Very cute with some middle-school friend drama. Heavily inspired by the author's life. The story focuses on the point where a person, young Steph in this case, decides whether to pursue art or keep it as a hobby and add on top of that immigrant parent's expectations. 

 I’ve never been super into mecha manga or anime, but I wanted to read the first volume. First, the character design’s funky in a good way. It’s refreshing to get a manga with characters in college or actually post-grads/graduate students.

On the positive, the robot scenes are dynamic and look good.

Didn't care for the portrayal of female characters at all. The snarky guy’s sister seems flat, vapid, and manipulative. The manga goes out of its way for Hiroshi’s nonverbal, little sister’s legs to be spread. Like, for no reason and it’s very intentional, however, you want to take that. The sister is wide-leggedly open all the time; bust open like a can of biscuits with a full-on panty shot. No sir, no ma’am.  This type of thing is off-putting. 

Anyway, won’t be continuing but gave it a shot since it was on display at the library. Ultimately it couldn't keep my interest. 

 A good collection of base-ball centered shorts. Seeing the Peanuts gang in Tokyo was surreal but fun. The kids are really awful to Charlie Brown more than usual in this one. I know Charlie Brown's always giving "woe is me," but they are seriously out to hurt his self-esteem with a vengeance here.

My favorite was the Pelican and Tokyo comics. Marcie and Peppermint Patty are a mess lol 

Charming! Sometimes, you just need one person to see you. Where other teachers see a problem child, a guidance counselor is able to see underneath Charisma's shield. The artwork fluctuates from beautiful to sketchy and undone. But I overall liked the book.

 Unfortunately, I didn't like the slow pacing of this story or the lead. The main character was easily led around and dreadfully boring. She didn’t really have a backbone; always at the whimsy of Aimee or running behind Tracey. 

Most likely this could have been a purposeful decision on the author's part to give us a blank slate to discover the story through, but she was so dull. At least her mama was ambitious. The minor characters like Hawa were much more interesting to me.

The parts I liked involved the time the main character spent monitoring Aimee’s girl's school and the cultural shock and blunders she went through. 

I feel like this is one of those books you’re supposed to like, y’know that has universal appeal, but I didn’t get the point. 

 ETA: The reason the main character and Tracey fell out is so dumb. Like, they drifted apart for sure, but why was that the catalyst? 

This one’s a doozy, and it’s fun from page one. I enjoyed the humor, the worldbuilding, and the twists and turns. I’d read another story from this author.

This was wholesome. Avery was so thoughtful and tried to endure so much. She didn't want to be a burden to her parents, but she needed her space. 

As a kid, with situations like having to move, change schools, or take care of siblings, you often don’t get a choice or opinion about. Avery’s feelings about the world around her felt realistic, and I understood her frustration. The rest of her siblings were a little one-note, but they felt like a big, happy family too.