I don’t know if you’re like me, but I can judge a book by its cover. I usually say, “Nope, not for me.” Or, “Yeah baby! Sign me up!” And while I have missed the mark on a few (a yes turned into a no), I am usually on the money with what I will like. Therefore, when I found Skip by Molly Mendoza, I figured out my interest early on. The cover (in the catalog I was looking at) looked like someone had spilled melted crayons onto the page but there was a (I thought) a boy with a baseball cap, so I assumed sports. So, yeah, not for me. Until, it kept popping up in my searches for various searches I was doing. Finally, I said, “Okay universe! I got the hint!” And put in an interlibrary loan request. A few months later, I received an email saying they had just noticed this request and was I still interested in it? I said, obviously I had forgotten about it, so I wasn’t in any hurry, but yes, I was still interested. A few weeks later, I get an email saying it was in.
I will start with the cover really looked like melted crayons and the second thing I realized was that I should have read it twice, but it was coming up on the due date and I decided not to read it again. But I think I got enough to know that I am glad I didn’t purchase it. Not that it was/is a bad book, but not one I wanted to keep. There was a lot going on and I was not sure how much I liked-liked it it. But I started thinking about it, and realized it is both very good, fun, decent read, but also self-serving and a bit “artsy” at times. Yet, that just makes it work.
Things are set in a minimalistic worded, but busily illustrated story of a young child who must “find their place” while being lost in worlds not their own. Different dimensions and realities play out as Bloom lives up to their name by learning to “bloom” in their surroundings; they must “grow” and take the next step in their journey/life. Each world they find seems to be heavily dystopian-like worlds, this making some possible trigger moments due to content, and a lesson of “maybe my friends don’t understand me, because I did not take the time to understand them” play out.
That is the surface of things, but you can go deeper. One such theme is that there are no genders that I can tell/remember reading. I know that Bloom and their parental figure/the person who raised them are always called them/they (such as Bloom looked at them; must do what they were told by them). And even one of the characters from another dimension, Gloopy, does not have any real gender markers we would consider male or female. They are not even “human” really. There are other layers as well. Things are artistic. There are computer-like worlds, 2D worlds, worlds with dragons, worlds with war, worlds with odd bird creatures and everything in between. You might even meet a God/Goddess.
Overall, this is a typical coming of age story, but the art gives it a different look and takes on things. Maybe not for the beginner reader of graphic novels, but one for the reader looking for something a bit different.