Fans of Kathryn Ormsbee’s first graphic novel, Growing Pangs, will be delighted by heroine Katie’s return in Turning Twelve, an immersive, probing coming-of-age story that brings to mind the adolescent angst of Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. Ormsbee effectively mines her own childhood for material.
Katie is growing up in a Baptist household in Kentucky in 2004. She’s a homeschooler who struggles with anxiety and OCD, as well as everything else that happens at that age, both mental and physical.
“Being twelve isn’t turning out like I’d planned at all. I kinda wished I’d stayed eleven,” Katie admits. Her two best friends are moving away, leaving her lonely and isolated in her church youth group. At the children’s theater, she dreams of getting the role of Annie, but instead, is cast as an orphan side character. One of Katie’s biggest alarms is her growing attraction to Grace, a pretty, funny new friend she meets in the Annie production. “I didn’t know I could get crushes on girls,” Katie says. Her feelings grow even more complicated at church and in youth group, where she is told that anything besides love between a man and a woman “breaks God’s heart. It makes him cry.”
Molly Brooks’ illustrations draw readers right into Katie’s dilemmas, and the structure and pacing of the story creates a meaningful interplay between the actual events and Katie’s roiling emotions. Katie’s red-headed, braces-filled expressions are relatable and help readers identify with her highs and lows, adding drama to each page, while Brooks’ use of red, purple and orange are striking, serving as a dynamic anchor for the graphic novel’s energy and flow.
Katie’s struggle with her emerging sexual feelings and her relationship with religion are particularly well done. Several figures provide helpful, empowering examples, including Katie’s older sister, Ashley; her therapist, Dr. Clara; and a woman whom Katie babysits for, a successful lawyer who shows her that careers can be exciting and fulfilling. As she observes people at a more progressive church and hears news about progress in gay rights legislation, Katie starts to realize, “Maybe theatre isn’t the only place in the world where I can be myself.”
Katie is just the sort of lively, inquisitive friend that a 12-year-old might yearn for. With its exhilarating combination of prose and illustrations, Turning Twelve will make readers clamor for more of Katie’s adventures.
