Heather Sellers weaves a nice little chaotic tale, from the eyes of a 12 year old, in "It's Water, its Not Going to Kill You". Recalling how her mother wigged out and drove the family car into the sea, she tries to convey how a pre-teen child reacts to such a stressful situation. It reads like a nicely plotted short fiction piece, with all the author's scenes set up in good, concrete detail and all the characters provide realistic, believable dialogue.
             One problem, I think, with the POV in this story is that it doesn't read like a 12 year-old girl's thought process. I was confused as to how old the author was when this story took place, I guessed 15 or 16. I never would have guessed that this was from a fifth grade perspective. Granted, the author is older and more mature now. I don't expect this to read like a 5th grader read it, but I don't think the author did a great job making me see this story through a 12 year-old's eyes.
             In the second page of this story, the author sets up the relationship between herself and her little brother. The tone of this bit of the story kind of made me feel dirty. I was getting a very incestuous vibe when I read "At night, in the room we shared, Sid would feel the back of my neck, and the wet mats of hair under my topcoat of hair." And then later "...we were too old to be sharing a room, too old to be fighting like dogs, like that." Perhaps I'm just reading too far into things, but I think the tone and voice of this section was anything but innocent. I definitely see some deeper meaning, a deeper subject maybe, in that page.
             The characters are what really made the story enjoyable for me. As I mentioned, it reads like a slice-of-life story of a small family on the verge of cracking. I've read many a graphic novel and comic book that have used scenarios like this to tell solid, dramatic stories. The chara...