It's So Magic

"Lynda Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek... made the world look wild, ugly, joyful, and mysterious."?--The New Yorker

Maybonne Mullen is "riding on a bummer" according to her little sister Marlys. As much as teenage Maybonne prays and tries she just can't connect to the magic of living. How can she when there's so much upheaval at home and school, not to mention the world at large? And yet Marlys always seems able to tap into it.

In It's So Magic, the Mullen family dynamics are in flux. Uncle John makes a brief return to town to the delight of the girls. Freddy is finally reunited with his sisters. Marlys falls in love for the first time. And after they finally settle into a routine at their grandmother's the Mullen siblings' mother might be ready to take them back in. With war in the background and precarious parental support, the siblings long for peace, finding it in the small things like grocery store turkey drawing contests and fishing trips.

Narrated by Maybonne, Marlys, and Freddy, It's So Magic captures Lynda Barry's unparalleled ability to depict the magic of youth experiencing firsts in a world that contains as much humour as it does hardship.

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Published: 09/06/2022
Pages: 128
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 6.25h x 9.75w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9781770466210


Review Citation(s):
Shelf Awareness 09/23/2022

About the Author
Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher and found that they are very much alike. In 2019 Barry recieved a MacArthur Genius Grant. She lives in Wisconsin, where she is a professor of interdisciplinary creativity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.