Laura Lee Gulledge

After moving to New York City, Paige Turner has trouble adjusting to her new life, but her "secret identity" as an artist and her favorite sketchbook help her make friends, explore the city and find her true self. Simultaneous.

Page by Paige

Sarah Sammis

Good but I prefer Doodlebug. 

http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/...

Lisa Collins

My sister brought home Page by Paige and mentioned something to me about reading it. I don’t usually read graphic novels or comics, but I gave this one a try because 1) it’s realistic fiction and 2) according to the sticker on the front cover it was a “Teen’s Top Ten” choice in my county’s library system. And I was also hearing decent things about it on the interwebs. I dove right in and, for the most part, I was impressed.
At the top of the list: I really love the artwork within Paige’s pages. (Do you get it? Har har.) The gray scale drawings are a mixture of simple and highly detailed depending on, it seems, whether they’re real happenings in her life or images from “inside” her head. I’m no art expert, but to someone with an untrained eye the technical details and beauty is fantastic.

The dialogue, on the other hand, wasn’t so fantastic. Several times I found myself claiming that no one talks one way or another shown in the book. It seemed a little stiff, maybe even molded, to me on more than one occasion.

The story also adds to that problem. Am I the only one who felt like things came a bit easily to Paige? Yes, she did have some struggles, but it seemed like a lot of the book was her walking around claiming she wants something and then just getting it with minimal effort. I’m aware this is a relatively short graphic novel and maybe not everything has to be worked out and explained, but it was all a tad too bubble-gum-pop for me.

I will admit I really liked the rules that Paige’s story was moving with. It set the pacing well, but also gave a purpose to what Paige wanted. She didn’t just want to be an artist. She was inspired by her grandmother and wanted to be an artist too, so she used the rules her grandmother made up to help her along the way. It made the story more personal while also adding some structure. Brava! to Gulledge for that one.

In my notebook one of the last things I wrote reads: “Corniness and occasional lapse in realism aside, I quite liked this one.” I’ll stick beside that opinion. In all honestly, sometimes you have to corn it up and go with something bubble-gum-pop that works out in the end. (Yes, I know I said we were corning, but then bubble gummed instead.) There’s no false advertising going on here. From the looks of the cover one can assimilate the book is going to be light. I just wish it were fleshed out more than it was.

Kate

4.5* Wow. I think it's safe to say I adored this. I had no idea what to expect from this when I picked it up. I'd heard absolutely nothing about it and received is as a gift for my birthday and I was pleasantly surprised. I think this book may just be the definition of 'pleasantly surprising', if you just change 'pleasantly' to 'oh my gosh, this was fantastic. How did I not know about this and why am I only just reading it?' surprising. Simply put, I adored it. This was almost painfully relatable at times, in a way that, at first, I thought might be uncomfortable but ended up being really quite the opposite. It was a lovely portrayal of anxiety and the way it can effect the way you see yourself, your actions and the world around you. (Although it was never formally stated that Paige suffered from anxiety, reading from her perspective I personally assumed that she did?) The way it was structured was unlike anything I've read. The writing was somewhat reminiscent of free verse and the way it was often dotted around the page was so interesting, with the result creating a unique reading experience. The only reason I'm not giving this the full 5/5 is that there were a few questionable comments made on one page when the characters were describing their racial identity, which I wasn't quite sure what to make of. It was also a little too sweet and cliche for me at times but overall I absolutely loved it. I can definitely see myself reading this again in the future and I think it's made its way into my collection of favourite graphic novels!

Page by Paige

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