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Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes: Volume 1    by Camilla D'Errico & Joshua Dysart Amazon.com order for
Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes
by Camilla D'Errico
Order:  USA  Can
Del Rey, 2007 (2007)
Paperback
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Platinum-selling recording artist Avril Lavigne stars as young protagonist Hana's imaginary friend in the YA graphic novel, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes. Hana is alone and alienated - at home, where her parents are always fighting, and at school, where she 'just wasn't worth noticing' - and Avril's music 'took away the numbness' and made her feel less alone.

But Hana knows a great deal about those around her, as she communicates electronically with them, disguised in a whole set of identities - she figures that 'if these people were like oceans, then I must've been swimming inside of them.' But they don't know her at all. Her parents seem worried about her and her mom signs her up in a program that pairs young people with the elderly, to help get her out of her shell. Hana resists the idea.

Then she finds the Make5Wishes website, and signs up, against the ghostly Avril's advice. A box arrives for her, with a cute red devilish creature inside, that calls itself 'a super-duper mender of lonely hearts' and offers her five wishes. The first one works out wonderfully, but then a nightmare spills over into real life. Can making deals with a demon ever end well?

This is the first in a duo that will continue, in The Otaku's Choice, to show the impacts of lonely young Hana's remaining wishes. It's an engrossing story, and I was especially impressed by how well the graphic novel format - and especially close-ups of facial expressions - succeeds in conveying strong emotions.

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