If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you’ll know that my nine year old has been on a Raina Telgemeier kick, and she likes to discuss books, so I read all the ones she borrowed from the library.

When my daughter first explained the premise of Guts, I’ll admit I did not want to read it. I do not like reading about or in any other way experiencing the stomach bug. And that’s where this book starts. The protagonist wakes up with the stomach bug, which she got from her sister, and the whole rest of the book follows her fears as they manifest in her gut.

But I was pleasantly surprised. The gross parts are not too graphic. The “sick” parts are mainly just shaded green panels in the graphic novel to mimic the way the protagonist feels rather than anything physical that might be happening.

I’m seeing the pattern as I read more of Telgemeier’s works: the story is about something physical, like in this case a stomach bug, but there’s an underlying fear or issue that causes the protagonist to have problems. In this case, her concerns, partly about growing up and watching others hit puberty before her, partly about her lack of privacy in the house that she shares with her family (including one bathroom for all 5 and a single bedroom for all 3 kids), cause her to develop IBS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, in which she is stressed out, and that impacts her digestive system, and then because of her impacted ability to function, she worries about what she eats and whether it will impact her. It’s a vicious cycle.

The book definitely centers around the main character and does not delve into the side characters too much, but I think that’s mostly the conventions of a graphic novel. I love how easy graphic novels are to read, and I love that the visual adds a layer that regular novels do not have, but of course there’s a lot of words that need to be implied by pictures. I think Telgemeier does a great job of telling a story visually like that, and as I mentioned, my nine year old has been reading these super fast.

Because I am more into fiction, I think Ghosts is still my favorite Telgemeier work so far, but this more autobiographical work seems more useful to kids—especially growing up—as they confront everyday issues they may not know how to articulate.

I look forward to reviewing the last of the novels my daughter brought home, Sisters.