You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner (review)

Being expelled from the Kingston School for the Deaf for her graffiti art and having to start at a new school doesn’t initially faze sixteen-year-old Julia: “School is school. I hated it at Kingston. I’d hate it at Finley.” Though she finds it exhausting to spend her day with clueless “hearies” and her overeager interpreter, Casey, Julia gradually makes friends with an ex-cheerleader classmate, whom she dubs YP (short for Yoga Pants). More impactful, however, are her daring graffiti art excursions at school—and then her fury at finding that another graffiti artist is challenging her by amending and upstaging her work. Julia is a memorable narrator, pugnacious and talented and unapologetic, and love of art and especially her kind of art suffuses the novel, with details about craft and technique balancing out namedrops of famous street artists (there’s even a cheeky Banksy cameo). Julia’s family (she’s the interracial daughter of two lesbian moms, both culturally Deaf) takes an appropriate backstage role while still scaffolding her character, and while there is boy drama it’s the relationships with female friends that really matter here, from her realization that her old school pal Jordyn wasn’t much of a friend to her growing understanding of YP and the importance of her friendship. The Deaf details are enveloping and credible without being forced, and Julia’s artistry will make readers itch to get their fingers on a can of spray paint. Black and white art highlights small details and cityscapes as well as displaying Julia’s pieces.