Page by Paige
Author: Laura Lee Gulledge
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fiction
Publisher: Amulet Paperbacks
Published: May 1st, 2011
Pages: 192

My Rating: ★★★
Everyone sees a quiet redhead who draws things. But when I close my eyes, I'm laughing and screaming and scheming and daydreaming. New city. New friends. New Paige? When Paige's parents move her family from Virginia to New York City, Paige doesn't know where she fits in anymore. At first, the only thing keeping her company is her notebook, where she pours her worries and observations and experiments with her secret identity: ARTIST. With the confidence the book brings her, she starts to make friends and shake up her family's expectations. But she is ready to become the person she draws in her notebook? Laura Lee Gulledge's stunning art digs deep into the soul and exposes all the ups, downs, and sideways feelings of being a young adult on the edge of the rest of your life.
  
Growing up in a new city and school.
Paige is a young girl who grew up in Virginia and that's all she has ever known her whole life. Suddenly, her parents uproot her to New York City and she then has to start a new school and make new friends. This was the first graphic novel I had ever completed and I was absolutely mesmerized by the drawings. I could relate a lot to Paige. She is young and trying to discover herself. 

 Paige is an artist and coming to terms with her identity. I think any young girl could relate to this graphic novel. Paige has to learn through this story that it's okay to be different and who you are. She is figuring out how to not be so shy and going through her first love. All of us have had times where we don't feel like we fit in. This would have received a higher rating from me I think if I was a little bit younger. There were times when I would be really annoyed with Paige's dialogue. 

 Overall, I loved the concept and the story. It was just not my all-time favorite. However, I am now hooked to graphic novels and don't know why I didn't start reading them years ago. This was a very heart-provoking thoughtful story.

LAURA LEE GULLEDGE is the Charlottesville, Virginia based author and illustrator of the YA graphic novels Will & Whit and Page by Paige, which was nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award. She and her Artners have developed Will & Whit into an innovative DIT musical for teens, which recently debuted at the VTA Fringe Festival. Her NEW interactive book SKETCHBOOK DARES (Feb 6th 2018, Abrams Noterie) invites you to try out her favorite drawing activities! Laura Lee is also a passionate teacher, guest speaker, and creative consultant with an MA in Art Education who has shared her love of visual storytelling and Artnership across a dozen states. She is currently working on her next YA graphic novel (coming Spring 2020), teaching visual art at the Park School, and is a Teaching Artist though the Virginia Commission of the Arts.