Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

Pages: 224

Intended Audience: Teens and Tweens

Genre: Graphic Novel

Notes for parents: Some language and mature scenes

The Back Cover

After years of homeschooling, Maggie is starting high school. It’s pretty terrifying. Maggie’s big brothers are there to watch her back, but ever since Mom left it just haven’t been the same.

Besides her brothers, Maggie’s never had any real friends before. Lucy and Alistair don’t have lots of friends either. But they eat lunch with her at school and bring her along on their small-town adventures.

Missing mothers…distant brothers…high school…new friends…It’s a lot to deal with. But there’s just one more things. Maggie is haunted.

What the Back Cover doesn’t tell you:

It doesn’t say if this is the first in a series. I couldn’t find anything on the internet either.

What’s good?

Excellent characterization and outstanding artwork make this a funny, easy-to-read, graphic story about a girl’s first few days of high school. I love the dynamic relationships between Maggie, her father, and her three brothers. Maggie befriends Lucy and her brother Alistair, two more well-developed and thoroughly likeable characters. The black and white drawings are nicely done and well organized making this a quick read. The plot is simple with many sub stories that touch on family relationships, an absent parent, friendships, bullying, choices, self-confidence, and the paranormal, just to name a few.

Best part: The twins!

What’s not so good?

There were way too many loose ends. This might be forgivable if there’s a sequel in the works, but I could find no evidence of such. Why did the mother leave? What does the ghost want/need? What’s with the hand and mystery of the disappearing sailors? If there is no sequel, then all of these storylines were pointless. If there is, then disregard my rant because the loose ends make for a pretty good set up for stories to come.

Worst part: The prosthetic hand was weird. But again, if there’s a sequel, the mystery of the sailors could be a good one!

Recommendations þþþþo

This was a hard one to rate and review. As a stand-alone graphic novel, it was a lot of fun and easy to read. The characters were wonderful and the story was interesting, but the loose ends kill the story in the end, leaving an overall impression worth about two checkmarks. However, if the was the beginning of a series – which I really hope it is – then it was a fantastic start. As the first in a series, it deserves four checkmarks. Here’s hoping there’s more! Recommended.

Hicks, Faith Erin. Friends with Boys. New York & London: First Second, 2012.