Junior High (Tegan and Sara #1)

Fans of the duo's work will love this and so will anyone who understands how awkward and important junior high can be.

Gr 5-8--Indie pop stars Tegan and Sara Quin team up with graphic novelist Walden to create a heartfelt, visually stunning coming-of-age story for tweens and teens. Twins Tegan and Sara have always been close, but after a move and a transition to middle school, they must contend with new friends, bullies, puberty, secrets, and worst of all--drifting apart. The story is largely based on their lives, but is set in present day (Tegan and Sara were actually teens in the 1990s). Walden's art, paired with the authors' lyrical words, create an emotionally resonant reading experience that is sure to mesh with adolescents' big feelings. Walden uses different color schemes to highlight each twin, accentuating their points of view and their growing distance. Although the twins experience some anxiety and emotional turmoil through friend drama, new romantic feelings, and beginning to question their sexuality, this is largely a very wholesome, comforting read that celebrates the power of shared creativity to bring people back together. Supplemental material contains photos and notebook pages of Tegan and Sara with their first musical efforts. VERDICT A first purchase for middle school libraries and highly recommended for fans of Svetlana Chmakova and Molly Knox Ostertag.--Catherine Cote

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Twin musicians Tegan and Sara Quin (High School, for adults) collaborate with Walden (Clementine) to deliver a fictionalized contemporary accounting of their 1990s junior high school years in this jam-packed graphic novel. Following a move to Calgary, 12-year-old Tegan and Sara begin their first year of junior high. Things get off to a rocky start, however, when the siblings realize that, for the first time, they'll be in separate classes. Headstrong Sara and soft-spoken Tegan are initially agitated at their classmates' inability to tell them apart and experience anxiety over their separation, but as the year unfurls, they encounter differing social, physical, and emotional firsts. Even as they embark on opposite personal paths, the pair's discovery of their mother's boyfriend's old guitar soon brings them closer together than ever before. Humorous asides to the reader from Tegan and Sara--rendered in blue and red, respectively--are interspersed throughout; Walden winningly depicts densely detailed drawings via frameless, amorphous panels with a purple tone that mixes the twins' individual hues. While some slang and musical references feel forced, the emotions and character interactions are timelessly resonant. Ages 10-14. (May)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Tugs at the heartstrings like a well-tuned guitar.

The high and lows of preteens navigating school and life, inspired by the Quin sibling pop duo's actual childhoods . . . Walden's illustrations are, as usual, wonderfully expressive . . . Tugs at the heartstrings like a well-tuned guitar. —Kirkus Reviews 

The latest book from rock's favorite multihyphenate twins . . . Tweendom may be nobody's favorite era, but it's also undeniably formative—a time when swirling questions of identity and purpose and who you want to be as a person start to solidify in real and surprising ways. As young queer girls navigating those rocky shoals and simultaneously beginning to find their voices through music, who better to speak to that moment? —Entertainment Weekly

Popular twin-sister musicians Tegan and Sara share a fictionalized tale of their early adolescence in this first book of a planned duology . . . Fans of the duo's work will love this and so will anyone who understands how awkward and important junior high can be. —Booklist