Gadget Girl

Kamata, Suzanne. Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible. GemmaMedia, 2013.

Aiko is fourteen and she's never met her father. She has cerebral palsy, and she channels her energies into drawing a comic called Gadget Girl, where the main character has all kinds of special abilities and is always saving the man in distress. Aiko's artist mother is invited to exhibit her art in Paris, and Aiko gets to accompany her. Aiko has heard of the healing waters of Lourdes and wonders if they would help her become more like Gadget Girl.

This was a fairly standard coming-of-age and falling-in-love teen girl's story, with the obvious twists of Aiko's disability and also her secret identity as a comic artist. I was glad for the emphasis on comics as well as the fact that Aiko's disability didn't really get in her way, for the most part. She was a teen girl who wanted to know her father and was tired of being her mother's muse, none of which had much to do with her abilities or lack thereof.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: mild language
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Anna and the French Kiss, The Adventures of Superhero Girl, Say What You Will