Take it as a compliment / Maria Stoian.

London ; Philadelphia : Singing Dragon, 2016.

97 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm

"I was 15." -- "I didn't go out for weeks." -- "The feelings of betrayal, guilt, and self-hate cannot be described in existing words." -- "I still wonder how I got there from cream soda and ice cream pops." -- "I have never told so many strangers not to touch me as I did in times Square." -- "I was at a bus stop in Edinburgh." -- "I was terrified and did all of these things I was too young to comprehend for fear of getting yelled at." -- "Maybe I am too nice." -- "I never saw him again." -- "I have no idea what could have happened if any of those things hadn't been in my favour that night." -- "Something like this you just don't forget. It lingers and kills you slowly, until you learn to move on." -- "A little bird told me that the boy didn't see what the big deal was." -- "It's hard to describe the stare, you'd best understand it by how I felt: disgusted." -- "They chanted after me, 'Oscar the Grouch, Oscar the Grouch ... '" -- "I don't know how old I was, but I was pre-pubescent." -- "I didn't have any more words. I was too angry and too shocked all at once." -- "I hope he listened." -- "I chose a desk in the opposite corner of the door, hidden behind cubicle walls, in hopes I'd have privacy and she wouldn't find me. But she did." -- "It's one thing to be harrassed by guys in the street, but this was different." -- "I just laid there on the ground beside my bed, numb, for a very long time."