Smaller Sister
by Maggie Edkins Willis ; illus. by the author
Intermediate     Roaring Brook    320 pp.         g
6/22     978-1-250-76741-7     $22.99
Paper ed.  978-1-250-76742-4    $14.99

In Willis’s debut graphic novel, based on her own experiences, narrator Lucy worships her older-by-one-year sister Livy. They play together, then fight, then make up—always. Things change when their parents send them to a brand-new school to start fifth and sixth grades. Shy Livy, furious at losing her tight-knit friend group, takes her anger out on her younger sister, who watches in dismay as Livy begins to obsess about her appearance and develops an eating disorder. Details about Livy’s slow starvation are highly disturbing, but the cartoon-style illustrations help keep everything at a tolerable level and even manage to include lighthearted moments. With lots of therapy, and plenty of setbacks, Livy begins to recover, only to notice that Lucy has started losing weight. Heartbreakingly, Lucy can’t help envying Livy’s thinness in this story that lays bare diet culture’s pervasive hold. Preteens listen to their peers; wisely, it’s mainly Livy rather than an adult who explains the facts about disordered eating. (Helpful advice also comes from Lucy’s awesome summer camp counselor, who encourages her to grow—in all ways—rather than shrink.) Holding this captivating story together is Lucy and Livy’s unbreakable bond of sisterhood, authentically portrayed in both art and text. Appended with an author’s note and resources.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.