed my previous series of posts, here’s the link to the last Stories About Girls post, which includes links to the rest of the series.
