You defended each other no matter what.” In this instance, Brosgol reminds readers that even individuals with something important in common can turn on each other in the name of seeming like a normal teenager.īut Anya can’t escape her mother. When Dima is being bullied in the school lunchroom, Anya isn’t surprised she predicted it when Dima kept answering all the questions earlier in class, which is a total “fobby” move–“fresh off the boat.” Emily asks, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you both Russian?…Well, back when I was alive, your people were your family. It’s not as if she entered the school year midway.Įmily points out that the Russian American students should stick together. since she was five years old and is now in high school. No, ma’am.” The image suggests that the teacher isn’t working to learn her students’ names. When teachers try to call on Anya, they can’t pronounce her name: “Is there a problem, Miss… Br… Bor…” and Anya answers, “Borzakovskaya. Vera Brosgol inserts reminders that Anya struggles with her differences. But Emily is not exactly what she seems, and Anya may regret her new life with the help of her ghost. Emily is the best friend Anya’s had in a long time (Siobhan is a testy person who is mad at Anya just as often as she is friendly). Emily helps Anya do better in school by cheating on tests and feeding Anya lines to say to a boy after reading his schedule so Anya can “bump into” him. After Anya is rescued, she discovers one of Emily’s finger bones got into her backpack, and now Emily is with Anya to stay. The skeleton belongs to Emily, a ghost who can only travel a short distance from her remains. On her walk home from school one day, Anya falls into a well and discovers a skeleton is her only company. blond, popular, don’t appear to struggle with popularity). The story is set in the U.S., and so the other students are all represented as American teenagers (i.e. The story also focuses on Russian-American student Dima, a highly intelligent runty boy in Anya’s grade. The images aren’t detailed enough for me to tell just by looking at the girl. Siobhan has short hair and wears a button up shirt and tie. Her best friend is Siobhan, an Irish-American girl whom I mistook for a boy for most of the graphic novel. Her mother brought Anya and her little brother from Russia when Anya was five, just before Anya entered public school. The book is the story of a teenage girl named Anya, who believes she has trouble fitting in at school. Anya’s Ghost (First Second, 2011) is the celebrated graphic novel by Russian-American Vera Brosgol.

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol