Summer camps may easily be gold mines of bizarre and humorous events, as literary / cinematic pieces have demonstrated time and again. Vera Brosgol’s graphic novel Be Prepared (2018) announces the same atmosphere, which is most certainly eccentric, almost chaotic (despite the rules that are never absent within camps) – and yet, the book manages to stand out due to the author’s cultural angle. What the readers receive is the unfiltered perspective of a nine-year-old Vera (since the featured recollections are inspired from Brosgol’s real-life childhood), who has moved from Russia to America at the age of five and struggles to fit not just in American sisterhoods, but also in a taxing Russian summer camp. The fact that Brosgol draws significant inspiration from her own experiences as a young immigrant and camper gives the plot a particular charm which cannot be reproduced that simply. There’s a curious mixture of absurdity and solemnity throughout young Vera’s accounts, all engulfed by...