You know how hard it is to move and leave your friends behind, especially when you're in high school? In Laura Lee Gulledge's new graphic novel, we meet introspective teen Paige, who has just moved to New York City from Virginia and is struggling to adjust. She is also struggling with her desire to define herself as an artist, and with a lot of self-doubt. This book is her sketchbook, a record of her journey (all done in black and white).
What's really nice is the way Gulledge has Paige mix visual metaphors into her storytelling. For example, when Paige says, "I've been giving myself a lot of pep talks in my head lately," we see in the next drawing that the sign over the steps leading to the high school entrance has "BE AN EXTROVERT" over the doors instead of the school's name. On the next page, as Paige goes up the hall, she sees a hand-lettered sign on the wall by the office reading, "Psst, Paige, You Belong Here." Below, as Paige says, "I tell myself that everyone else feels alone, too," we find a large drawing of a lake with dozens of teens paddling around in very small boats, each isolated though surrounded by others. These images ebb and flow nicely as Paige goes about finding her way in a new place.
The detailed depiction of Paige's worries and self-analysis might strike more confident readers as self-absorption, but I'm guessing many readers will relate to her self-consciousness. Paige's conflicts with her well-meaning but intrusive parents are another plot thread that will feel familiar to a lot of young readers. This relationship is not unrealistically one-note, though: At one point Paige shares a joke and a hug with her dad, and her parents are fairly sympathetic characters as they try to understand how their daughter is doing.
Happily, Paige falls in with a nice little group of new friends who not only help her to feel less isolated, but who support her blossoming as an artist. With Jules, Longo, and Gabe cheering her on, Paige starts up an art blog and even designs some guerrilla street art projects. For example, at one point she and her friends leave a bunch of plastic Easter eggs around town, each filled with a message or a small token like a Hershey's Kiss or a feather.
Paige's friends are appealing individuals in their own right: Jules, the lesbian singer whose lyrics combine things like vampires and robots; her brother Longo, a goofball and, like Paige, a closet artist; and Gabe, a quiet boy and a writer.
This is not a rowdy book, but the low-key humor adds dimension. For example, as the four compare backgrounds and we learn that Gabe is Japanese-American and Jules and Longo are Italian-Latino, English-Scottish-Irish-German-Swiss Paige remarks, "Wow, you guys are so exotic! Me, I'm just like if all the pale countries got together and had a big orgy." (This joke is about as wild as it gets, by the way.)
Paige continues to struggle with self-doubt in the face of setbacks, but mostly she quietly grows more happy and confident both as an artist and as a person. Her budding romance with Gabe is especially lovely: their kindness to each other is what you really want to see in a teen relationship, or any relationship, really. Paige's joy in her new boyfriend and yes, in their tentative kisses, is, of course, depicted in part by more symbolic drawings.
Paige also works things out--to a reasonable extent--with her parents. In a way, this book is a coming-of-age story, as Paige goes from a place of fear to a place of becoming her promised self. Each section of Paige's sketchbook begins with a "rule" Paige assigns herself as she tries to be more adventurous, more confident, and more open about her artwork. For example, Rule #3 is "Shhh... quiet... listen to what's going on in your head."
I would especially recommend Page by Paige for shy, thoughtful, and creative teens. Or for anyone who's an artist and a thinker, for that matter.
