Comments for Sisters

Sisters: 10/10/14

Sisters by Raina Telgemeier is a follow up to her orthodontic memoir, Smile. Although it has the same people at about the same age, this book is a different part of her story — one about being a big sister and the frustration that can come with that.

The relationship between Raina and her sister, Amara, (and later, their younger brother) is framed with a trip to Colorado for a family reunion. As they drive there are flash backs to Raina's expectations of being a big sister — vs the reality of it. Though sisters, they are very different people. Amara is not the instant playmate she'd hoped for. Even when she grows older, she's still not the playmate.

From the children's point of view there's the competitions — like who can have the better pet? Who can draw the better picture? So on and so forth. Even the best behaved, happiest of siblings will still compete or find some other way to push each other's buttons.

And there's the snake that Amara loves and Raina's scared of. The snake is probably my favorite part of this book because my brother and I have our own snake story.

Our snake was a San Francisco garter snake, found in a friend's yard and given to us in a plastic terrarium. My mother like Raina wanted nothing to do with the snake. We were supposed to keep the snake outside until we could find a proper home for it (being any home not ours). But we brought it inside to the upstairs bathroom because that seemed like a better idea.

(Photo by Vabbley)

The snake escaped.

After Mom stopped yelling, we were grounded.

A week later after we were sure it was dead, I found the snake while cleaning the bathroom. The snake had crawled under the fuzzy toilet seat cover we had on the lid. He was happily asleep and minding his own business. I'm glad I found him instead of my mom. Otherwise, there would have been another round of groundings and the snake probably would have ended up dead. So the snake plot from start to finish — especially the finish, had me roaring with laughter.

Five stars

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