Garage Band

The characters in Italian writer/illustrator Gipi's beautifully painted graphic novel may not be all that likable, but their struggle to make sense of adolescence through music comes across masterfully. Four friends have dreams of becoming rock stars: obnoxious and jaded Stefano, Nazi-obsessed Alex, long-suffering and worried Alberto and skinny, self-conscious Giuliano, whose father offers the boys use of the garage for practice and recording, on the condition that they stay out of trouble. Stefano's father gets the boys a contact with a record label executive, but before they can finish their demo, an amplifier blows, leading the foursome to commit theft. Stefano must decide whether or not to betray his friends in order to get a job with the record executive; it's a particularly powerful scene that echoes Christ's temptation (the two stand over an empty swimming pool rather than on a mountaintop). The visual style is jagged and rough, colors stray willfully outside the lines; the whole aesthetic suggests the uneasy tension that defines young adulthood. Ages 12-up. Agent: Anne Bouteloupe at Gallimard Jeunesse. (Apr.)