Details

Length: 238
Story Build: Slowish
Character development: Fair
Age Recommendation: 6th grade and up              
Reasoning: death of a young boy and the main character’s mother

Summary and Review

I had my eye on this graphic novel during the summer, and it was in my Amazon cart for months. I even saw students reading it at school and was reminded that I needed to dig into this book. 

Finally, right after Christmas, I used some gift cards from parents to purchase a few books, and, of course, this was one of them. 

I finished Sheets in a night, and I don’t think I was quite prepared for the heaviness of the text. The beautiful femine colors and cute ghost make you think this is a lighter read than it actually is. 

The story’s main characters are Marjorie and Wendell. Both are younger, but the biggest difference between them is that Marjorie is alive and Wendell is, well, dead. Both are struggling with their own conflicts. Marjorie’s mother had passed, and she is manning the family’s laundromat while her father is grieving. Wendell, on the other hand, is having a more existential crisis, trying to figure out how to belong where he now resides. 

Wendell is brought into Marjorie’s world when he leaves his to find meaning. He floats into her laundromat, which ends up being a problem for the family as he isn’t the most neat of guests. This results in more trouble for Marjorie who is working tirelessly to keep the business from being taken by a local man named Mr. Saubertuck. Unbeknownst to Marjorie, he has troubles of his own that he is trying to solve by taking advantage of her struggling situation. 

It is also fair to note that Marjorie also deals with her typical middle school drama with the catty girls and aloof boys. I’m sure that is very relevant to most readers…maybe more so than being visited by a ghost in a sheet. 🙂 

Brenna Thummler’s graphic novel is rich with illustrations and lessons about grief and forgiveness. It’s poignant and timeless; you will relish the illustrations and find yourself gazing for lengths of time at the pages. It’s also sweet to have the text set in the 1990s… Thummler does a wonderful job of bringing us into that period of nostalgia. 

Celebrations

Sheets is a wonderfully illustrated book, and I really liked Thummler’s interpretation of the ghost. It was cute and sad all at the same time, and I really appreciated the way she approached grief. 

Hesitations

Honestly, I was a bit surprised that the main character was 13. The way the characters in her grade spoke and the way she was running the laundromat made it seem like she was in high school. I think that would be a more realistic age for the characters.