Drama: A Graphic Novel

Drama is a young adult graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier published in 2012. It is Telgemeier’s third book and her first fiction graphic novel—her first two were autobiographical. Drama is critically acclaimed and spent 240 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. This guide refers to the 2012 edition by Scholastic/Graphix.

Plot Summary

Callie Marin is a seventh-grader at Eucalyptus Middle School. She has long, purple-dyed hair and likes to wear the color green. She also loves the theater, and is on the school’s stage crew with her best friend, Liz, and her other good friend, Matt.

The narrative opens with Callie walking home from school with Matt and his older brother, Greg. Greg asks to talk with Callie alone, which angers Matt, although Matt ultimately obliges. Callie has a crush on Greg, and is happy to have some alone time with him. However, Greg only wants to talk to Callie alone because she is a girl—and he is having trouble with his girlfriend, Bonnie. After discussing Bonnie’s complaints about Greg with him, Callie also questions Bonnie’s character. She also tells him that Bonnie isn’t the only girl who likes him before planting a kiss on his lips.