Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir in Diaries, Letters, and Lists

by Sophie Lucido Johnson

Overview

What would you say to your teenage self if you could? 

Inspired by the journals she kept growing up, Sophie Lucido Johnson began an interactive conversation between her younger self and her current self. When she began the exercise, Sophie envisioned sharing important lessons on what it means to love your body, navigate relationships, and discover what fulfills you, no matter where life takes you. But as these “exchanges” deepened, adult Sophie discovered she had much to learn about life from young Sophie as well. 

Fully illustrated with handwritten text, Dear Sophie, Love Sophie deftly explores topics like queer identity, body image, inherited trauma, belonging, privilege, heartbreak, first love, and much more in a unique and captivating way. Charming, witty, and poignant,  it reminds us that wisdom is not limited by age. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063040717
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	53 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Editorial Reviews

02/07/2022

Johnson (Many Love) returns to the memoir genre with a cute setup that juxtaposes her adolescent diary entries with responses from her adult self. In sections organized by theme rather than by chronology, Johnson engages with relationships and sexuality, disordered eating and body positivity, Weird Al, self harm, and sisterhood. Part comics memoir, part self-help, Johnson assures Young Sophie that she’s “proud of both of ” for doing what they needed to survive, but ultimately concludes that “it’s time... to stop looking back” and live in the present moment. The whimsical character drawings (with stylized red triangle noses) and curlicue font recall Lucy Knisley, but the handwritten diary entries are cramped. Adult Sophie can verge into an overly teacherly tone, such as where she diagrams the LGBTQIA+ initialism. Still, the more elaborately drawn and personal sections land well, among them the rocky river against which Sophie explains her own sexual orientation. Comics memoir fans looking for shapely narrative may find it didactic, but readers eager to embrace self-reflection as an exercise, even if awkward in sections, can find inspiration in resonant messages of self-love and healing. Not all readers will have the patience to stick with the soliloquizing. Agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, Stuart Krichevsky Agency (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

In this very frank, very funny and very page-turning time-machine-on-paper, she unburns the bridges between childhood and adulthood, going back to rescue herself fully armed with the tools of art and literature, redrawing the boundaries of what "help" and "self" might really mean.”  — Chris Ware, author of Building Stories and Rusty Brown

“A tender, thoughtful book that brought back so vividly what it was like to be in high school; I? wish I? could send it to my younger self. It restored me to myself. This graphic memoir is particularly wonderful and beautifully drawn.”  — Liana Finck, author of Excuse Me and Passing for Human

"Dear Sophie, Love Sophie is an intricate dialogue to hold in your heart. Bravely navigating past, present, and future, Johnson journeys into the strength that we grow, even when we're not aware how the seeds are being planted. A remarkable read to share with all ages and stages of life.” — Brie Spangler, author of Beast and Unbound

"A big-hearted, courageous comic. In her introspection Sophie Lucido Johnson finds wisdom, but it’s the curiosity and humility with which she approaches her younger self that is a slow-burning revelation."  — Jason Katzenstein, author of Everything is an Emergency and Camp Midnight

“A sweet and sincere memoir about giving your messy, insecure younger self the same care and patience you owe to your messy, insecure current self.”  — Sam Alden, author of New Construction and It Never Happened Again

From the Publisher

"A big-hearted, courageous comic. In her introspection Sophie Lucido Johnson finds wisdom, but it’s the curiosity and humility with which she approaches her younger self that is a slow-burning revelation." 

Jason Katzenstein

"Dear Sophie, Love Sophie is an intricate dialogue to hold in your heart. Bravely navigating past, present, and future, Johnson journeys into the strength that we grow, even when we're not aware how the seeds are being planted. A remarkable read to share with all ages and stages of life.

Brie Spangler

In this very frank, very funny and very page-turning time-machine-on-paper, she unburns the bridges between childhood and adulthood, going back to rescue herself fully armed with the tools of art and literature, redrawing the boundaries of what "help" and "self" might really mean.” 

Chris Ware

A tender, thoughtful book that brought back so vividly what it was like to be in high school; I? wish I? could send it to my younger self. It restored me to myself. This graphic memoir is particularly wonderful and beautifully drawn.” 

Liana Finck

A sweet and sincere memoir about giving your messy, insecure younger self the same care and patience you owe to your messy, insecure current self.” 

Sam Alden