Priya Puts Herself First

Things seemed to be going fine with the PAWS dog walking group. Mindy, Gabby and Priya have been best friends for years and have now welcomed another friend into their group – a girl in their class named Hazel. Hazel uses a wheelchair to get around, but she is still willing and able to help walk the dogs and be friends with the girls. Christmas is coming, and it looks like it’s going to be a wonderful holiday for the friends.

Suddenly, Priya finds out that her family is being evicted from the only home Priya can remember. On top of that, Gabby is more scatterbrained that usual and is becoming obsessed with postings and hits on their social media sites. Right after Christmas, Priya’s parents find a lovely house. The problem is the house is not in the right neighbourhood. It is far away from her friends, the dogs they walk daily, and the school they all attend. At first, Priya doesn’t tell the other girls that her life is being turned upside down. She insists to her parents that she is not changing schools and that she will continue with PAWS and her sports teams, even if it means she must take the bus everywhere. Priya is sure she can do it all, including getting up an hour earlier to catch the bus to school and getting home for supper late because of dog walking and sports.

In the new year, Priya tries hard to make everything go smoothly. She is often late because of the bus, and the lost hour of sleep is catching up with her. On top of that, Gabby insists that everyone in the PAWS group must post videos, photos, and comments daily about the fun they are having walking the dogs. Gabby says this is good for business. Priya is stressed to the max, and things start to fall apart, especially for Priya and Gabby.

Priya Puts Herself First is another wonderful graphic novel for middle school readers, especially girls. The story is sweet and heartwarming, and there are many life lessons learned along the way. Discrimination and racism are openly discussed, and this can lead to great conversations for readers and their families. With the girls coming from many diverse backgrounds, it makes sense that they notice and talk about the racism they encounter in their daily lives.

I love that this book also has a step-by-step recipe within the story, just like some of the previous books in the series. This time the recipe is for an old-time traditional Christmas recipe called ‘wife-saver’. Mindy’s new stepdad, Michael apologizes for the name, and this creates space for Mindy and Michael to discuss it in such a way as to remove stereotypes. An added bonus is that any interested reader can easily make this dish by following the simple instructions and working alongside Mindy and Michael as they prepare it.

The PAWS graphic novels are lovely and readable. They are charming, funny, and true to life. They touch on real life issues and find common sense ways of solving the problems, or at least bringing them to light for readers to reflect on. The illustrations in the story are incredible and suit the story well! The colours are light and lovely when things are happy and good in the story. They get darker and change mood as the story does. The illustrations of the characters and their reactions to events are detailed and wonderful to view. Because of the way the author and illustrator ended Priya Puts Herself First, it is obvious that there are more stories to come.