Sarah Winifred Searle's graphic novel is a touching coming of age story about making new friends, getting to know yourself and sometimes getting out of your own way.
This novel had a gorgeous art style, and included a zine created by a character which helped serve as a lense into their life. I felt connected to the characters and the struggles were beyond relatable. This story dealt with a number of challenging topics in gentle but realistic ways, from sexuality and mental health, to that universal struggle of figuring out what comes next.

My only complaint was at the end of the story, things felt like they were finally beginning and I wanted to read more. I would absolutely recommend this.

I am so happy. First Second Books allowed me to get a copy of this graphic novel.

Semi-memoir, and semi-made up, this story is based on Sarah’s struggle to get through high school, and the friends she made along the way. As she said in the afterward, she combined a lot of people together to tell the story, but the basic story is about her.

And, the basic story is about a girl who struggles to get through high school and arranges to have an independent study to produce a graphic novel, but ends up doing zine issues, instead, that she gives and sells to friends.

There are other things going on, other than that, of course. There are friends who are in love, and friends who are also struggling with their lives. The second picture is from a page of the graphic novel, where they all write down a dark secret that no one knows, and as you can see, it says “I hate myself”.

One of her friends is bi, and is still trying to get over his last relationship. The other friend is non-binary, but isn't sure if that is even quite the right definition.

Strong stuff. But, I love everything Searle has put out, the way I love First Second books for publishing authors I love.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. </em>

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley

Wow it's not a book that I would normally read. But I'm glad that I did it was emotional and raw at times so fun.

Oh boy this book was so good but so rough at times. Rough in the way of me wanting to reach in and take care of April, Oscar, and Winifred and tell them everything would be okay and get better. I appreciated the threads of hope and optimism woven throughout, but honestly this book got too real at times for me. Not in a bad way, just in an emotionally difficult way. At one point, the three main friends all write secrets on pieces of paper and put them in a hat to guess which secret belongs to each of them, but then they all write "I hate myself." That was a very big oof. The tone of it reminds me of "Lady Bird" and "Eighth Grade," where it depicts young people feeling trapped and struggling to come into their own. Fortunately, it does work out, but not without a rough journey to get there. If you are in an emotional place to handle it, I'd highly recommend checking it out.

The Greatest Thing follows Winifred as she starts another year of high school but without the friends she came to rely on. Her two friends have transferred to private schools leaving her alone as they drifted apart (but perhaps they weren't really friends anyway?). The only thing about this school year she's looking forward to is her independent study where she'll create her very own comic book. What follows is a story of friendship, depression, and finding one's way when feeling lost. Winifred makes two new friends and an old friend brings her into their circle. Sarah Winifred Searle creates an honest look at depression, self harm, questioning sexuality when the words we have now don't exist (non-binary was not a widely used term in the early 2000s which is when this takes place) and the darker days of high school. The story will reach to the core of readers struggling with their own mental health and perhaps will be just the nudge they need to talk to someone. Searle's look at mental health is honest and the graphic novel format lends itself perfectly to this story. A fantastic work for teen readers and a must have on library shelves.

I thought this book was beautiful. The story was sensitive and caring to the issues that the characters face. I will be passing it eagerly to students.