Long Distance

Astronomy-loving Vega, a light brown–skinned girl, is uninterested in making new friends when she moves to Seattle with her two fathers for one dad’s new tech job. Instead, Vega’s determined to stay in touch with her best friend Halley, a bespectacled white girl back in Portland. But when Halley falls off the grid right before Vega’s dads ship her off to Camp Very Best Friend, Vega struggles with feelings of friendlessness in a new place. Her Black bunkmate, rock-loving Gemma, already has a “built-in BFF” in her twin Isaac, leaving Vega with chatty computer geek Qwerty, cued Vietnamese, and peculiar blond white kid George, adored by a cadre of overly enthusiastic counselors. When Vega, Gemma, Isaac, and Qwerty discover a pine cone that is actually a high-tech speaker, it becomes clear there’s something quite strange about camp. Boldly colored, expressive digital illustrations by Gardner (Becoming RBG) particularly stand out when depicting holographic bears and special camp vans; helpful inset diagrams throughout offer information on scientific concepts and instruments. This delightful, oft-comedic graphic novel injects familiar themes with ample imagination, as Vega and campmates learn that “Friendship is a renewable resource.” Final art not seen by PW. Ages 10–up. [em](June) [/em]