From Dee Runnels on Amazon:
“I just finished this book and it was great. Good story, characters you wished you could be friends with, and great detailed illustration. I’m sending it off to a seven year old kid . She’ll love it. Hubble is the cat we have all met in way or another. Girls rock, but I think boys will like this book too.“
Lucy Lareau, 12, of Moline, is pictured with illustrations by Ryan Jampole of the characters in the graphic novels she’s writing with her mother, Liz.
Writer Jonathan Turner, from the Moline Dispatch/Rock Island Argus, wrote an in-depth feature about co-authors Liz Merdian Lareau and Lucy Lareau …
Twelve-year-old Lucy Lareau already is a published author, partnering with her mother, Liz, on a planned 10-book series of graphic novels about the “Geeky F@b 5” to inspire tween girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
The first book in the series — “It’s Not Rocket Science,” to be released July 31 by New York-based Papercutz — premiered at the American Booksellers Association Children’s Institute in June in New Orleans. And on that conference’s heels in the same city, the Laureaus served on a girl-power graphic-novel panel at the American Library Association’s annual conference and exhibition.
You can read the entire story here.
Lucy Lareau, 12, of Moline, and her mother Liz, make an appearance on the morning show on WWLT-TV in New Orleans, LA, while they were in town for the American Library Association exhibition.
From the Mom Read It blog:
Recommended for readers 7-11
Papercutz has another fun, original graphic novel for intermediate readers; this time, they’re going STEM with the Geeky F@b 5: 5 girls who love science and are using their skills to make Amelia Earhart Elementary School better. Lucy, a fourth grader, and her older sister, Marina, a sixth grader, have just moved to the area and are ready to start school. Lucy, who loves the environment and animals, gels with her classmates right away: AJ, who wants to be an engineer like her dad; Sofia, a glitter girl who loves coding and making apps; and Zara, forever on her headphones, and a math whiz.
Lucy gets hurt in the school’s outdated playground that first day, and the principal and nurse shut the playground down: but the girls have plans! Together with their teacher, they come up with a great idea: put together a series of fundraisers to get the money to rebuild the playground! Every one of the girls has a job to do; now, if they could just get the bullying older kids on their side, things would be perfect.
Geeky F@b is the first in a new STEM-focused graphic novel series form Papercutz; Volume 2 is due in December. The book is easy and fun to read, with a reasonable plot and goal that can empower readers to be forces for positive change in their own communities. The characters are diverse and relatable; I enjoyed spending some time with them and am pretty sure they’ll be popular reading at my library.
From the First Comics News Website:
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Comments: “Chapter One: First Day. New School.” We see a normal family, parents, two sisters and a cat named Hubble. The sisters are shown as being close. This family has just moved to a new town, the town of Normal. This is a cute all-ages book. The art fuzzy. It does show off the characters good enough and is nicely colored, just it is fuzzy.
The two sisters Marina and Lucy are wonderful together. Lucy really admires her big sister. Their first day at school is pretty uneventful. The usual stuff happens. It is fun to follow along with them.
“Chapter Two: Bye-Bye Playground” Lucy has already made some cool new friends. They are getting along great and there are only a few minor annoying things. Lucy is a lovely young girl in elementary school.
“Chapter Three: Sweet Dreams Slumber Party” All the girls are shown having such a wonderful time at the slumber party. They also come up with one really amazing idea. They may be kids yet they can still think.
“Chapter Four: A Battle Plan For Action” The sisters and Lucy’s new friends band together and forge ahead. They have a goal in sight and they have a plan to achieve it. It is exciting to follow along with these girls lives.
“Chapter Six:…Go! Earhart Bands Together.” The Geeky Fab 5 get their name and they are well on their way to achieving their goal. These girls once started just do not stop. It is wonderful to see such devotion to a project from such young people.
“Chapter Seven: The Fun Run” The children put all they had into achieving their goal and then they fell short or did they. It is great having an unexpected source enter the game.
“Chapter Eight: Earhart Soars Again” We see here that girls can achieve anything they set their hearts and minds to. This story does have ordinary kids doing the extraordinary. The kids do look cute as well as realistic in their style.
Girls do rule!