PICTURE DAY

A seventh grader’s attempts to live her truth backfire when she fails to listen to her friends.

Olivia Vivian Sullivan, now going by Viv to differentiate herself from all the other Olivias in her grade, is horrified when her mother sends her to school on picture day wearing a hand-knit floral cardigan with her hair in the same old boring braid. A follower of cutting-edge internet influencer Quinn Sparks, who’s Black and androgynous, Viv, unlike best friends Milo (a brown-skinned boy) and Al (a redheaded White girl), longs to attract attention. Racially ambiguous Viv, who has light brown skin and purple hair, initiates this plan for self-expression by hacking off her braid in the school bathroom. When that doesn’t garner the response she hoped for she escalates matters, creating big scenes. She helps another girl arrange an elaborate, public Halloween-dance invitation for her cheerleader crush with great success. But when she strong-arms Milo and Al into another all-school spectacle, it backfires, humiliating her friends. An impressively strong debut, this work authentically touches on family relationships, individuality, the pros and cons of online fame, and the value of genuine apologies. Supporting characters are multidimensional, and Viv, Milo, and Al are skillfully given full family backgrounds in just a few scenes. The drawings vary from several panels to full pages, with and without borders, conveying drama and emotion.

Bold, brash, and honest.