Potential: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag (High School Chronicles of Ariel Schrag) [Paperback]

Ariel Schrag (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008 | Series: High School Chronicles of Ariel Schrag

Ariel Schrag continues her tumultuous passage through high school in the second book of her acclaimed series of frank, insightful, and painfully honest autobiographical graphic novels. Written during the summer following her junior year at Berkeley High School in California, Potential recounts Ariel's first real relationship and first-time love with a girl, her quest to lose her virginity to a boy, and her parents' divorce -- as well as the personal and social complications of writing about her life as she lives it. Along the way she hangs out with her favorite teacher, obsesses over clothes, gets drunk, smokes pot, and tries to connect the biology she reads about in textbooks with the biology she's living.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A memoir made while Schrag was still in high school, Potential is an honest, rambling, obsessive narrative of high school angst, with a potential of its own peeking through. The story starts as Schrag comes to terms with the fact that she only likes girls, and then moves into her first failed foray at a relationship, the loss of her virginity and the ups and downs of her first serious lesbian relationship. The plot is bumpy; some segments are awkwardly inserted and lack significant resolution, such as the section focusing on Schrag's attempt to lose her virginity to a guy friend. While an important episode of her adolescence, the segment seems isolated within the larger narrative of Schrag's relationship with her girlfriend, Sally, which is well developed and poignant. The art is very impressive for a comic made by an artist still in high school and matures over the course of the book. The emotional depth of the characters is depicted through vivid and fluid expressions, and Schrag uses different styles to illustrate varying states of consciousness. Schrag's later works are more mature and better formed, but this coming-of-age story amply displays the emotional uncertainty of adolescence. (May)
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Review

"A smart, sweet graphic memoir. Schrag's work should resonate with anyone -- female or male, gay or straight -- who has survived high school." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"A mesmerizing read...hilarious frankness and a wickedly addictive sense of storytelling." -- The Village Voice

"One of the best pure storytellers I have ever read, in any medium." -- The Comics Journal

"Schrag's autobiographical comics illustrate adolescent life with unwavering energy, unrelenting sarcasm, and unabashed detail." -- Bitch

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416552359
• ISBN-13: 978-1416552352
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing  Harriet the Spy meets her match, April 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Potential (Paperback)

Ariel Schrag's work, POTENTIAL, is a must-read for anybody who has ever been to high school. She tells it how it is - from losing her virginity to smearing goat excrement on a boy's face to endear herself to her girlfriend. Absolutely amazing; if you've ever loved Harriet the spy's adventures, this is for you - in this 200-page tome, Ariel gives the upper East side's favorite young spy a run for her money; Ariel's stories are all true, and told with scientific precision.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and honest without being sentimental, February 1, 2002

By 

"danspaldingdotcom" (DanSpalding.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Potential (Paperback)

Ariel's work is beautiful and compelling. Her high school coming-of-age story is so personal, so awkward, so terrible, and still so delirious with potential... you'll recognize it immediately. Five stars.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you'll emphatically love this book, October 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Potential (Paperback)

Rarely do i like comic books, yet Potential is in a category all its own. Not only is it humorous and witty but it also a personal and real account of ariel schrags junior year of high school. queer youth can definitely relate to this book. A book i would highly recommend but be warned that it is rather addicting.