Review of the Day: Next Stop by Debbie Fong

Next Stop
By Debbie Fong
Random House Graphic (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$21.99
ISBN: 9780593425206
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

Can there be too much of a good thing when it comes to comics for kids? When I was a young upstart children’s librarian I used to run a bookclub for kids between the ages of 9-12. The kids were incredible readers, each one with their own particular tastes and preferences. That’s probably why it was so painful when the graphic novel lovers would come into the library each week and say expectantly, “Are there any new comics this week?” Back in 2009, the likelihood of getting a weekly supply of new comics if you were a library and not, say, a comic book shop was low. New graphic novels were a cause for celebration, and I treasured each and every last one I was able to shelve. These days the situation is a little bit different. We aren’t exactly swimming in new comics, not when you compare their output to picture books or middle grade novels, but it’s fair to say that they really do come out on an almost weekly basis now. The trouble with quantity, though, is quality. You hand me all the cheap comics for kids that you like (or, more likely, mediocre comics) but the ones I want to find and enjoy are the best of the best. The ones that will stick in a kid’s brain for years on end (and potentially the rest of that child’s life). Books with original storytelling techniques, characters you identify with and care for, and real problems with just the tiniest hint of a mystery. And if the author happens to employ a unique storytelling trick where half the plot goes forward in time and half is told backwards? Then you have yourself something like Next Stop by Debbie Fong. A seemingly simple package of roadside kitsch hides a story of grief, complicated family relationships/friendships, and more cactuses than you ever thought could fit on a page.

To look at Pia, you wouldn’t think she’d be the kind of kid to travel by herself on a tour bus across the country to a variety of chintzy roadside stops. She’s quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn’t discuss her past much. When she meets and befriends fellow tour bus attendee Samantha, she still doesn’t talk about why she’s there. The bus is ultimately heading towards the Cessarine Lake, an underwater natural marvel that’s said to have otherworldly abilities. Pia’s determined to get there, and it has something to do with her family and the grief she’s trying to outrun. Flashbacks to the past slowly reveal what she’s been through, but it isn’t magical water that will give her the catharsis she needs. For that you need friends and a whole different kind of closure.

Prior to this book I’d seen Debbie Fong’s two nonfiction books for kids How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? but hadn’t given them much notice. Hers is a simple and distinctly cartoony style of drawing. Even so, it’s difficult to believe that this is her first graphic novel for kids. The storytelling is distinctly sophisticated (more on that later) and the art just fun to read through. The setting of roadside attraction after roadside attraction isn’t something I’ve seen any comic for kids really grapple with before. Fong manages, in spite of her bright and perky style, to also show the mysterious weirdness that emanates from these places. Reading this book, I found myself thinking about “The House on the Rock” in Wisconsin, and how this book somehow manages to tap into that place’s tone and feel, even if it’s entirely indoors and these places are entirely outdoors. There’s a kinship with these attractions and and affection for them that can’t be faked.

Now let’s talk about something impossibly grown-up: Structure! Everyone favorite part of a story, right? Actually, in the case of Next Stop, it might be for me. The author had to determine the best possible way to tell Pia’s story, and she had a number of options available to choose from. Flashbacks are a fairly standard way of filling in a backstory, but what I like so much about this book is how the flashbacks go backward while the actual story goes forward. Presented in slightly sepia-toned coloring (so that if you miss the notes at the beginning saying how many months ago they took place you’ll still know you’re not in the present day) they begin a month prior to the bus trip and then fall back and back. As you read, you realize that they have two different mysteries to clarify: How did Pia learn about Cessarine Lake and why is she going? The backwards flashbacks initially reveal more mysteries than answers to these questions, and you just know that there’s going to be a kid out there who cannot stop reading until they get those answers. Don’t worry. Answers abound. Eventually.

Tears do too. Now granted, I’m a softie in my old age. Toilet paper commercials can make me cry now. But a graphic novel with a tragic core isn’t always a sure-fire sell. An author has to earn that emotional payoff through their careful and deliberate storytelling. I’d say that Ms. Fong earns it and then some. But she doesn’t do it through tragedy alone. What sets Next Stop apart from a lot of books with similar storylines is the magical realism (that’s the only terms that fits here) that infuses the tale. There are legitimately strange elements to this story. Had Ms. Fong relied too heavily on them, they would have upset the book’s tone. As it currently stands, they sort of heighten the tensions inside of Pia. They’re just small enough to give kids a delightful shiver, but not so much that you’d consider this a fantasy or anything. Then to tie everything together at the end with tears? Like I say, the book earns ’em.

It is not, of course, without its flaws. One librarian of my acquaintance was distinctly less than impressed by the, let’s say, Obi-Wan Kenobi moment near the end of the book that gives our heroine a sense of catharsis. The librarian felt it was pretty darn predictable, and it is an odd clunky moment in an otherwise pretty clunk-free book (the heroine is already performing a heroic act of catharsis anyway, so you could easily deem the moment unnecessary). Still, it wasn’t something that took me too far out of the read. I’m not particularly fond of the argument that nothing in children’s books is derivative because young children come to everything fresh, but in this particular case I found it a mild distraction rather than a complete derailing.

In her Author’s Note at the end of this book, Fong relates a weeklong sightseeing bus trip her mom took her and her little brother on in 1998. Though she acted jaded for most of the trip, it was seeing the underground waterfall called Ruby Falls that changed everything for her. She mentions that she hadn’t thought of the falls in years, but in writing this book, those memories came back. She writes, “I think the best part about making up stories is all the ways you end up finding parts of yourself hidden in them, even when you didn’t meant to put them there.” It’s true, and it’s that kind of variety that makes comics like this one so compelling. Comics, in a way, are like staged musicals. You can make them about literally anything, but they’re only going to stick in the audience’s mind and memory if the creator was able to connect to the material personally. Debbie Fong does that, creating a book that is going to be loved and remembered by kids for a very long time to come. Mysteries and cactus fries, depression and grief. It’s all here. Give it to a kid and just watch them dive on in.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2024, Review 2024, Reviews