Maggie’s been homeschooled with her three older brothers. Mainly by her mother who recently left them, leaving the teens with their police officer father. Now Maggie’s starting public high school, with all kinds of new experiences to navigate. Not the least of which is how to make friends- the few kids who talk to her appear to be shunned by the others, and there’s history between her brothers and a group of popular jocks that she doesn’t know about. Her new friends have punk hairstyles, piercings and a style that might look threatening- yet they’re cheerfully friendly, unlike the polished-looking popular kids. Her twin brothers are annoyed that everyone expects them to still do everything together, and now they’re fighting all the time. The oldest brother is into theater, and pretty good at it (I liked that). Maggie’s also got this problem of a ghost that follows her around- she often walks through the graveyard- and I was really let down when the storyline didn’t complete that part. The ghost never spoke, never seemed to accept the help Maggie was offering it (based on a wild guess at what it might be wanting). Oh, and there’s zombies too- in a school play her brother performs in- and I don’t really care for zombie or ghost stories for some reason. But I liked the artwork, especially the early sketches in the back of the book. I do think the original title fit better (seen in preliminary cover sketches): The Education of Maggie McKay. The story was pretty good, but it left too many things unanswered and I wished for just a tad more depth with how Maggie was handling her new friendships. Maybe a sequel is coming that will address those things.
by Faith Erin Hicks

Rating: 3/5
224 pages, 2012