Eleven-year-old Cricket keeps a journal describing her turmoil after a bout of chicken pox that kept her home from school for two weeks. During that time her best friend deserts her for "the horse girls," a cliquish set of mean girls who ride horses after school and tease her mercilessly. Additionally, her beloved aunt is hospitalized; she discovers letters from a man her mother loved before Cricket's father; and the only classmate who is kind to her suffers from an unrequited crush. Cricket's voice is strong, sometimes funny, often filled with pain: "When I think about the fun Noa and I used to have my chest hurts as if my heart is an overcooked potato about to become mash." Eriksson's prolific art, with strong black lines and distorted images, extends the sense of discomfort and anxiety that permeates the protagonist's writing. The horse girls, for example, are pictured with actual horse heads digging up Cricket's secrets from a graveyard. Originally published in Swedish, the novel successfully conveys the challenges both of navigating school and friendships and of making sense of a perplexing adult world. Maeve Visser Knoth

Packed with preadolescent angst, Sigunsdotter-s trim, quirky novel follows 11-year-old Cricket, who rates her life as -pretty good- until she returns to school after two weeks with chicken pox to discover that her best friend Noa has deserted her for a clique of -horse girls.- Soon, the girl-s beloved Aunt Frannie, who-s an artist like Cricket plans to be, loses her -life-joy- and is institutionalized in -something called Adult Psych.- Cricket tries to cope with these developments-hiding in the school bathroom, visiting Aunt Frannie as often as possible, and going outside on sleepless nights to throw cucumbers from a bridge-while trying to gently discourage a sweaty-handed male friend who suddenly wants to go out with her. The humorously blunt first-person narrative, which includes Cricket-s numerous revealing lists-secrets shared only with Noa (-Only my right breast has started growing-), secrets not even shared with Noa (-Sometimes I-m scared Mom and Dad will die-)-offers a sympathetic portrait of an idiosyncratic, thoughtful preteen in a period of turmoil. Eriksson-s scratchy b&w drawings, which accentuate Cricket-s emotions with a journal-like vibe, portray all characters with paper-white skin. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)