New York Times: BAD SISTER on list of "11 Summer Graphic Novels for Early and Middle-Grade Readers"
“I was a bad sister. It wasn’t on purpose. The badness just happened.” So begins this wickedly funny, wrenchingly remorseful graphic memoir by the author/illustrator of the “Crafty Cat” and “Fashion Kitty” series, her words here perfectly matched with the kinetic, retro, comic-strip-style art of Rory Lucey.
The book is divided into chapters devoted to the respective powers of Charise and her younger brother, Daniel. She gets more (duh) owing to her supreme power — the power of being older — though he possesses that one super-annoying power of being younger: He’s outgoing, friendly and helpful (or as the older sister sees it, a pleaser, a suck-up), so everyone likes him. How unfair is that? Other big-sister powers include the Power of Blame: “I was good at pointing.” And the Power to Dare: “He was the follower and I was the leader.” But just when you start to think she’s truly evil, she begins to realize Daniel has powers too — superpowers even — like being able to recognize people. (Charise has face blindness.) Eventually Charise and Daniel become partners in crime. And when they fight she finds it harder to stay mad: “It was exhausting to be mean.”
Harper ends the book with a real-life photograph of herself and her little brother as children. She confesses that she still has the toy truck she stole from him many years ago. And dedicates the book to him, with love.
