Kyo Maclear

A story of friendship, first crushes, opera and the high drama of middle school told by award-winning Kyo Maclear in her debut graphic novel.

Operatic

Sarah Sammis

Operatic by Kyo Maclear and Bryon Eggenschwiler is a graphic novel that uses a middle school music class as a framing device to dive into the life and career of opera diva Maria Callas.

Charlie has to find her perfect song for an end of the year assignment. The music class is putting together an album of perfect songs: each song representing a student in the class.

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Ken Yuen

Very pretty graphic novel that covers music, opera, and growing up. A lot of beautiful scenes, but I did have trouble telling the difference between the three Asian girls (I swear that one of the friends, Mayin, just disappears till the end of the book after a point. Did I miss something?)

Love the synesthesia effect of seeing the sounds produced visually.

Jessica Nottingham

I really enjoyed reading Operatic. Not only is this graphic novel filled with stunning illustrations, it's also a story with a ton of heart. If you've ever felt inspired by music at all, even a little bit, this story will resonate with you. All of the other messages that were wrapped up in this story were simply icing on an already beautifully created cake.

I thought that this graphic novel perfectly captured the tumultuous feelings that come along with transitioning from middle school to high school. Poor Charlie isn't sure where she fits into the world and so, when her teacher tells them to find their own perfect song, she's equally confused about what would really describe her. Watching her mull over her choices, and ultimately find someone who inspired her, made my heart happy. It's hard not to feel emotional while reading this, partially because of the content and partially because the illustrations just have so much movement and atmosphere wrapped up in them.

If I had one complaint, it would be that this story does jump around a lot. There are a lot of items to fit into one girl's story, including crushes, lost friends, and feeling unsure of oneself. Still, I kind of felt like this also fit with the content. After all, a middle school brain is definitely exactly like that. Lots of emotions, lot of skipping around, essentially a torrent of new and processing information. So, I gave that a pass. As I said above, the illustrations are honestly too beautiful to ignore either way. I never felt all that lost during Charlie's story. In fact, I saw a bit of myself.

Lovely story, stellar illustrations, and an all around beautiful read.

Operatic

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