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Junior Journalist

Alumnae News

cover of Cub graphic novel. Blonde kid in a orange paisley dress running with a camera and notebook
BY CHRISTINA BARBER-JUST

Published December 11, 2019

It’s 1972, and things are not looking up for 12-year-old Cindy.

Cindy CopelandA seventh grader, she wears braces, glasses and “old Amish lady” dresses, and her best friend has just ditched her for the clique of mean girls known as “the predators.” Her fortunes change when a chance conversation with her beloved English teacher leads to an internship with a bell-bottom–wearing, VW Beetle– driving young woman who’s a reporter for the local newspaper. Cindy’s stint as a cub reporter is transformative; she not only finds her voice as a writer, she gains confidence as a middle schooler, making new friends, standing up to the predators and even landing a boyfriend.

A true story, Cub is prolific author-illustrator Cynthia Copeland ’82’s first graphic memoir for kids. The book received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, with the latter praising it as a “tale of middle-grade angst and self-consciousness … laced with humor and nostalgia.”

CUB
By Cynthia L. Copeland ’82
Algonquin Young Readers, January 2020

Photograph by Mark Corliss

This story is part of the Smithies Create column in the Winter 2019-20 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

SMITHIES CREATE

 

Whose Line Is It Anyway? Gloria Steinem ’56 and the late Molly Ivins ’66 are two of Smith’s most iconic—and quotable—alumnae. Smithies Create challenges you to a game of quotation identification. 

So You Want to Write a Memoir? Modern Memoirs, an Amherst, Massachusetts–based self-publishing company established in 1994, specializes in personal narratives and family histories. 

Wynter’s Tale: Christian-fiction writer Tosca Lee ’92’s The Line Between is a “perfectly crafted dystopian thriller [that] will keep readers up all night and have them begging for a sequel.” 

Flying Solo: Fans of folk-pop artists Hannah & Maggie, take note: One-half of the Smithie duo has a solo project called Little Busy.