Early Book Review: Herding Cats: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen

Herding Cats: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection is the third volume of collected comics from Sarah Andersen. Her distinctive style and humor do a painfully on point job of illustrating the very specific growing pains that occur on the way to becoming a mature, put-together grownup. The illustrations also show how to behave as an adult, even though keeping up that behavior is just as hard as getting there to begin with. At the end there is also encouragement and support for readers trying to keep their head above water when dealing with creativity, art, anxiety, and life in general.

Sarah valiantly struggles with waking up in the morning, being productive, and dealing with social situations. Sarah's Scribbles is the comic strip that follows her life, finding humor in living as an adulting introvert that is at times weird, awkward, and embarrassing. While we might not all have the same levels on anxiety or the same creative outlets as this author and artist-  we have all had the moments when we felt so very different, anxious, or other as the drawn version of Sarah. I could relate to so many of her strips. Even in the strips I could not relate personally I could see the reality of the day to day struggles that so many face. I loved the relateable feel, and the perseverance and humor that underlies her actions. Some of the strips were ones I have seen before, since I follow Sarah's Scribbles, however I felt like there were a significant number of fresh, new strips. I also found the other text from Anderson at the end of the book to be uplifting and supportive to artists and others dealing with anxiety or having trouble adulting to be a great way to connect with and support her readers. All most of us want is to know we are not alone, and seeing someone that you might look up to commiserating with the same troubles could be just the encouragement readers need.