Lola Zola, a series for tweens

Plot Summary
Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush: Lola Zola is understandably upset and confused when both of her parents are laid off from their jobs at the auto plant. She’s only eleven years old, but she feels the fate of her family resting on her shoulders, and she won’t let them drown in debt. Lola decides to start a lemonade stand in front of the house, enlisting her best friend Melanie to help. But after buying all the ingredients and treating her fair-skinned friend to a sun-blocking umbrella, Lola is out of money—and no one seems to like her lemonade that much, anyway. But Lola won’t give up. She finds a secret ingredient and engages in some covert marketing, and her business booms! Then Slime Bucket, an annoying boy from school, starts selling limo-nade from the trunk of his father’s limo, right across the street from Lola! Will her enemy ruin her business before Lola is able to save her family from bankruptcy?

New Girl on Salt Flat Road: Lola Zola begs her mom for a bra, just wanting to be like all the other girls in middle school, but her mom keeps saying Lola doesn’t need a bra yet. She wants her daughter to stay a child, while Lola is really to grow up! Especially when a new girl moves in, a girl that Lola and her best friend Melanie dub “Tween Queen Pauline” due to her gorgeous hair and curvy body. Zola feels like the chosen one when Pauline invites her to the mall to try on bikinis (even though Lola doesn’t fill hers out) and to a makeup party (even though Lola isn’t allowed to wear makeup). Unfortunately, this makes Melanie, Lola’s best friend, feel left out. But when Lola discovers that Pauline shoplifts and likes boys—including Lola’s crush!—she isn’t as sure that she wants to be Ms. Popularity.

Critical Analysis
Lola Zola is a great new series for tween girls. Lola has a huge personality, making the books fun even while they tackle issues like unemployment, alcoholism, and peer pressure. The characters in the books come off the page, even when they play minor roles. The books use a lot of slang, which will appeal to tween readers.
     There are a few sections in New Girl on Salt Flat Road where the timeline jumps a bit from present time to flashbacks (sometimes just an earlier instance in the same day) that is confusingly worded, but overall the books are very accessible for tweens, written in their language—literally, in the case of current slang, but also written for their grade level.
     Lola Zola is published by “Brown Girls Publishing” (which does NOT exclusively print African-American books OR African-American authors) and the character often laments about her wild hair, but otherwise nothing is explicitly stated about Lola’s race. Which doesn’t matter, of course, though the series seems to be about people of color (especially if you judge both books by their covers). This doesn’t detract from the story at all, but I think it would be a great opportunity to highlight a strong, bold girl of color - IF that is what the authors intended. Melanie, Lola’s best friend, is frequently mentioned as being pale and freckling in the sun, so it would be just as easy to slip in a few phrases about Lola’s race.

Personal Response
Growing up, I was a big fan of the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It follows Alice from elementary school, and just ended with a book catching us up to Alice’s 60th birthday! I can see the Lola Zola series stretching out like that, growing up with the girls who read it and acting as a guide and inspiration as they do. I was a shy kid so I loved reading about characters that were bolder than me, and Lola is definitely that girl! She’s very sassy, but at the same time she is relatable and faces issues that most girls face, so it’s inspiring that she deals with real issues while still being true to her personality. I would really like to see this turned into a TV series, or even made-for-TV movies, because the stories are so vivid that I think they could translate really well to screen, and reach even more girls in the process.

Related Links
Keep up with Lola Zola on the blog: LolaZola.com and on Twitter: @tweenorama. Get your own copies of the books from Amazon: Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush and New Girl on Salt Flat Road.

Read them for yourself!
Winograd, Marcy and Jackie Hirtz. Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush. Houston, TX: Brown Girls Publishing, 2014. Print.

Winograd, Marcy and Jackie Hirtz. New Girl on Salt Flat Road. Houston, TX: Brown Girls Books, 2015. Print.

*Disclaimer: I was sent free copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This One Summer

Plot Summary
Rose and her family stay at a lakeside cabin every summer, where Rose hangs out with the slightly younger Windy. Together the two girls roam the small town, renting scary movies to appear more mature to the boys who work at the local convenience store. Rose’s crush consumes her, but younger Windy doesn’t understand and wants to still play and be silly, like the kid she is. While Rose struggles with her own feelings, her parents are fighting so much that her father goes home, and only returns to the cabin on weekends. Rose can’t relate to her mother, who seems wrapped up in her own sadness, so she struggles to find her place between the contrasting worlds of childhood and adulthood.

Critical Analysis
The panels in this novel are realistically drawn, so the characters show relatable emotions in their expressions and actions. The whole book is printed in dark blue ink, calling to mind the water of the lake Rose and Windy swim in. The whole approach to the book’s style and layout give it the importance necessary for such a coming of age story.
     The story of the summer is interesting and accessible for teens of all ages and backgrounds, but one is left with a feeling of sadness at the end of the book. Just like in real life, all the loose ends are not neatly tied up. This is a strength AND a weakness, because books that have a happy ending just because don’t seem genuine, and won’t satisfy most teens. Then again, the overall sadness of this story could bring teens down at a time when their emotions are easily influenced. That doesn’t mean that the book should be avoided, but I don’t think it would be as popular as some more light-hearted graphic novels, especially with graphic novels holding so much appeal to reluctant readers.
     Though Rose is going through puberty, and Windy a year behind her, this book seems best for older teens. The underlying stories of Rose’s mother’s sadness and the town’s teens’ drama are better suited for an older audience. All ages of young adults could enjoy the book, however, because the experience of spending summer at the lake with a friend seems timeless and relatable: letting loose with someone you don’t see too often, in a place where no one really knows you and no routine holds you down. Adults and older teens might feel a bit of nostalgia as they read, while younger teens might currently be experiencing a lot that Rose does.

Related Activities
This One Summer focuses on a specific vacation Rose and her family take. Many other graphic novels are about a short period of time as well. Have teens think of an experience in their life that was particularly monumental, difficult, or even funny. Have them tell that story in concise panels that depend more on illustration than narrative or dialogue. If the teens aren’t artistic, offer a selection of magazines they can cut images from to make collage panels. The panels can be pasted on a larger sheet of paper and folded into a book or zine, or if the stories are too personal to share, collect them all about fifteen minutes before the program ends. Shuffle them together, lay them face down on a table, and let teens pick seven to ten frames. See if they can put these assorted panels together into a new story, or let them keep those panels and add more of their own creation to make a cohesive story.

Resources
Books about a certain time in a teen’s life are popular because the emotions are so raw, and everyone can relate to these coming-of-age stories. Telling these stories in graphic novel form adds another layer to the story, because the emotions can be clearly expressed in illustration beyond what words alone make us feel.
+       Halliday, Ayun. Peanut. Illus. Paul Hoppe. New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2012. Print.
Sadie is starting a new school, and she’s not sure how she’s going to make friends - so she pretends to have a peanut allergy. This gets her plenty of attention and sympathy from her peers, but when the teachers and nurse get involved, Sadie’s not sure she can keep up her lie.
+       Telgemeier, Raina. Smile. New York: Graphix, 2010. Print.
Raina knocked out her two front teeth, resulting in years of dental experiments and braces during the crucial time of middle and high school.
+       Mucha, Corinne. Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations, and Other
               Nonsense. San Francisco, CA: Zest Books, 2011. Print.
Annie is a freshman in high school dealing with a crush, delicate friendships, and trying to learn how to act at parties.

Professional Review
Marcus, Leonard S. “Some Vacation: This One Summer.” Horn Book Magazine 91.4 (2015): 61-64. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Jul. 2015.

Read it for yourself!
Tamaki, Mariko. This One Summer. Illus. Jillian Tamaki. New York: First Second, 2014. Print.