A 2025 Indie Next List Pick
An Amazon Best of 2025 So Far
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
* "Honest, atmospheric, and full of heart." —Kirkus, starred review
* "Laughter about the Lai siblings’ antics will be as contagious as chickenpox was in the ’90s!" —BookPage, starred review
* " Sidesplitting, pitch-perfect middle-grade graphic novel." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
"Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier or readers who enjoy graphic novels akin to Megan Wagner Lloyd’s Allergic and Varian Johnson’s Twins." —School Library Journal
"Touching and humorous." —Publishers Weekly
"Chickenpox is so full of fun and heartfelt moments that it makes reading contagious! You’ll want to read this book in one-sitting... I did!" —Christina Diaz Gonzalez, artist of Invisible
"Funny, heartfelt, and relatable, Chickenpox will scratch every reader's itch for a great story!" —Megan Wagner Lloyd, bestselling author of Allergic
"A wonderful tale about siblings and friendship. Remy Lai is a master at capturing the tween voice!" —Varian Johnson, award-winning author of Twins
"No one writes sibling drama like Remy Lai." —Collen AF Venable, author of the Katie the Catsitter series
"Full of heart, wit, and at times downright hilarious . . . A wonderfully universal story about the growing pains of adolescence, and navigating those challenges amidst family, friends, and chickenpox! Highly relatable." —Betty C. Tang, artist of Parachute Kids
"A fantastic portrait of family, friends, fighting, and finding a connection with the people closest in your life. Chickenpox will leave the reader itching to know more about the Lai family." —Rey Terciero, author of the Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy
"An entertaining and ultimately heartening slice-of-life comic." —Horn Book Magazine
★ 2024-10-11
In this story loosely based on the author’s childhood, a tween stuck at home with her younger siblings while they all recover from chickenpox must summon patience while struggling with anxiety from shifting friendships.
It’s 1994 in Indonesia, and 12-year-old Abby Lai is irritated that her younger brothers and sisters—Amy, 11, Remy, 8, Andy, 6, and Tommy, 3—make her house feel like “a wild zoo.” They take (and sometimes ruin) her things, and there’s never a moment’s peace amid the bickering and fart jokes. After a disastrous visit with best friends Monica Chandra and Julia Hartono, during which Abby spectacularly lost her temper at her siblings, she’s embarrassed to overhear Julia telling someone at school that she was “acting like such a fourth grader.” But then Julia succumbs to chickenpox—and it emerges that when she was over, she infected the Lai kids as well. Abby, who’s already feeling isolated, now faces quarantining at home with her pesky siblings. The expressive art and clear sequencing in this humor-filled, emotionally intelligent story highlight Abby’s journey as she finds her footing as a better big sister and friend who can give and receive grace for human missteps. Iconic aspects of ’90s life (like eavesdropping on someone’s conversation on a landline phone extension) and facets of life in Indonesia (jaywalking when there are no crosswalks) add to the strong sense of time and place.
Honest, atmospheric, and full of heart. (author’s note)(Graphic fiction. 8-12)
