I decided I wanted to read through all of Lucy Knisley's books, and went back to this first one, which I had never read before. If she had never published another work, I think this one would largely have been forgotten- especially in today's era of indulgently abundant free diary comics online. This book stands up, and is remarkable partly because so many of the relationships, thoughts, and themes of her later books can already be seen brewing here. It's impossible not to read this one with the later books in mind, and in that light it offers a satisfying peek into Lucy Knisley's beginnings. You can easily see how far she has developed, both as a writer and an artist- but she developed precisely because she spent time making this early work. No one skips ahead directly from novice to master. Sometimes it appears that artists do, because none of their early or student work is published. But Lucy's was, and I'm grateful that this public record of her learning curve is available for anyone to discover.