Real Friends / Washi Tape Crafts
Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 7
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
A GRAPHIC MEMOIR ABOUT HOW HARD IT IS TO FIND YOUR REAL FRIENDS―AND WHY IT’S WORTH THE JOURNEY.
Real Friends
by Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)
First Second
2017, 224 pages, 5.1 x 0.3 inches, Paperback
Do not judge this book by its cover. If you did, you might guess that Real Friends is a bright, optimistic, underdog story in the girl power, kill ‘em with kindness, best friends forever vein. I like to think this was a subversive move on the part of the book designers to lure book-buying parents who are searching for titles through the rose-colored lenses of age and distance. Or, better, to serve as a true cover for the kid reader who recognizes her best-bright-self in one of the girls on the outside of the book, only to realize later that the story inside, the inside-story of feelings and hopes and fears and the many changing faces of friendship, is one she is so relieved to see here, in full-color validation and print.
Shannon Hale’s graphic memoir of navigating childhood life and relationships is brought to life through LeUyen Pham’s illustrations, which carry the story in and out of young Shannon’s experiences, both real and imagined. It is perhaps unfair to say imagined, as it is clear to any reader, young or old, that experiences (especially these early ones of friends and family) are simply understood as they are. And that understanding (of oneself as a super sleuth, or a loner lost at sea) is as real, maybe even more so, than the person or event as it appeared to be. Hale and LeUyen perfectly portray the complexity of finding one’s identity amidst, and in relation to, friends, family, and our own feelings. Real Friends is a must-read for anyone who was, is, or loves a young girl.
– Marykate Smith Despres
WASHI TAPE CRAFTS: 110 WAYS TO DECORATE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING
Washi Tape Crafts: 110 Ways to Decorate Just About Anything
by Amy Anderson
Workman Publishing Company
2015, 320 pages, 6.7 x 1.0 x 6.3 inches, Paperback
…And she does mean just about anything. Your nails, your garage floor, your keys, your sunglasses, your T-shirt, other pieces of washi tape, it’s all ripe for taping over and onto.
You know how The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is interesting not just for the case stories, but for the glimpses it gives you of Sacks’ writing process and how his brain works? That’s how I feel about Washi Tape Crafts. I picked it up thinking I was going to find interesting projects to do on rainy days, but there is so. much. more. going on here. Read it as a how-to for easy, interesting DIY projects, or imagine it all happens in a lost weekend and read it as a novel about one woman’s descent into pastel-colored insanity. Comes with ten rolls of washi tape.
– Sara Lorimer
03/26/24
