Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks | eBook

Pamela Paul

Hicks excels at depicting adolescent emotion and the way feelings ricochet off the actions and reactions of others, each teenager suffering a constant and confusing onslaught of hurt and acceptance, infatuation and rejection, loneliness and relief…She also shows flashes of clever humor…But what mostly emerges is a fundamentally sweet and sensitive story, one with a rare, genuine-feeling portrait of loving sibling relations.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

After being homeschooled her whole life, Maggie is starting high school at a public school and she’s understandably terrified. Anxiously she goes to school and eventually makes a few friends that others might consider weird because of how they look, but they turn out to be good comrades. In the midst of this easy-to-read slice-of-life action, Maggie is also being haunted by a female ghost who died about 200 years ago. Despite the addition of the ghost to the story, the graphic novel continues in realism mode, instead of shifting to a horror tale. And while the book starts out strongly, it leaves many things unanswered, like why Maggie’s mother left or what the ghost wants, leading to a somewhat abrupt ending. Maggie is a likable main character, however, and her anxiety about school is well portrayed, while Hicks’s black and white art is sharp and comically expressive. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

Easy-to-read slice-of-life action . . . . Maggie is a likable main character . . . and her anxiety about school is well portrayed, while Hicks's black and white art is sharp and comically expressive.” —Publishers Weekly

“Friends With Boys started as a daily web comic, still available online, but was designed to work as a book and is a pleasurable read in both formats. The art is easy to follow, lively, and engaging, with plenty of effective silent moments. For all the expected family and high school angst, the book is rife with humor. Maggie is a sympathetic and likeable character and carries the story capably . . . . Hicks handles it all with warmth and aplomb.” —VOYA

“Fun for kids who can appreciate stories about teen angst that do not wallow in depression or self-loathing.” —Children's Literature

“The black-and-white coloring adds a nice somber tone to resonate emotional power, capturing a textual tone that moves from comedic to serious.” —ALAN Review

“Various panel sizes are used to full advantage, creating a cinematic effect that moves from long shots to tight close-ups. Night scenes provide good contrast and heighten the dramatic tension. Excellent pacing gives pause for reflective moments and sets up the action scenes. Hicks is a master of wordless panels, using facial expressions, gestures, and character placement to effectively convey emotions that transcend words. Her artistic brilliance is especially evidenced in the character's expressive faces, particularly the eyes. . . . Originally published as a web comic, this excellent high school drama has already developed an online following. Friends with Boys will win new fans for this talented cartoonist.” —School Library Journal

“Filling monochrome ink-and-wash panels with wonderfully mobile faces, expressively posed bodies, wordless conversations in meaningful glances, funny banter and easy-to-read visual sequences ranging from hilarious to violent, Hicks crafts an upbeat, uncommonly engaging tale rich in humor, suspense and smart, complex characters. Readers will definitely want to have, know or be Maggie's brothers—but she herself proves to be no slouch when it comes to coping with change and taking on challenges.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Hicks excels at depicting adolescent emotion and the way feelings ricochet off the actions and reactions of others, each teenager suffering a constant and confusing onslaught of hurt and acceptance, infatuation and rejection, loneliness and relief…She also shows flashes of clever humor…But what mostly emerges is a fundamentally sweet and sensitive story, one with a rare, genuine-feeling portrait of loving sibling relations.” —The New York Times

VOYA - Lisa Martincik

Maggie McKay is understandably anxious about her first day of high school; to date, she has been home-schooled, and her three older brothers comprise most of her social circle. With guidance from her eldest sibling, Daniel, she eases into crowded school life and even makes her first female friend, but the adjustment is complicated as she struggles also to come to grips with her mother's recent departure. In an act of desperation, she decides to help a ghost from the local cemetery, new friends in tow. Friends With Boys started as a daily web comic, still available online, but was designed to work as a book and is a pleasurable read in both formats. The art is easy to follow, lively, and engaging, with plenty of effective silent moments. For all the expected family and high school angst, the book is rife with humor. Maggie is a sympathetic and likeable character and carries the story capably; her family and friends are interesting but beg for even more development and could easily support an ongoing series. The story itself is nothing new as a growing-up tale, dealing with sibling rivalry, social circles, the faintest stirrings of romance, and self-searching (well, the ghost is an added twist), but Hicks handles it all with warmth and aplomb. Reviewer: Lisa Martincik

Children's Literature - Michael Jung PhD

Making new friends has never been easy for Maggie, who has only really hung out with her brothers during the years she was home schooled by her mother. But when Maggie's mother unexpectedly leaves, Maggie finds herself attending a public high school full of strange teachers, cliques, and after school activities. It is pretty terrifying—yet despite it all, Maggie finds herself beginning to fit in when she makes friends with misfit siblings Lucy and Alistair. Unfortunately, it seems Maggie's brothers have a bad history with Alistair, one that they are not willing to share with their little sister. Oh, and there is one more thing—something that makes Maggie feel even more abnormal than your average teen. She is haunted by the ghost of a lonely widow. Hicks' cartoonish black-and-white artwork fits in well with her tale of adolescent angst (which, to Hicks' credit, never goes overboard into high school melodrama but feels very true-to-life). Unfortunately, the story's unusual gimmick of a ghost haunting a teenage girl remains just that—a gimmick. While there is some symbolic significance between Maggie's relationship with the ghost, her brothers, and her new friends, the ghost never becomes a major character in the story—nor does she need to, since Maggie's day-to-day life is interesting enough without the addition of a supernatural element. Fun for kids who can appreciate stories about teen angst that do not wallow in depression or self-loathing. Reviewer: Michael Jung, PhD

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up—Maggie's secure homeschooled life with three older brothers, Daniel, Lloyd, and Zander, is ruptured when she must negotiate the rough waters of public school and a new family dynamic. She also happens to be haunted by a ghost, the widow of a sea captain, who is less terrifying to Maggie than the prospect of high school. She eventually becomes friends with siblings Alistair and Lucy. This friendship is complicated by Alistair's uneasy relationship with Daniel. The threesome visits the local museum and locates the sea captain's prosthetic hand. Maggie determines that returning it to his widow's ghost will put the apparition to rest. When her theft is discovered, Maggie's brothers come to her rescue, returning the missing artifact and exonerating the trio. Various panel sizes are used to full advantage, creating a cinematic effect that moves from long shots to tight close-ups. Night scenes provide good contrast and heighten the dramatic tension. Excellent pacing gives pause for reflective moments and sets up the action scenes. Hicks is a master of wordless panels, using facial expressions, gestures, and character placement to effectively convey emotions that transcend words. Her artistic brilliance is especially evidenced in the character's expressive faces, particularly the eyes. Note Lucy's face during the horror movie and the faces of the siblings when confronted by their father. Originally published as a web comic, this excellent high school drama has already developed an online following. Friends with Boys will win new fans for this talented cartoonist.—Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Kirkus Reviews

Nervous, homeschooled by her absent and much-missed mom and saddled with three adored older brothers--and a ghost--Maggie starts high school. Largely but not entirely left by her doting upper-grade sibs (who had "first days" of their own) to sink or swim, Maggie starts off in lonely isolation but quickly finds two great friends in Mohawk-wearing, multi-pierced, exuberantly logorrheic classmate Lucy and her quieter (but also Mohawk-topped) brother Alistair. Simmering complications soon reach a boil as Maggie discovers that Alistair and her own oldest brother Daniel have some sort of bad history and, on a more eldritch note, a woman's ghost that Maggie had always been able to see occasionally in the nearby graveyard takes to floating into her house and right up to her face. Filling monochrome ink-and-wash panels with wonderfully mobile faces, expressively posed bodies, wordless conversations in meaningful glances, funny banter and easy-to-read visual sequences ranging from hilarious to violent, Hicks crafts an upbeat, uncommonly engaging tale rich in humor, suspense and smart, complex characters. Readers will definitely want to have, know or be Maggie's brothers--but she herself proves to be no slouch when it comes to coping with change and taking on challenges. (Graphic fantasy. 11-13)

Friends with Boys

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