Seventeen-year-old Christine keeps a journal of an eventful year in her life in mid-90s, while juggling troubled friendships and looking for love.
Itโs January 1, 1996, and high school junior Christine wants more than anything to be that cool girl everyone notices, like her gorgeous best friend, Landry. She usually hates New Year's resolutions, but this year she vows to be that shiny kind of girlโand record it all in her diary through prose, illustration, and comics.
When Landry drops her, Christine is surprised to discover just how much she doesnโt miss her and her drama. But a misguided kiss with film-obsessed Paul, her only other close friend, also causes a rift, and she finds herself facing a long, lonely summer.
With nothing to lose, Christine finds a new sense of courage. She gets a job at her neighborhood video store, experiments with her art, and becomes romantically entangled with her next-door neighbor Whit, whoโs either the coolest guy ever or a total jerk. In spite of all this, she doesnโt quite feel shinyโuntil a shocking betrayal shows her the value of the words and drawings she hides in her diary, and she finally understands that she doesnโt need to be cool to be noticedโshe only needs to be herself.
Eisner-award winning author and illustrator, Hope Larson, has created a powerful coming-of-age story set in a time before the Internet that explores themes of betrayal, first love, self-expression, and the power of art.
A Bank Street Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection