Library Book Reviews

Tomás González, Reference Librarian, Roswell Public Library, New Mexico

     As part of the Roswell Public Library’s “Open Books Open Minds” Book Challenge, readers are challenged to read or listen to books that might be outside of their normal reading interests. March marks the start of Women’s History Month and one of the categories in the “Open Books Open Minds” challenge is to read a comic book with a female protagonist, and in the case of this young adult book there are three females who drive the story.
    “Giant Days” written by John Allison, illustrated by Lissa Treiman, and with colors done by Whitney Cogar, is the story of three young women, of very different backgrounds, attending their first year of college. Susan Ptolemy is the down-to-earth common-sensed of the trio, Daisey Wooten is the naïve one of the group who had been home-schooled through much of her school-learning, and then there is Esther De Groot, the gothic, alternative-thinker of the bunch. The three encounter a variety of adventures from learning to overlook their differences in order to become friends, struggling with being away from home, illnesses, dealing with the opposite sex, and many of the other situations that arise in college life.
    The comic is set in modern day England and some of the phrases may be hard to interpret if not familiar with the British English language and some of the newer slang terms, so the comic can be hard to follow at times. The situations that the three ladies encounter are also up with the times and they face the difficult life choices that young adults deal with when learning about who they are and learning about the world around them. While the choices that the three make throughout the comic may not always be the wisest or best decisions, it is a part of growing up and becoming an adult.
    While this book falls outside of my usual reading interests, it was a quick and easy read and nice to gain another perspective on how college life is experienced through a different gender. Also, it helped mark off one of the check boxes for our book challenge. There is no order that books or challenges must be read and as always, if struggling to find a book that meets the challenge, ask a librarian for help. You can get a challenge list on our website or at the library.