Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I finished the newest Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel–Claudia and the New Girl–night before last, and while I wouldn’t mind reviewing something else, I think my 11-year-old might die if she doesn’t get her hands on it soon. Initial impression? Hey, we’re doing the graphic novels in fours. Raina Telgemeier did the first four, Gale Galligan the second four, and now we have Gabriela Epstein, of whom I have not heard before. (Of course, I could have said the same about Gale Galligan four books ago.) Her lines are a little bit thinner, but I enjoyed her art, and the story was engaging, if slightly didactic. Claudia feels appreciated as an artist by the new girl in school, but as Ashley pushes her to focus on her art and discourages all other pursuits, Claudia finally starts to examine her definition of friendship. Frankly, if you’re going to be didactic to tween and early teenage girls, doing it on the subject of what a good friend really is may be the best possible option, so it mostly worked for me; this is another solid entry for the series.

In other news, I’m the meanest mom ever. Our new couch reclines, and there has been contention over the footrest that’s currently available for use. My son likes to claim it as often as possible, and when his little sister objected this morning, I told him to work out a way to take turns with her or no one got it. His response? “Okay, nobody gets it.” Cruel mother that I am, I responded that if he wasn’t going to make an effort to take turns at all, he could abstain from footrests until after lunch, and his little sister was welcome to it.

It’s the hard-knock life.