Coni Yovaniniz

Mariana has just moved to Ohio and is having trouble making friends. Her dad doesn’t want to take her advice about using social media for his hair salon business, but when she overhears two of her classmates talking about starting a hair salon of their own, she swallows her anxiety and talks to them. The three girls have a great time starting a hair salon and become fast friends. Even though there are many hiccups along the way, Mariana learns to be resilient and communicate with her show more friends to work out their differences.

This middle-grade graphic novel is fine for a first book. It’s a little too long and the idea of a bunch of middle-schoolers starting a real hair salon in an old food truck that charges real money and makes their own hair dye is a little too illogical. But I really liked the lessons the girls learned about working through their problems and I would recommend this to middle grade readers. The art is good but not really notable. show less

I really wanted more depth to this one, to know more about the three friends beyond each one’s most prominent personality trait and dig into the emotional stuff, the loss of Mariana’s mother and maybe see more of the relationship with her dad.

I also didn’t love how easily the business comes together, they’re given a food truck, able to quickly transform it into a salon, there’s no mention of the financial side of things, no mention of licenses or permits or whatever you’d need show more for that or for the experimental dye. I get that this is a graphic novel for kids, the salon was probably meant to just have a fantasy/aspirational quality, but I guess my sensibilities skew a little more down to earth than that, for me, it would have been easier to buy into the girls covertly setting up shop during lunch hour in their school bathroom, that would have seemed a little more lemonade stand relatable as far as kid businesses go, plus it could have added an urgency to the plot with the girls trying not to get caught by the school staff.

The art is cute and colorful and the salon helped some of the customers come into their own, so that was good, I just overall thought this could have done so much more with the characters and the concept. show less

On the whole, a cute, fun book with overwhelmingly positive themes -- being true to yourself, making new friends, listening and helping people out, moving slowly through grief and a new home. The art is great, the characters are sweet, the messages are all about learning confidence, working through anxiety and taking care of each other. I do feel like it's heavy on the wish fulfillment, rather than the reality (who gives middle schoolers an RV to start a salon on a moment's notice? How does show more the stalk of corn haircut even work?), and I also feel like it skates past most of the heavy subjects, or implies things happening in the art that aren't articulated. It misses a lot of heart and impact of longer books like Smile, but it's a pretty happy book. show less

This comic is delightful. I read it originally as a webcomic and loved it enough that I immediately bought the physical copy as well. Yovaniniz's art is simple but clear and expressive, and it is a joy to spend time with their characters. The cast is kind and supportive of each other, making this series a pleasant, relaxing read.