Saturday Morning Cartoons- Chickenpox

Lai, Remy. Chickenpox
January 14, 2025 by Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks

E ARC provided by Netgalley.

In 1994, author Remy Lai was living with her family in Indonesia, but she tells the story of her family's bout with chicken pox from the point of view of her oldest sister, Abby. Abby is 12, Amy is 11, Remy is 8, Andy 6, and Tommy just 3. This makes the household a bit like "a wild zoo" from time to time. Abby will do just about anything to escape the ruckus, including taking piano lessons, and spending lots of time at her friends Julia and Monica's houses. When the two want to meet Abby's siblings, she reluctantly has them over, but when the kids pester them, Abby finds herself fighting with them. Julia makes the comment that Abby is acting like "a fourth grader", which hurts her feelings. Julia comes down with chicken pox and is out of school, and Abby is wary of hanging out with Monica because of the comment, hanging out with her friend who is a boy, Sandy. When the Lai's go to a local hotel pool to swim, Remy notices that she has mosquito bites, but when the other children seem to have them as well, they get hauled to Dr. Sutanto, who diagnoses chicken pox (called "watery pox" in Indonesian). Abby seems to have escaped them and is glad, since her siblings have to be quarantined for 7-10 days, but she wakes up the next morning with them as well. The progression of the disease is nicely laid out for modern readers who have not experienced this; there's even a nice author's note talking about the vaccine that was available shortly after her experiences. Everyone is sick and laid low for a while; Abby rebounds a bit more quickly, so ends up trying to help her mother and amuse and cater to her brothers and sisters. Sometimes this goes awry, like the time that she suggest the forbidden game of "ghost" that involves covering each other with flour. Abby ends up having to clean up the mess, and as the oldest, is always blamed. Things are difficult with Julia and Monica; at one point, Abby calls Julia, and based on their conversation comes to the conclusion that she "like likes" Sandy. She tells Monica this, and is surprised that Monica is a little cold toward her. At one point, Abby calls Julia's house, but ends up telling Julia's mother that the remark about being like a fourth grader hurt her feelings, and Julia's mother cancels a birthday party. Abby is later able to fix this mistake. There are some sisterly successes, like when Abby must watch the other children while her mother takes Tommy to the doctor because his chicken pox have become infected, and she encourages them all to create a library with check out cards, and this keeps them amused for some time. Eventually, everyone gets better, and Abby manages to talk to her friends and figure things out, so that when she returns to school, it's not so bad. 

Strengths: This is definitely a historical topic that we needed, before all of the authors are too young to remember what having chicken pox is like! Having it set in a family with five children makes it much more interesting; of course they all got sick at the same time. Adding a bit of friend drama, and explaining how the land line was the only way to communicate was a good move. There are some other things like VHS tapes and video rental stores that also have a tiny bit of explanation for middle school students, who at this point in time were born around 2010-2013! This was a fun but informative graphic novel from the author of Ghost Book, Pie in the Sky, and other popular titles. 
Weaknesses: There could have been a few more 1990s references, but since this is set in Thailand, the popular culture was probably not quite the same. There are some good fashion depictions; I'm glad that chicken pox are gone, but we could use more bright colors! I was a little surprised that Abby and her siblings scratched their pox; I remember being coated in calamine lotion and being told that horrible things would happen to me if I scratched (I was younger than Remy!). I remember my mother taking her long fingernails and trying to scratch in between my pox!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want a historic look at a bygone disease, or who enjoy graphic novels with family interactions, like Lloyd's Squished or Tang's Parachute Kids.