Brosgol, Vera. Anya’s Ghost. New York: First Second, 2011.
This graphic novel is about Anya, a first generation Russian immigrant, and the challenges she faces with making friends at her American private school, navigating her crush on a popular athlete, and negotiating with a ninety-year-old ghost that is haunting her.
When Anya accidentally falls down a hole in a field early on in the story, she meets a ghost, Emily, who has been inhabiting the hole for a long time. When Anya is found and rescued from the hole in the ground, she accidentally brings Emily along with her.
Emily makes herself useful at first by whispering answers to test questions in Anya’s ear and feeding her tidbits of information about Sean, her crush. But soon her encouragement turns to middling.
Anya’s task is to find out how to rid herself of Emily and also answer questions about her identity as an American, a a Russian, and as a friend.
I enjoyed this book. It was a super quick read, and the story was concise and interesting. I think it’s also deceptive because it seems so simple but when you analyze it there’s more meaning there.
Author Facts
- Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow and raised in Oregon.
- Although she is proud of her heritage, Brosgol considers herself done with focusing on her Russian American roots in comics because she doesn’t want to only write about that.
- She worked on the animation for the film Coraline.
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