Sixth grade is a magical time. It’s when kids are getting old enough to do some of the really cool things in life, are discovering their own social circles, and are just clinging on to that ability to be utterly silly. On the surface, Long Distance by Whitney Gardner, feels like some other early middle school graphic novels that you’ve seen. There are some overlapping themes and it’s easy to compare Long Distance to Lumberjanes as a sister by another mother. But just one moment, do not get lulled into a sense of malaise or that you fully know what to expect with this graphic novel.
Yes, it’s about girls at camp and has themes about friendship and discovery. It also has all of the elements of a great Lumberjanes story because it takes place at a summer camp. However, the key to Long Distance, and the thing that makes it so much fun, is the ratio at which these characteristics are distributed. There is a friendship vein throughout the graphic novel, and that’s the main trait for the first 30%. After that, it trickles down until it gradually becomes a science-fiction story with a friendship backbone. If you look at it from the mere perspective of its ratio it doesn’t immediately happen. When actually reading Long Distance the ‘whaaa’, moment occurs on one page.
You see, there’s a very sudden plot shift in Long Distance that happens in the fourth chapter. It’s a very fun shift in the plot that affirms all of the freakiest scenarios that kids have ever had about summer camp. The result of this gives readers a renewed vigor to reading a graphic novel that they were already enjoying. The first way they were enjoying it is more of a passive, relaxing way. This is a pleasant graphic novel the I’m enjoying because the characters are fun to look at and I can relate to what they’re going through.
The second way is more rewarding though because it takes those characters that have endeared themselves in your feelings, and puts them in a situation that is completely alien. All the while, this new situation will remind middle school readers of something that’s going on in their lives.
Long Distance follows Vega as she moves to Seattle from Portland. Her family enrolls her in some lame ‘friendship camp’ for the summer so that she can meet some new people. All Vega wants to do is text her BFF in her old hometown, get out of the woods and see her dads again. Now, take that backdrop that any kid in middle school can understand and add freaky camp counselors, an extremely overfriendly new kid at camp, and a couple of other STEM-minded girls and you’ve got a great graphic novel.
Readers, parents, or librarians will appreciate the earnest STEM angles that the book has in it. Vega and her friends make STEM cool and use it as an asset to their friendship. One of her friends is an avid rock collector, one enjoys programming and Vera uses a sextant to figure out exactly where she is. After reading Long Distance one time you’ll re-read it so that you can pick up on the changes in each character’s mannerisms that exist before, and after the big twist is made public. Once you do that, you’ll kick yourself and realize that you were right about your camp counselors all along.
And yes, we’re being intentionally vague about the plot because the twist is a lot of fun to experience without any spoilers. Long Distance is a graphic novel that’s perfect for summer reading and also has year-long appropriateness to it. It’s easy to see how a series could be developed from these characters, but one also feels like that’s not the point of the book. Gardner set out to make a great graphic novel, which she did. Sure, the story has legs and could go deeper into the characters, but it could also call it a day here and leave Gardner free to create other new characters or stories. Either one or both choices would be welcome by readers in upper elementary school through middle school.
Long Distance is by author/illustrator Whitney Gardner and available on Simon & Schuster.
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