Author/illustrator Craig Thompson takes us on an autobiographical journey through some of the defining coming-of-age moments in his child and teenage years. The main storyline of the book focuses on Craig meeting a girl at church camp around his senior year of high school, falling madly in love, and going to stay two weeks with her family. But there are also snippets of a storyline from when he and his brother were much younger.

This was such a lovely, tender, and heartbreaking story to read. Thompson does an incredible job of illustrating these compelling and often introspective moments of his childhood, and I could really feel the emotion coming off of the page. So realistic and relatable, I feel like I know these characters (and occasionally were some of these characters growing up). I love the moments when Craig plays with the medium, allowing moments of fantasy to reinforce the thoughts/feelings of the characters.

The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of full closure at the end. I get that’s how life is, and this just a snippet in his own, but there are things I still would have liked to known (including a very dark moment that was never explained)