Review: Guts by Raina Telgemeier

Guts
By Raina Telgemeier

Graphix (Scholastic)

ISBN: 9780545852517
$24.99 (Hardcover)
Grades 3-6
Out September 17, 2019

*Best New Book*

Find it at:
Schuler Books | Your Library

[T]here are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the *new*.

Anton Ego said that in my favorite animated movie, Ratatouille (what a surprise, my favorite cartoon is the one that features a critic). Writing a book review often comes down to: Do I discuss a book that people don’t know about? Or one they do? Clearly, the fun is in the new. But Guts is by someone you likely know pretty well – Raina Telgemeier. Guts doesn’t need a review to let people know they should read it – fans of her past work are chomping at the bit. But when it’s this good, I can’t help myself.

It’s a couple years earlier than Smile, and Raina is having stomach problems. What’s the cause? Why does the thought of puking freak her out so much? And how will all of it effect her family and school life?

There’s nothing more universal than food, and the book deals with food in a way I haven’t seen before – a sort of non-judgmental depiction of one tween’s eating ups and downs, and the anxiety that comes with it. It’s, to my knowledge, the first graphic novel about I.B.S.. While the topic could be (and boy has it been) mined for easy humor, Guts is refreshingly retrained, focusing on the real life impacts of I.B.S. and saving the one big punchline for the last page of the book.

So I’m not risking anything here. I’m not discovering or defending the new. But I am telling you that this book is great.

Review copy from the publisher.

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Filed under: *Best New Books*, Reviews