b2s pick: Cici’s Journal

Summary; Cici dreams of being a novelist. Her favorite subject: people, especially adults. She’s been watching them and taking notes. Everybody has one special secret, Cici figures, and if you want to write about people, you need to understand what’s hiding inside them. But now she’s discovered something truly strange: an old man who disappears into the forest every Sunday with huge pots of paint in all sorts of colors. What is he up to? Why does he look so sad when he comes back?

In a graphic novel interwoven with journal notes, scrapbook pieces, and doodles, Cici assembles clues about the odd and wonderful people she’s uncovered, even as she struggles to understand the mundane: her family and friends.

Notes: Cici is a young girl who wants to be a writer, so she snoops into people’s lives to find out their story.Think more Harriet the Spy than Nancy Drew. The first part of the book is about an old man who paints pictures of animals in an old zoo.  Cici is inquisitive and precocious but isn’t always nice. This becomes quite apparent in the second half of the book. Cici decides to solve the mystery of why an old woman borrows the same book from the library every week, but as she does so, she neglects her friends and lies to her mom. She learns that her curiosity must be balanced with a sense of compassion for other humans. In this, the author touches upon the importance of maintaining friendships and being truthful and forthright to parents and teachers.

It is a good story of a young person having to deal with friends and family issues, and that most of them feel completely authentic. The mysteries are charming, and that while she might complicate her relationships in the process, she works to make them better and still grow as a person, and a friend. The stories in the Cici book are adorable and contain some good lessons.