Serendipity by Gabbie Benda

Serendipity, Dippy to her friends, is a super confident middle schooler, a popular student representative, talented basketball player and she has a leading part in the school play, Macbecky. Her confidence comes with a belief that she is lucky and cannot fail while fortune smiles on her. When she wins tickets to the local carnival Dippy is oblivious to the fact that she is unprepared for her role in the school and selfish with the ball at basketball practice in her eagerness to rush off and have fun with best friend Basil at the carnival. They have a great time but an accidental toppling of Zam Zam, the mechanical fortune telling machine leaves Dippy believing she has been cursed. Just like that, her luck seems to have run out and she is fearful that people won’t like her if she is not lucky. Rather than take responsibility for her failures, for being overcommitted and disorganised, she sets out to find a way to lift the curse. In spite of misgivings, Basil sticks by her but Serendipity has to find out for herself that she is responsible for her own success and that being a team player and working with others is worth more than luck. The colourful cartoon style is packed with interesting detail and action and the red filter denoting a dramatic change of emotion works very well when Basil vents her frustration that Dippy blames bad luck rather than lack of effort for her failures. I was a bit disappointed to find out Basil was a girl as it worked quite well for the character to be genderless. My other reservation was the image on page 209 of a player holding on to the basketball hoop after a successful shot, which is dangerous and considered a foul in many codes. Otherwise this is a fun, and engaging read with an appealing set of characters and some worthwhile messages.

Themes: Graphic novel, friendship, cartoon humour.

Sue Speck