Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Whitney Gardner has been on my radar for years, as my older girls and I have read her other graphic novels (Fake Blood especially cracked me up); when I saw she’d published a new one last summer and it was called Free Piano (Not Haunted), I was kind of psyched for it. (On the cover, the “Not” is underlined twice, which I found even more entertaining.) And while it doesn’t have the same sort of specific, sly references to pop culture as Fake Blood does, it does add a fun twist to some well-known tropes. When Margot acquires a secondhand synthesizer, she’s thrilled at the idea of her dad teaching her to play it; her dad, however, is off to LA to pursue his music dreams, and so she’s left at home with her hardworking, rarely home mother. Margot’s feeling desperately alone when the ghost of an 80s pop diva who died young pops out of the synthesizer and starts asking her sometimes difficult questions about why Margot wants to be a musician–and for whom. Unfortunately, Vision isn’t the only ghost hanging out in the synthesizer…

Free Piano moves more quickly into its denouement than I was necessarily expecting; on the other hand, it’s a juvenile graphic novel with a few extra creepy panels, so I’m inclined to give it a pass. My favorite part as a parent was the theme of what (and who) is and isn’t important, especially Gardner’s negative portrayal of the times Margot is preoccupied with her phone and followers. Kids today need that message, and a graphic novel with an entertaining hook is a great way to get it across. I’m looking forward to my younger two girls reading it.

In the meantime, I prepped and distributed the first round of prizes for screen-free week today, and while I had a wretched night’s sleep, it’s been a pretty chill day overall. I’ll take it!