Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max (Volume 2)

Boom! Box

Lumberjanes:  Friendship to the Max (Volume 2)
Noelle Stevenson
Grace Ellis
Shannon Watters
Brooke A. Allen
2015

The Summary
"What a mystery!

"Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are not your average campers and Miss Quinzella Tiskwin Penniquiqui Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types is not your average summer camp.  Between the river monsters, magic, and the art of friendship bracelets, this summer is only just beginning.  Join the Lumberjanes as they take on raptors and a sibling rivalry that only myths are made of."

The Good
Lumberjanes:  Friendship to the Max had all the qualities I liked in the very first volume:  great character and relationship development, strong and sassy female leads, wonderful stories full of random adventures and absurd situations.  (This is the same volume involving dinosaurs, so, yes, it does border on wildly absurd, especially when a few familiar characters form Greek myth get a little more involved.  But I loved it.)

In this volume, the Lumberjanes friendship is put to the test by raptors, a shapeshifting bear, a weird magical crystal, and a pair of errant gods.  Even Jen, the Roanoke camp counselor, is pulled into the fray--and it's a wild ride, to be sure.  It's a weird, wacky adventure that let's you see the different facets of their personalities and different aspects of their friendships.

For instance, you get to see Molly's ingenuity with anagrams; Jen's incredible talent for astronomy and science; Ripley's raptor-riding rodeo skills; and April's unexpected arm-wrestling skills.  More than their individual skills, you actually get to see their relationships grow and you come to understand how they became friends.  You get to see them interact, to argue and fight, but, most of all, you get to see them building lasting friendships.

It's wonderfully heart-warming to see brilliant young women figuring out puzzles and traps and dangers on their own, and it's lovely to see them helping one another.  They want to have adventures, but not at the expense of their friendship.  And it's their confidence in themselves and each other--their willingness to build each other up--that's wonderfully refreshing to see.

Overall, I really enjoyed the second volume of Lumberjanes.  It's exciting, it's fun, and it's surprisingly uplifting.

The Bad
Sure, it does get a little fragmented.  There's so many different adventures going on at once, so many different creatures hiding in the forest that it sometimes leaves you with more questions than answers.  But, for the most part, it's a great graphic novel with a lot of wonderful characters and stories.

The Ugly
Raptors.

I'll be honest, I've never been a big fan of dinosaurs.  I think I was scarred as a child by watching Jurassic Park too young, so I don't think I've ever liked the idea of dinosaurs in the modern world.  Granted, I got to see Ripley ride a raptor like a rodeo cowboy, but, otherwise, I was a bit ambivalent toward the raptors as a whole.