Adapted and illustrated by Victoria Ying
Based on Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon by Paula Danziger
3 stars
I really enjoyed this series as a kid and it was fun to revisit this story in graphic format.
The illustrations are great. Ying’s character designs are wonderful and the art really captures their movements and mannerisms.
The chapters are quite short so this works well for a young audience. The artwork really pushes the story along with manageable dialogue and narration throughout. The plot is quick-paced and the visuals nicely capture the emotions of the scene. Makes for a pretty quick read.
The story deals with various aspects of friendship from fights to forgiveness, moving away to having difficulty communicating. Also touches on divorce and growing distant from a parent.
Does a good job of staying true to the original while making sense to a modern reader.
A cute adaptation overall. For me, the pacing felt a bit rushed. While it contains a lot of the original dialogue, the illustrations replace some of Amber’s narration, making it move more quickly and replacing some of the natural pauses. Still a nice adaptation for a modern audience.
Makes me want to go back and re-read some of the originals.