Margins
Fresh Start book cover
Fresh Start
2025
First Published
4.12
Average Rating
288
Number of Pages

From New York Times bestselling author Gale Galligan comes a funny and vibrant semi-autobiographical middle-grade graphic novel about friendship and belonging. Ollie Herisson's dad is a diplomat, which means her family moves around a lot. She has already lived in Singapore, Korea, France, and the United States. When Ollie starts at a new school, she doesn't worry about making a good impression because she knows that when her family inevitably moves again, she'll get a fresh start somewhere else. A complete reset. It doesn't matter if her classmates think she's weird for pretending that she lives in the world of an imagined anime, or if she makes an enemy out of the most popular girl in her class, or if she just does something hugely embarrassing! And it definitely doesn't matter that all her mom wants is for Ollie to be more of a proper Thai daughter. But after moving from Germany to Virginia and having a mortifying first day at her new school, Ollie is shocked to learn that her parents are going to buy a house so that Ollie and her sister, Cat, can finish grade school in one place. Can Ollie figure out how to both be herself and make real friends when she can't run away from her life?

Avg Rating
4.12
Number of Ratings
387
5 STARS
37%
4 STARS
42%
3 STARS
18%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads

Author

Gale Galligan
Gale Galligan
Author · 3 books

Gale Galligan is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist and shrimp chip enthusiast. They’re known for their four BABY-SITTERS CLUB graphic novel adaptations. You can also spot them in The Claudia Kishi Club, a wonderful short documentary on Netflix. Gale holds an MFA in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design. When they aren’t making comics, Gale enjoys knitting, reading, and spending time with their roomies: Lemon the leopard gecko, rabbits Dipper and Penny, Patrick the husband, and Robin the child. They live in Rockland County, New York.

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