Nina is an Everychild with a hint of attitude. She certainly knows what pushes her buttons, and with their extensive experience writing for kids, her creators Kroll and Knight have touched upon the very things that make many children mad. The two-page pieces feature a full-page picture, in which Nina voices her complaint, opposite a comic-strip depiction of what went down. In the first, Nina proclaims, "When you don't know what I like . . . that makes me mad!" And why shouldn't it? As readers see, when she asks what's for dinner, her father assures her it'll be something she likes. Then it turns out to be fish. Fish! Another familiar aggrievement comes when she's promised ice cream, and then given some weak excuse as to why it's not convenient to have ice cream right now. The helpful endpapers explain how to read comics with kids and levels the book with Lexile, Guided Reading, and Reading Recovery scores. Nina, drawn with affection and exuberance, should make lots of new, equally offended friends.

In this collection of short, comic-style vignettes, feisty Nina capably describes situations that drive her crazy. While some tales vent personal frustrations (misplacing a toy, having trouble getting dressed, picking a boring activity), many of her pet peeves are directed at her parents' rules, broken promises, and blow-offs. Children will identify with Nina in these humorously depicted and emotion-packed situations.

A young child presents a catalogue of timeless irritations and injustices in a 1976 outing with art and text lightly massaged and reformatted for newly independent readers. From "When I do something nice and no one cares..." or "When you get mad at ME and I didn't do it..." to "When I NEED you and you make me WAIT..." Nina's complaints range from actual injustice to self-absorbed whining and so have near-universal applicability. Each general grievance is paired to a specific incident detailed in comic-book–style panels on the facing page, such as a painting that distracted parents don't praise properly, a promise of ice cream that doesn't pan out, a playmate who abruptly runs off with someone else or clothing that just won't go on the right way. Fresh and buoyant despite the old-style television or occasional other period detail, Knight's art places Nina—short haired, dressed in overalls and looking androgynous, in contrast to the girlier figure that Christine Davenier made of her in a 2002 edition (published as That Makes Me Mad)—between siblings in a comfortably domestic setting. He captures her feelings in a broad range of wonderfully expressive body language ranging from hunched-shoulder, irritated frowns to melodramatic sprawls. A posthumous publication for Kroll; Knight is still going strong and working on an autobiography. A little parental TLC finally calms the storm, as it usually does. (Graphic early reader. 6-8)