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by Ludwig Volbeda
Jip has an assignment from school for spring break: draw a self-portrait. That should be easy for someone who can draw so well.
Yet Jip's thoughts keep wandering. To the new boy in class, to beetles and fireflies, to twilight dreaming, to the party next Friday, and especially to the boy who changed Jip's world once and for all.
Ludwig Volbeda writes as he draws: sensitively, intimately, and with striking observations and metaphors that gradually give the reader insight into Jip's innermost thoughts. What results is a magnificent self-portrait in words (and line art) and one of the more exquisite queer coming-of-age stories in years.
"Glimpses of subplots, such as Jip's grandmother's cognitive decline and Jip's parents' turbulent marriage, are naturally woven in; these open-ended vignettes further enhance the realism and beauty of Jip's world and journey. Volbeda's exquisitely delicate sketches, executed with fineliners and mechanical pencils, are sprinkled throughout, adding texture. Breathtakingly raw and fresh, just like adolescence itself." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This information about Self Portrait was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ludwig Volbeda is a Dutch author and illustrator who has won the highest awards for both writing and illustration of children's books in his country. He likes to fill his walls and sketchbooks with small notes, drawings, cartoons, and short stories; he has a fascination with everything small, such as buttons and beetles. His young adult debut, Self Portrait, was voted Rainbow Book of the Year by readers in the Netherlands.
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