Freshman Year by Sarah Mai
Category: Graphic novel
Age group: Young Adult
Format: Physical book
Summary: The story was written semi-autobiographical; thus, the story was based on the author. I do feel as though there are many young adults that can relate to this story and the feeling of not having their life together when everyone else around them seems to know that they are doing.
Justification: The reason I chose this book is because it is a newer book that had been on my to be read list. The cover also caught my eye with the details of a dorm room. I was curious to see what the book would be about.
Evaluation: I will be evaluating the illustrations, the plot, and the layout of the book.
One thing that I was not fond of was that the illustrations were greyscale. I felt a little deceived by the colorful cover and I have read other books that are greyscale, but this one was not as enjoyable. I felt as though having color would have made the story more interesting.
Which comes to my next point, there were some parts of the book that seemed to move at a slower pace than others and I found myself losing interest in the book. At times I felt as though the story was leading nowhere, and the book was longer than it needed to be. The author did mention at the end of the book that this story was based on some events in her life. If they were her personal experiences I do feel as though she could have done a better job to keep it interesting. I do however feel that many readers could relate to her and not knowing where they should be in life.
The layout of this graphic novel was pretty consistent. I do think some graphic novels tend to be all over the place and I felt as though the readers would find the font to be an appropriate size and have clear readability.
References: Mai, S. (2024). Freshman year. Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown and Company.
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