I was given opportunity to read this book through NetGalley for honest review. Sheets is a sad, but powerful middle grade graphic novel about loss, perseverance, and forgiveness. The cover was so cute, I wanted to read the book and first time I read by this author and in graphic I really enjoyed it. Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

I was bowled over by Brenna Thummler’s illustrations in Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel so when I heard she had written her own graphic novel I was all in. I simply adore Brenna’s ability to capture an image and present it in a way that I want her to draw the entire world for me. Seriously, I can’t get enough. Her use of colour is absolutely gorgeous and she’s able to evoke the emotion of a scene through colour as well as the images. I enjoy finding Easter eggs so I loved that Anne of Green Gables is in view a couple of times in Marjorie’s school library.

As soon as Sheets downloaded on my iPad I devoured it. That was months ago and I never got around to telling anyone how amazing it was… until now. This graphic novel is amazing!!! I’ve just read it for a second time and I’m still in love with the artwork. I felt there was something missing in the story that I couldn’t put my finger on during my first read but I didn’t feel that way during my reread.

Marjorie’s mother died last spring and since then her father has been essentially MIA, holed up in his bedroom most of the time. Marjorie (at 13!) has been left to singlehandedly run the family laundromat business, do the household chores, look after her father and younger brother, and attend school. Any combination of these would be a monumental ask and that’s before you take into consideration that she’s grieving her mother and feels completely alone. The family business is in danger of closing, with some help from Mr Saubertuck, who is the dastardly villain of the story.

Wendell is also lonely. He died a year ago and doesn’t fit in with the other ghosts. Wendell discovers the laundromat and accidentally makes life more difficult for Marjorie, but perhaps there’s a way for these two lonely kids to help each other.

During my first read I had trouble getting past the fact that 13 year old Marjorie is effectively running the family business by herself because her father’s grief has made him withdraw from his life. I couldn’t believe that the customers could be so mean to a kid who shouldn’t have been doing all of that work in the first place and that no one who was alive stepped up to help her or her family.

During my second read I focused more on the friendship between Marjorie and Wendell. It’s such a sad story, dealing with the pain of grief and feeling all alone in the world. However it also touches on forgiveness and perseverance, and is ultimately hopeful.

I’m really keen to see what Brenna comes up with next. I don’t care what the story is; I just want to see more of her beautiful illustrations.

Thank you very much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel. I’d give this 4.5 stars but am rounding up.

As someone who lost her mother, this book hit very close to my heart. The illustrations are beautiful and play an integral role in setting the mood of the story. This is a heartwarming, gut wrenching, beautiful story.

Sheets is a cute and heartwarming story. When I first saw the book, I was expecting a funny story but the story was much stronger and serious. This is a story about a young girl Marjorie who has been left alone to run her family’s laundromat after the death of her mother. Her father is too lost in grieving. Marjorie was struggling to save her laundry from the wicked neighbor who wanted to acquire it. her laundry suddenly a ghost starts to haunt the laundry.

I liked the plot very much. From the starting, we can see the struggles of a young girl managing her school and family business while also handling a selfish neighbor. The story will definitely make you emotional. When Wendell, the ghost, enters into the story it becomes more interesting. The story is basically about grief and unlikely friendships and about the determination to move forward even in the worst conditions.

The artwork is the highlight of this book which is definitely better than the story itself. I like how the author has designed Wendell, as a sheet. It was something fresh to see. I really like the color palette that has been used which is mostly pastel.

The story is little slow in the beginning considering how it focuses on Marjorie and how she feels and thus we get to know about Wendell a little later. Also, it takes some time to understand the ghost world properly.

Overall, this is an adorable graphic novel which is hard to resist. I would definitely recommend it.

Easy for me to say finally, for once - I LOVED this graphic novel.

I wasn't sure about it when I first started it, but it progressed so well. Beautiful story, nice art, memorable characters...GHOSTS! What more can someone ask for ?!

I'm hoping there will be another one but I feel like this was a one-shot type thing.

I'll definitely be looking out for Brenna Thummler.

Okay this is very unfortunate since I was intrigued by the beginning of this book, however, I got a little busy with my college applications and my laptop died. So the copy of the downloaded book is now inaccessible to me as it has been archived. I really do wish I could read it but I am unable to and unable to provide a review as well.

(Star rating is given based on the little bit I did manage to read.)

This is a cute, heartbreaking and heartwarming tale about a young girl and a young ghost. The pacing for this tale was soooooo sllll-oooow! I just about fell asleep several times in the first half or so of the storyline; which is generally quite a feat while reading a graphic novel. It was just extremely boring without a whole lot of anything going on.

About the only thing that kept me going was my anger at how badly everyone in the book treated Marjorie. From kids her age to adults who should have known better, they were basically all a bunch of jerks, with very few exceptions. I really wanted to bash in some animated heads at several points during the narrative. Of course, Wendell isn't treated too much better in his world.

Once the two meet and start working together, things greatly improve for both of them. Thank goodness! Once we discover the fact that they did and how they knew each other previously, things start to fall into place even more. And they eventually are able to achieve a rather nice, if bittersweet, happily ever after, or at least happily for now, ending.

I was also not impressed with the graphics. Although the muted color schemes were attractive, I found the drawings themselve to be very simplistic. The humans especially just look quite odd.

Basically, this book just didn't "speak" to me all that much.

A cute and adorable graphic novel that goes perfect with a cup of tea. I really like the author's artistic style and the colour palette.

Very cute story perfect for around Halloween. The only thing is I wish the captions were bigger but overall it was fun

This caught my eye on Netgalley and it was a Read Now. I decided to give it a chance. I'm just now stepping into the graphic novel world. 

That being said, this graphic novel was so beautiful. The illustration is just stunning, page after page. I thought the color palette was so calming too. 

I did think that story did take some time for me to really get into the story. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way that it really picks up. I didn't expect this to be so heartbreaking! Of course, it ends up nicely but it did take me on a bit of an emotional ride. 

Overall, this was a really cute graphic novel. I think the illustration was more of a hit than the actual story. It just took a little longer for the pace to pick up.

The split between the two characters stories caught me off guard at first but once they came together I really enjoyed how Thummter handled their coming together over two different types of grief. Peripheral characters also highlights the different ways we can react to grief so there's a lot to look at dispite this to me really ultimately being a story about friendship. I would definitely recommend for purchase since it's a solid non-superhero graphic. I would say it's appropriate for all ages as well.

I wanted to read this because the cover is simply adorable and I love stories about ghosts.
This is about a 13-year old girl who has it tough. She lost her mother and in some sort her dad, too. He went to a pretty dark place after his wife died and can't really care for the family anymore. So Marjorie is in charge of the laundromat that her mother ran. But Mr. Saubertuck is trying to ruin her business and he isn't the only one who creates chaos.
Wendell is a little ghost with struggles to adapt. He goes to a therapy group for the Death Youth but then escapes to the laundromat and the story develops from there.

It's a really cute graphic novel and one I might reread, just to see if I will get more out of it the second time around. Because while I really like the art style, the colours and the idea with the sheets, I wasn't emotionally connected.
That is something that happens sometimes with graphic novels for me, so it's not necessarily the fault of this book. I liked Wendells story way more than Marjorie's simply because of Mr. Saubertuck ... well, he was too much for me. I noticed that storylines with the over-the-top bad guy aren't really my thing anymore. But if that doesn't bother you then you will find an adorable little story about two struggling youths coming together. I wished the ghosts were explored more. I really liked reading about them and their world, the tidbits we got were well thought out and intriguing.

The lighter colour scheme contrasts perfectly with the darker themes this graphic novel explores. Loneliness, grief, death, desperation.
It is touching and I loved the ending. It was so cute, but well in tune with the story.

This one is beautiful.

I love its ending. I like how everything turn better. I realized that I felt so relieved when I was in the end of the book since in the first few pages those bad things that happened to Marjorie made me worried.

It took sometime for me to understand the story line. It was hard to understand some panels especially when the ghosts were there for the first time. The colorful page and great artwork were the reason why I stayed. I am glad I decided to keep reading this because the story is getting better. I have got the clue where everything will go.

I enjoy reading this kind graphic novel.

This was a bit of an odd story, with a ghost helping a young girl, who worked in her family’s laundrette when she wasn’t in school, to save the shop from a mean entrepreneur. The pictures were quite simple but really helped to tell more than the simple words.

In some places it felt like the story hopped a little too quickly between the girl’s story and the ghost’s story, but the parts where they are together are quite lovely and heartwarming with them each helping the other to cope with death and grief in their own way. I felt the girl’s emotions were well illustrated and expressed particularly.

I’m sure this would be quite well received in our school library, particularly resonating with children who might be experiencing difficult times and coping with grief.

A fun and interesting story with great illustrations. This will appear to children and younger teens going through rough times.

Wonderful and charming book. One that really sticks in your thoughts. Very much enjoyed and will be recommended to librarians.

I had heard about this for quite awhile so I was very interested to read it. I really enjoyed how both realistic issues such as death and growing up were addressed sincerely alongside a bit of fantasy. I also loved how there was a sort of a Scooby Doo plot with an evil businessman trying to take the family's business, but it never came off as silly.

Gorgeous illustrations and a leisurely paced story about coming to terms with grief while living in a bad situation. I loved the whimsicality of the ghosts being literal sheets, I thought it paired nicely with the heavy topics that the graphic novel covered. I would recommend this to fans of Tamaki's "That One Summer" or Osborne's "The Wendy Project."

'Sheets' by Brenna Thummler is a graphic novel about grief, ghosts and what one girl has to do to get through it all.

Marjorie Glatt has lost her mother in a swimming accident. She takes care of her younger sibling, who seems to be fine, and her father, who is really not fine. She also takes care of the families laundry business which is teetering on hard times. A weird local named Mr. Saubertuck seems to have eyes on the business, and the ghost of a boy is hanging around causing problems. At 13, this is a lot to handle for Marjorie, who also feels pretty disconnected and invisible to the world around her.

I liked this story of grief and loss and fighting back. Marjorie seems to be a victim for a bit of the story, but that changes. The art has an almost pastel coloring to it that makes everything seem softer. I liked the art enough for this story. I really liked the tone of the story and what the story said, but the ghost world seemed a little too childlike in how it was portrayed.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

The first thing Sophie read this month was Sheets, a middle-grade graphic novel by Brenna Thummler that is the story of two very different children. Marjorie is 13 and has run her family’s laundry business since her mother died in a tragic accident one year before, causing her father to withdraw almost entirely from life. Wendell is 11, and he is a sheet-wearing ghost. He lives in Ghost Town where he spends his days attending death therapy sessions with other young ghosts and struggling with finding an identity.

Marjorie and Wendell’s worlds collide when Wendell sneaks back into the human world and begins hanging out at Marjorie’s laundromat—a veritable theme park for sheet dwelling ghosts like him. However, his nighttime antics cause untold distress for Marjorie as she tries to keep the family’s dwindling business alive while a sinister local businessman (who’s voice Sophie constantly heard in her head as The Yes Guy from The Simpsons) tries to buy the land out from under them. Eventually, Wendell learns what he has done, and the two kids figure out that by working together they can solve both their problems.

Sheets is a beautiful and heart-warming story with gorgeous illustrations to match. Despite its short length, the book succeeds in building two distinctive worlds in Ghost Town and Marjorie’s small hometown of Finster Bay, and in populating those places with unique, three-dimensional characters. Sophie felt immediately drawn to Marjorie and Wendell and was rooting for them both from page one.

The story centers around death and grief, so it may be worth reading in advance before handing over to more sensitive readers, but this is a wonderful short story and one Sophie would recommend to young readers and adults alike.