Review: Peanut

Peanut by Paul Hoppe

Sadie is starting at a new high school, and is worried about making friends. Being new is never easy, and she is afraid she will be doomed to suffer the tortures of high school alone. When Sadie reads an essay to the class about her peanut allergy and how it effects every aspect of her life, a few of her classmates take interest. They start a conversation, and before she knows it, Sadie has a group of friends all her own. And a super sweet boyfriend. She snagged one of those, too. The only problem is that Sadie doesn't really have a peanut allergy.

Sadie must be very careful about her charade. She has to hide it from her mother at home, and remember to avoid all peanut products at school. When the school nurse asks for medical forms, Sadie has a minor panic attack. She goes until November with the entire school convinced she is deathly allergic to peanuts. When a concerned teacher rushes her to the nurse because he thinks Sadie ate a peanut, the lie comes crashing down around her.

Yes, I read another graphic novel. I said I would, and I did. I did not like Peanut as much as I enjoyed Anya's Ghost, though. The illustrations were still great, and I liked that everything was in black and white except Sadie's pink shirt. However, the story annoyed me, which I should have seen it coming. When I picked it up, I selected it based on the cover. I love peanut butter with a passion, so naturally I was attracted to the lovely, delicious looking peanut on the cover. It made me want to eat a spoon full of peanut butter. Which I did. However, the downside of making a food-based decision when picking out a book is that I didn't base my decision on whether or not I would actually like the book. I even read the blurb and thought about how silly the plot seemed. But the peanut looked so yummy. Oops.

Ok, I'm done discussing my love affair with peanuts, peanut butter and anything peanut based. Back to Peanut. I can see how someone in high school might enjoy this book. It may make them feel better about themselves that they didn't go through such levels of insanity to make friends. Also, there are humorous parts, and the characters (besides Sadie) were easy to relate to. Sadie's friends were quirky, and there was just enough drama and romance sprinkled in. But not enough humor and quirkiness to make me forget how annoying I thought Sadie was and how ridiculous it is to fake a deathly allergy. Especially when one is pretending to be allergic to something as common and delicious as peanuts. 

High 5 to for the cover design, though.