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Fantagraphics Books is proud to showcase Miss Lasko-Gross in her graphic-novel debut. Escape from "Special" is the coming-of-age story of Melissa, who we first meet as a small child and depart from at the end of the book just before she enters high school. Drawn in black and white and washed in moody blues and full spectrum grays, Lasko-Gross's art, with its detailed backgrounds and expressive characters, exquisitely conveys the story's blend of humor (sometimes of the gross-out variety) and keenly observed insights. Miss Lasko-Gross, who has the sensibility of a love child of Linda Barry and David B. midwifed by Judy Blume, has created a graphic novel that should appeal not only to the growing readers of graphic novels, but to teens grappling with similar unresolved questions.

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"A compelling work... a stunning portrayal of what it takes to disentangle ourselves from the rules we're supposed to follow and forge our own path." – The Toronto Star

"Lasko-Gross' assured debut thankfully measures up to the lofty standards set by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Debbie Drechsler. Told in brisk vignettes, the memoir, billed as 'semi-autobiographical,' is by turns funny, appalling and brutally self-revealing." – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"In her graphic novel, Escape from 'Special' cartoonist Miss Lasko-Gross introduces us to perhaps the most lovable, willful child in comics since Lucy Van Pelt... the author presents the confusion and uncertainty of a young girl's interior and exterior lives as poignant comedy." – Comic Book Bin

Finalist, 2008 Great Graphic Novels for Teens, American Library Association

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