Chiggers

Chiggers by Hope Larson is fun and charming. Larson’s art captures the look and atmosphere of summer camp, and her writing infuses the graphic novel with authentic mood and realistic conversations. Chiggers follows Abby’s efforts to make friends, flirt with boys, and understand Shasta, an odd but vulnerable girl who claims to have been struck by lightning. At times Larson inserts fantasy elements into the art and plot that leave the reader wondering how much, if any of it, is simply a bird’s-eye-view of character Abby’s imagination. Overall, Chiggers is a fast but enjoyable read, and artist/writer Larson brings out the awkward and hurtful micro-episodes in a young adolescent’s summer vacation. Also recommend R. Telgemeier’s show more Smile (2010). show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this magical-realism suspenseful summer camp story. I especially enjoyed the fact that it focused on a young girl's point of view of peer pressure and friendship dynamics, which is generally underrepresented in kid's adventure comics. Having grown up a boy, it's fun getting insight into how young women interact with each other. The book's exploration of peer pressure and group friendship dynamics is excellent and thought provoking, probably even more so for teenage readers who are actively experiencing them. Larson's strong black brushwork is very good, looking at her drawings is a big pleasure.

I also enjoyed that it's set in my home state of North Carolina in the excellent town of Asheville.

Abby has arrived at camp first (as usual, due to her mother) and as the other girls arrive everyone slips back into their camp personalities and cliques. Abby's closest friend Rose has returned as a counselor this year and her additional duties preclude her and Abby from hanging out as much.

As the bunks fill in her cabin Abby ends up with new girl Deni beneath her who spends her day complaining about what a dump the camp is and her nights scratching herself into oblivion. The girls come back to their cabin and find Deni mysteriously gone, and quickly the rumor is she contracted chiggers and was sent home.

The next girl to fill the bunk is Shasta, a hippie-esque weirdo who refrains from many camp activities due to her own mysterious show more illness, a illness that requires a daily medication she refuses to take. While Abby has always been a sort of fifth wheel around her cabin mates, Shasta is the out-and-out weirdo, and when Abby is stuck showing the new camper around she finds herself battling between distancing her self from Shasta and making friends with her.

Shasta, it turns out, was struck by lightning and occasionally finds her hair raised on end and little balls of lightning drift into her cabin looking for her. There's tension between Abby and Shasta when they find themselves attracted to the same boy until Shasta is sent home for failure to take her medicine. Camp ends with a kiss and a bandanna and memories that make camp that place where strangers are friends for life until it's time to go home.

Larson's graphic novel pulls off the trick of being episodic without feeling episodic, telling the story of a summer without a plot. Abby, and all the girls for that matter, are mean and nice, conflicted and assured, friends and enemies. They are kids at that age where everything is possible which means they run hot and cold with the wind. Everything is possible at camp, and Larson picks out those moments that highlight those possibilities; the friendship bracelets, the games of capture the flag, the overnight hike with the ghost stories and a flashlight. None of it cliched or bathed in the patina of nostalgia or underscored with "deeper meaning" than the moment it exists in.

More like this, please. show less

A simple summer camp story, with all the camp trappings, friendship, growing up, popularity and the lack of it. Abby's relationships have the intensity that only the compressed time of summer camp can give.
I'd give this to middle school girls who are looking for a realistic story - and I wonder if the graphic novel format might help hook in reluctant readers.

What Larson does really well here is capture the feelings and social interactions of middle school girls. The somewhat fantastical elements don't work as well combined with this though. I was never quite sure what the little balls of light were meant to represent - lightning? magic? both? The insecurities and frustrations that Abby faces though ring true and middle school girls will enjoy reading abuot this brief summer that Abby spends at camp. I guess I would have preferred more character development but that can be hard to come by in such a brief format and perhaps suits the somewhat superficial relationships that by neccessity are made at summer camp.

A very good young-adult graphic novel for girls. A summer at camp, more sweet than bitter, but a bit of both.

Chiggers is the story of Abby, who goes back to the same camp she’s been going to every summer, only to find everything is different this year. Her friend Rose is a cabin assistant and doesn’t have much time for her, and her other friends don’t like the new girl she’s been asked to show around. My main problem with this graphic novel was that, although I like Larson’s crisp drawing style, some of the characters looked so similar that I had trouble telling them apart (even on second reading). I also found that I didn’t “get” parts of the story. For example, it wasn’t clear to me why Abby’s friends disliked Shasta so much. (They say she’s annoying, but I didn’t really see why.) I also didn’t understand the show more significance of what happened at the very end of the story. I did enjoy the fact that the book included the rules of a card game played by the characters as well as instructions on how to make a friendship bracelet. I also thought the magic realism elements of the story were intriguing, but unfortunately not fully developed. I can’t recommend this one, although lots of other folks enjoyed it. show less