Searle manages to blend discovering a love of creative writing via making up things happening with camp friends, dealing with chronic illness as a kid, and bonding with people in your building and possible ghosts. Sweet story, a lot of middle schoolers will resonate with it.

A cute book, perfect for kids that are going through some illness or feel misunderstood in any way. Plus, the illustrations are lovely!

Rating: ★★★★★
Genre: Graphic Novel
Intended Audience: Middle Grade
Format + Source: E-book, Netgalley

Read this if you like…
- Slice of life stories
- Remembering being the "weird" kid
- Sweet family moments

This may not be for you if you don't like...
- ??? honestly, this is a quick read that's good for anyone.

Rating Breakdown

Characters: ★★★★★
Harriet ("Harry") is struggling with living in a new place, making/keeping friends, and living with an invisible disability. I related to her so much and loved how curious she was about everything around her (while still being an angsty preteen.)
Pearl is the best kind of neighbor - she's got candy and books! The link between her son and Harry was a perfect plot point.

Writing: ★★★★
Some of the parents' dialogue felt a bit "off" to me and I can't pinpoint exactly why. But the rest flowed well and Harry's dialogue was on-point for her age.

Plot: ★★★★★
I usually read SFF, so it's tough for me to grade contemporary sometimes. But this felt like the perfect amount of mystery for a middle grade slice-of-life story.

Enjoyment: ★★★★★
An easy read with a heartwarming plot.

This book was a quiet read, relatable for anyone who is or can remember being a pre-teen, especially after dealing with a move or a change in friendships and finding oneself.

While it's great to see a Latina character like Harriet as the protagonist, the story just falls flat and doesn't do the character any justice.

Cute. Harriet is adorable. I like how curious she is. This would be a good book for younger readers.


Thank you NetGalley!

The book had a great premise but fell flat because of the execution. I wasn't able to care about the main character, who I found annoying and whiny, especially since we don't find out about her illness until very late in the book. I got quickly bored reading about her letters to friends who don't write back, which is more of an obsession really, since she didn't really know them as well. I wish the book focused more on Harriet's personality disorders (she is constantly lying, making up stories about the people around her) or at least the chronic illness aspect.
The one thing I enjoyed was the character Pearl, an elderly woman who lives downstairs, who is trying to connect to Harriet and keeps recommending books that might help her, even though she doesn't really even bother to read them.
The artwork was ok, but nothing particularly notable about it.

A short, sweet graphic novel with an adorable protagonist. This was a very cute story and I very much enjoyed it.

Harriet is spending the summer getting used to her family’s new apartment in Chicago. It’s hot and boring, with her parents working hard at new jobs, and the girls from last year’s summer camp ignoring her postcards.

The only person she interacts with is the older woman downstairs. Pearl owns the building and tells tales of her family. Pearl was also a librarian, and she recommends books to Harriet that interest her more than her assigned reading. Harriet is “tired of books with boring girl characters who don’t get to do anything,” a modern reaction to some of the titles that are classics because of age.

In addition to being lonely, Harriet has a chronic illness that makes her feel even more set apart. Harriet’s also imaginative, coming up with exaggerated explanations for other people’s behavior, which dismays her parents. To redirect her, they and Pearl encourage her to find books that inspire and challenge her and to start writing her own stories.

The pastel colors and rounded character designs are softly welcoming (and more comfortable than the Chicago summer heat), while the panels without backgrounds put focus on the characters’ reactions. Searle’s unique style of underlining her character’s eyes with a thin row of eyelashes draws attention to them, often giving them an air of alertness.

Searle’s storytelling is deliberately paced, which makes the reader feel Harriet’s aimlessness. Sincerely, Harriet isn’t a book to instantly fall in love with. It’s one that quietly paints a picture of an uncertain young woman whom many readers will sympathize with. She’s struggling with her own body, with knowing her own mind and heart, and not yet having anything to drive her forward in life.

The book rewards re-reading, particularly once one knows about Harriet’s challenges and can better understand some of the earlier events of the story. An author’s note provides more information on invisible disabilities.

This graphic novel starts with a young girl who is not very happy about her move to Chicago. She isn't able to go to summer camp, but she tries to keep in touch with her friends from last year via postcards. In the new building, Harriet meets an elderly neighbor. Harriet fears the house may be haunted and learns about both the building and her neighbor's history. She makes up stories to imagine a life she wishes she had.

This story is calm, but full of heart. It's a story featuring a young girl living with a chronic illness. I give this book a 4.5/5. The art matches the story so well.

I had some high expectations from Sincerely, Harriet considering the synopsis. But unfortunately, the actual book is quite different from what the synopsis talks about. The chronic illness angle was overshadowed by the personality disorder of the main character and that too was never addressed properly.

Sincerely, Harriet is the story of Harriet, a young Latinx girl who has recently shifted to a new city and found herself bored and lonely there. She does not know anyone in her new town and also her parents have to work overtime. Her friends from summer camp also weren’t responding to her postcards. She has an active imagination creating stories for the world around her but it was hard for her to differentiate the fact from fiction. She starts a relationship with Pearl, the older woman who lives downstairs. Pearl gave her different books to read to overcome her loneliness. She also talks about her son Nick who had been quarantined in the house during an outbreak of Polio in the 1950s. Soon we learn that Harriet suffers from MS (Multiple Sclerosis).

I loved the idea behind this graphic novel. The idea was to highlight the life of a teen with a chronic illness, but it wasn’t mentioned until half-way through the book. Also, I didn’t like the protagonist, Harriet. Her loneliness makes her a habitual liar with the poor attitude, so she’s not a likeable protagonist. But after she meets Pearl, we get to see some improvement in her attitude. She starts writing about her own experiences after she comes to know about Pearl’s son who experienced Polio.

But the format of the story itself is quite odd. Harriet doesn’t get to explain her feelings enough. Her inner feelings are often overshadowed with the other aspects of the story. Pearl gave different books to Harriet but it wasn’t clear what’s the purpose of each of the book and why those were specifically chosen for her. She doesn’t even read most of the books and we are in dark about her connection to those novels. I wish Harriet’s character was more developed. Also, I felt that the story could have been drawn out better. It ended rather abruptly, according to me.

The synopsis also hints about an “unrequited crush” but it barely showed in the story. This side was totally neglected. Harriet relationship with her parents was something I was looking forward too but I was surprised to see how it was handled. Given that Harriet had MS, her parents should have been more careful about her and should have shared a more close relationship. But they barely spent time with her. I know they had multiple jobs to do, but still having a child with the medical condition needs special attention.

The highlight of this graphic novel was definitely the art. The style was quite unique and I loved the color palette the artist has used. It perfectly sets with the sad tone of the story. It captures the various mood of the characters perfectly.

Overall, I feel that the story definitely had a great concept but the execution felt rather flat to me. If you are looking for something light to read, you can definitely pick it up and you might end up enjoying it more than me

Something weird happened with my laptop and a lot of my downloads disappeared, including this and other Netgalley ARCs I had not yet gotten around to, but are now archived and not available to re-download... I am sadness

Sincerely Harriet wasn’t the most exciting graphic novel I get to read. The plot was okay, short, the story doesn’t develop much but I guess it’s more a daily scene. Harriet’s parents are very supportive and the lady downstairs, Pearl very friendly. I understand her so much, trying to make someone enjoy reading, recommending books and discuss them is awesome. Not sure about her son’s story, seemed a little forced in the story. 
Harriet, because of her disease and not only, is very lonely so she invents stories and sends letter to girls she meet in a camp but seems something is lacking from the main character, maybe more explained feelings. 
Liked the artwork, it’s very cute. Made me want to see more of this author.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Sincerely, Harriet is a lovely graphic novel about a young Latinx girl with MS who has recently moved to Chicago with her family. Harriet has a WILD imagination (I live for it), and throughout the book, she imagines so many different interesting scenarios.

What's up with the mailman? Are there ghosts living in this building? Her imagination leads her to question these sorts of things.

Harriet's downstairs neighbour, Pearl, gets Harriet to help make a photo album to send to her son to help him connect with his past and to pass it on to his children. I especially love the connection that Harriet makes to Nicholas, a polio survivor, as she reads his favourite books and sees his old room.

I loved the Author note at the end that Searle wrote, talking about how invisible disabilities do not make a person, they are just a part of that person. Reading that made me really appreciate the slow reveal of Harriet's MS. It's revealed this way so that the reader can get to know Harriet and her family dynamic a little bit. Unfortunately, when people get sick, sometimes the sickness takes over how others see them. Harriet is still Harriet, and I think that's worth a lot.

I enjoyed Sincerely, Harriet for the beautiful illustrations and the diversity. Harriet is a LatinX girl who was just diagnosed with a chronic illness, MS. You follow her on her journey of moving to a new home while dealing with the effects of her illness. I felt that the story was a touch slow for me and I felt that there was something missing (just not sure what exactly). I did enjoy the story overall and found it refreshing that the author is bringing awareness to disabled characters in children's literature.

Beautiful and enjoyable story. I appreciate a protagonist that isn't always likable. Harriet lies and makes things up to cope with her boredom and with her MS as well. She grows and changes, struggling through the roughness of a move, making friends, and being sick but eventually finding herself. Being a kid can be tough and come with a lot of its own pitfalls and this book does a wonderful job of portraying that.

What a beautiful story that is centered on a character who lives with an invisible disability.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sincerely Harriet is a historical fiction graphic novel set in the 1990s in Chicago. Harriet has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, although the reader doesn't find out until towards the end of the book. It isn't 100% clear what is happening for most of the book. The plot sometimes skipped around in time, which was confusing, and a lot of the story is told in the pictures.

Harriet's friendship with her neighbor, Pearl, was a highlight. Pearl is an older woman who lives in Harriet's building and recommends books to her. Even though Harriet is sometimes hard to love, Pearl sticks it out and helps Harriet to feel more comfortable with her illness. The plot line about Pearl's son didn't seem to fit with the rest of the story, and felt like it should either have been dropped completely or more details should have been added.

Harriet and her parents have moved from Indiana to Chicago during the middle of a hot, humid summer. They live in the second-floor apartment of an old house. Harriet is left alone to swelter with only her summer reading list to keep her company while her parents are away at work. As the young teen struggles to come to grips with the separation from her old life and transitioning to her new one, she experiences a recurrence of a chronic health condition. An unexpected friendship and supportive parents help Harry move forward.
Highly recommended.

This graphic novel about a thirteen-year-old that just moved to a new city was able to take me back to how I felt when I was her age. Even though I can't relate to some of the big issues she has to deal with I remember how hard it was to make friends, deal with our parents or simply find a way to occupy our summer. This book was absolutely lovely and the characters are relatable no matter how old you are when you read this.