I love this graphic biography of a twelve year old girl in Moscow. The drawings are beautiful, and the writing is simple but perfectly captures her story. ( )

A decent day-in-the-life account of a girl growing up in '80s Russia, though I expected there to be more turmoil over her mother going away (as the title would suggest).

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Panels Read Harder: Slice-of-life outside the U.S. ( )

An illustrated/graphic memoir that follows the story of a young girl living in Russia in the 90s. It's intimate and an interesting snapshot of the time period but I was left wanting a bit more meat and emotional resonance in this. ( )

I enjoyed to the plot of 'A Year Without Mom'. The plot was very unique and educational. It taught me the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl living in Moscow in the 1990's. I don't believe this book deserves the full five stars. As much as I liked the plot and found it interesting, the actual descriptions weren't very good. Dasha Tolstikova, the author and main character, did not explain her family and friend's personality. Dasha Tolstikova also didn't explain the political side of Russia. I was very confused because I didn't have any background knowledge of Russia. ( )

A memoir about a twelve-year-old girl that feels as if it were written and drawn by a twelve-year-old girl. Between the numerous pages devoted to her girlhood crush are a few references to the fact that she is living through the collapse of the Soviet Union. I might have let this dull and pointless book off with two stars if the creator hadn't decided to put "I say" and "she says" tags beneath every word balloon. That's just annoying as hell. ( )