Parents' Guide to Spinning

This poignant coming-of-age memoir set in the all-consuming world of ice skating competition rings with emotional honesty as it deals frankly with feelings of alienation and lesbian attraction. Graphic novelist Tillie Walden tinges Spinning with a sweet sadness. While the moms of the other skaters micromanage from a "mom table," Tillie's mom is remote and cold, and her parents never come to practice, much less competitions. She's left to find her own way emotionally, a bit like a latchkey kid, if the key was to a skating rink. She craves connection -- with friends, with girls she has crushes on, and with her female coaches and teachers, whom she resourcefully turns to for simple affection. Though the setting's specific to ice skating, the rigor and discipline will be familiar to many tightly scheduled kids, and the emotional content feels intensely real and relatable. The plot hits many standard YA notes -- a family move, adjusting to new schools, cliques, girl bullying, sexual advances by a male adult in an authority position -- and her first love is both tender and fraught.

The deep purple and yolk-yellow palette is particularly effective at evoking the violet light of early, predawn practices. Walden has an observant eye for visual detail and a keen ear for conversation, and while the memoir has the fragmented feel of real life and doesn't always tie neat bows, it movingly chronicles the hopeful story of a girl lost and ultimately found.