Lauren R. Weinstein confronts adolescence head-on in this collection of comics, and it isn’t pretty. But it is funny, as well as painful, awkward, and sometimes cruel. Her main character—also named Lauren—is smart enough to know that playing with Barbies at thirteen isn’t cool (even with a girl-power, twenty-first-century feminist subtext), and honest enough to admit that she wants to be cool, no matter how shallow it is. Weinstein’s strips follow Lauren through incidents in middle and high school, from social missteps to serious kissing, body piercing to breaking up. A short series of “Bonus Comics” offers the author/illustrator’s feminist commentary on body image, identity, self-worth and more. Her art style suggests controlled frenzy, and the humor is often satirical in this sophisticated graphic novel. (Age 14 and older)