Be prepared

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
First Second
Publication Date
[2018]
Language
English

Description

Already love Vera’s work? Don’t miss her first novel Return to Sender! "Beautifully drawn, brutally funny, brilliantly honest. Vera is such a good cartoonist I almost can’t stand it.” —Raina Telgemeier, author of SmileIn Be Prepared, all Vera wants to do is fit in—but that’s not easy for a Russian girl in the suburbs. Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps. Vera’s single mother can’t afford that sort of luxury, but there's one summer camp in her price range—Russian summer camp.Vera is sure she's found the one place she can fit in, but camp is far from what she imagined. And nothing could prepare her for all the "cool girl" drama, endless Russian history lessons, and outhouses straight out of nightmares!

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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
For the girls in these graphic novels, a new experience (middle school in Faire, Russian summer camp in Prepared) doesn't quite work out as planned. Expressive cartoon illustrations capture the blend of humor and relatable frustration in both. -- Rebecca Honeycutt
Readers looking for graphic novels based on real experiences will enjoy these witty and relatable books in which a preteen is thrown into stressful social experiences (summer camp in Be Prepared and team sports in Chunky). -- CJ Connor
The challenges of finding meaningful friendship takes center stage in each of these funny, authentic graphic novels based on the author's real life. -- Rebecca Honeycutt
These books have the appeal factors funny, amusing, and own voices, and they have the themes "being a friend" and "coming of age"; the genres "humorous comics" and "comics and graphic novels"; the subjects "making friends," "middle school students," and "friendship"; and characters that are "sympathetic characters."
In these funny, attention-grabbing autobiographical comics, authors focus on a time in their youth that was key to understanding their identity. Mexikid depicts a road trip to Mexico, while Be Prepared chronicles life at Russian American summer camp. -- Malia Jackson
Minimally colored illustrations depict relatable girls trying to survive the summer in these attention-grabbing graphic novels. Vera (Prepared) feels like an outsider while at Russian camp; Bina (Long) spends the summer alone when her friend leaves for camp. -- Lisa Clark
In these funny and feel-good graphic novels, tweens find ways to connect with their Eastern European heritage as their families adjust to life in Canada. -- CJ Connor
At summer camp, tweens reconnect with their cultural heritage and come to better understand their mother (Be Prepared) or sister (Unhappy Camper) in these funny, inspiring graphic novels. -- CJ Connor
Misfit girls spend the summer in new places in these comics based on the authors' childhoods. Both stories are funny and poignant in turn as Jen (Stones) moves to a New York farm and Vera (Prepared) goes to sleepaway camp. -- NoveList Contributor
Each of these accessible, funny graphic memoirs depicts the awkward contortions girls perform to fit in when they feel different (at Russian summer camp in Be Prepared and in middle school in Smile) and presents smart, likeable protagonists forging ahead. -- Robin Brenner
Vera's (Be Prepared) mother sends her to Russian summer camp. Faith (Breakaways) is tricked into joining the soccer team. Both navigate new friendships and self discovery in these attention-grabbing graphic novels. -- Stephen Ashley
Spending their summers embracing their Honduran (Miss Quinces) and Russian (Be Prepared) roots is the last thing the likeable tween heroines of these feel-good own voices graphic novels want to do. -- Autumn Winters

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These authors' works have the subjects "immigrant families," "child immigrants," and "best friends"; and illustrations that are "minimally colored illustrations," "inventive illustrations," and "muted illustrations."
These authors' works have the appeal factors amusing and fun read, and they have the genre "paranormal fiction"; the subjects "teenagers and ghosts," "ghosts," and "schools"; and characters that are "sympathetic characters" and "authentic characters."
These authors' works have the appeal factors creepy, and they have the genres "horror" and "ghost stories"; the subjects "ghosts" and "haunted houses"; and illustrations that are "inventive illustrations," "colorful illustrations," and "detailed illustrations."
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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Vera feels too Russian for her friends in Albany. She can never quite get the hang of sleepover birthday parties, and she'll never have expensive toys like they do. So when she hears about a summer camp just for Russian American kids, she's sure she's finally found her place. But she's much younger than her tent-mates, and impossibly she's not Russian enough to fit in. She stumbles over the language, doesn't know all the songs, and generally can't quite get a handle on roughing it. But what's more Russian than suffering? With fantastic pacing and poignant emotional turns, Brosgol's winsome graphic memoir hilariously captures the lengths kids go to in order to fit in as well as the author's growth from a girl desperate for a place to belong into someone confident enough to stand up for herself. Brosgol's pitch-perfect art varies between serene, contemplative snapshot-like images of nature and comedic scenes between Vera cartoonishly drawn with huge, goggle-eyed glasses and her friends and campmates, all of whom appear in a relatively realistic style. Even though it's rendered only in black, white, and olive green, Brosgol's artwork has immense depth, from the facial expressions and gestures to the spot-on visual gags, and she strikes a perfect balance between heartfelt honesty and uproarious, self-deprecating humor. Perfect for fans of Shannon Hale's Real Friends (2017), this will easily lodge a place in readers' hearts, even as it has them rolling in the aisles.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Brosgol has worked on acclaimed animated films, but she was once a lonely nine-year-old aching for friendship. Here, she relates the story of her monthlong experience at Russian summer camp, where she coped with the horrors of outhouses, feral wildlife, and bug bites, as well as with mean older cabinmates and alienation from her fellow campers. The author/illustrator reprises her cartoony character art and her detailed yet subtle background work. The book eschews the plot-driven and suspenseful storytelling of Brosgol's Anya's Ghost in lieu of a slice-of-life narrative in which problems aren't always neatly resolved. This lends a hard realism to the memoir, in spite of the adorable art style, as young Vera earns small victories and an understanding of herself rather than soaring triumph. The text is simple and accessible, but the relaxed pacing, characters who go often unpunished for cruel behavior, and the brief inclusion of an ill-fated romance set this title apart from more gentle middle grade works. VERDICT A gorgeous, emotional memoir worthy of any graphic novel collection.-Matisse Mozer, Los Angeles Public Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Horn Book Review

This book is a true story. And also made up. Brosgols (Anyas Ghost, rev. 7/11; Leave Me Alone, rev. 9/16) fictionalized graphic memoir captures the ups and downs (lets be honestmostly downs) of a stint at a Russian Orthodox summer camp. Feeling like an outsider at school, Russian American preteen Vera is initially thrilled to attend camp with other Russian kids. Once there, however, she struggles to adjust to the strict rules, lack of modern electricity and plumbing, and drama involving her significantly older tentmates. The storys visual narrative, exposition, and dialogue are in balance as inky illustrations fill smartly placed panels. The tone is accessible, vulnerable, and hilariously kid-centric (there are plenty of potty references). Angle brackets in the speech bubbles indicate dialogue spoken in Russian, and untranslated words and signs build atmosphere. A monochromatic palette using shades of army green reinforces the natural setting, and a cliffhanger ending leaves the door open for a sequel. Gaps between fiction and reality are clarified in an authors note, which also includes primary documents: real-life photographs and a letter written by Vera to her mom (Love, and homesick and crying, Vera. P.S. My stomach hurts every night. It does right now, too). The story, both culturally specific and universal, is a welcome addition to the growing canon of comics by talented women cartoonists (Raina Telgemeier, Tillie Walden, Zeina Abirached, Cece Bell, and many others) based on their own lives. elisa gall (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Brosgol (Leave Me Alone, 2016, etc.) draws on her bittersweet memories of attending Russian summer camp in this accessible graphic novel.Convinced that she will never fit in with the American girls in her class because her family is "too poor," "too Russian," and "too different," 9-year-old Vera jumps at the opportunity to attend Russian summer camp in hopes of finding a peer group she can belong to. However, Russian camp in the Connecticut woods is not at all what she had expected: Her tentmates are two mean girls five years her senior, she doesn't click with any of the other girls, and the outhouse, nicknamed "Hollywood," completely weirds her out. When all of Vera's misguided attempts to fit in with the other kids backfire, she resigns herself to waiting out the miserable days till her mother picks her upuntil she unexpectedly succeeds in making one good friend. Vera's wide-eyed optimism and subsequent frustrations come to life through the vivid interplay between Brosgol's humorous text and her black, white, and olive-green illustrations, colored by Longstreth. While the culturally specific references will particularly resonate with kids of Russian heritage, the larger story will strike chords with any kid who has ever struggled to find a place to belong. It will especially speak to that segment of the population who dreads summer camp, an experience that translates across many cultures. Vera, her schoolmates, and her campmates are all pale-skinned.A funny summer-camp story with a culturally specific slant. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Vera feels too Russian for her friends in Albany. She can never quite get the hang of sleepover birthday parties, and she'll never have expensive toys like they do. So when she hears about a summer camp just for Russian American kids, she's sure she's finally found her place. But she's much younger than her tent-mates, and—impossibly—she's not Russian enough to fit in. She stumbles over the language, doesn't know all the songs, and generally can't quite get a handle on roughing it. But what's more Russian than suffering? With fantastic pacing and poignant emotional turns, Brosgol's winsome graphic memoir hilariously captures the lengths kids go to in order to fit in as well as the author's growth from a girl desperate for a place to belong into someone confident enough to stand up for herself. Brosgol's pitch-perfect art varies between serene, contemplative snapshot-like images of nature and comedic scenes between Vera—cartoonishly drawn with huge, goggle-eyed glasses—and her friends and campmates, all of whom appear in a relatively realistic style. Even though it's rendered only in black, white, and olive green, Brosgol's artwork has immense depth, from the facial expressions and gestures to the spot-on visual gags, and she strikes a perfect balance between heartfelt honesty and uproarious, self-deprecating humor. Perfect for fans of Shannon Hale's Real Friends (2017), this will easily lodge a place in readers' hearts, even as it has them rolling in the aisles. Grades 6-9. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
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School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 5–8—Brosgol has worked on acclaimed animated films, but she was once a lonely nine-year-old aching for friendship. Here, she relates the story of her monthlong experience at Russian summer camp, where she coped with the horrors of outhouses, feral wildlife, and bug bites, as well as with mean older cabinmates and alienation from her fellow campers. The author/illustrator reprises her cartoony character art and her detailed yet subtle background work. The book eschews the plot-driven and suspenseful storytelling of Brosgol's Anya's Ghost in lieu of a slice-of-life narrative in which problems aren't always neatly resolved. This lends a hard realism to the memoir, in spite of the adorable art style, as young Vera earns small victories and an understanding of herself rather than soaring triumph. The text is simple and accessible, but the relaxed pacing, characters who go often unpunished for cruel behavior, and the brief inclusion of an ill-fated romance set this title apart from more gentle middle grade works. VERDICT A gorgeous, emotional memoir worthy of any graphic novel collection.—Matisse Mozer, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal.

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal.
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