Cartoon Saturday- Fresh Start

Galligan, Gale. Fresh Start
January 7, 2025 by Graphix
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rising seventh grader Ollie is just as glad to be leaving her international school in Frankfurt, Germany, especially after embarassing herself at a year end assembly, and falling out with best friend Rebecca. She and her sister, Cat, who is two years younger, are excited to be moving to Chestnut Falls, Virginia, with their father, who is a diplomat from the US, and their mother, who is originally from Thailand. The two siblings have an imaginary world that figures largely in their play, and Ollie is obsessed with the Quilly anime, and this sometimes causes Ollie to daydream and embarass herself. There are some things that are different in a US school, including the Pledge of Allegiance, state maps, and the English measuring system, and Ollie is on the lookout for possible friends, even drawing a "friend index" and making comments about the likelihood of making friends with various people. Nina is obviously too popular, so Ollie declines her invitation to eat lunch with her friends. Eventually, Zoe Kwon, who wears a lot of cosplay outfits to school, reaches out, and the two hang out together. Zoe's friends are willing to befriend Ollie, even though she thought that they wouldn't want to hang out with her. This includes Nina, whom Ollie discovers (at a sleepover at Zoe's) is part Thai. Their mother's bond, and soon Ollie is taking Thai language classes. After Ollie asks to be allowed to go to Anianicon to meet the group's idol, Sugar Rose, Ollie also finds herself roped into dance classes as well. There is growing tension between the parents and Cat, especially after Ollie is allowed to adopt a hedgehog. The parents don't ask Cat is she would like a pet as well. Ollie also gets a phone, and Ollie starts to feel that her parents aren't treating Cat fairly. The family is planning on staying in Virginia, and are able to visit the father's parents sometimes, but when Ollie makes Nine angry by giving her anime character a backstory different from the one Nina herself envisioned, Ollie starts to wish that she could move again and get another "fresh start". When Cat gets into a situation where her "friends" have created a fake social media account in her name, Ollie is able to see past her own problems to help her sister figure out what to do, and show her parents how they are not treating her sister fairly. 

Strengths: This is a fictionalized account of the author's own life, but brought into a more modern time. There are a not too many books about students who attend international schools (MacLeod's Continental Drifter and Matula's The No-So-Uniform Life of Holly Mei are the only two I can think of) and it's something I wish would see more of, along with characters who move a lot because of parents in the military. Ollie's obsession with anime, and her dislike of parental enforced activities, are both absolutely true to life. The typical tween concerns, like art club, sleepovers, and friend drama, have not changed all that much since the 1990s; I'm adding Galligan to the list of authors who could have been my students. (To be fair, the first students I taught are now 48 years old...)
Weaknesses: I shouldn't find the anime style star eyes and over the top emotions as annoying as I do, but Ollie's reactions to rival Misako's in the Bounce Back series. This is something that will probably not irritate actual tweens who are into anime. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for fans of this author (Freestyle, The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels), or of graphic novel style fictionalized memoirs like Bermudez's Big Apple Diaries,  Cook's Puzzled, Hale's Real Friends, Krosoczka's Sunshine, Martin's MexiKid, Mercado's Chunky, Ogle's Four Eyes.  Rodriguez and Bell's Doodles From the Boogie Down, Russo's Why Is Everybody Yelling, Santat's A First Time for Everything, Soontornvat's The Tryout, Todd's Timid, Xu's Alterations, and Yu's Lost & Found. 

Well, this graphic got out of hand. And yes, I know it doesn't include Smile.