The Beat is excited to present an exlusive excerpt from Allergic, the upcoming middle-grade graphic novel by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, which will be available from Graphix on March 2nd, 2021!

Allergic
ALLERGIC, available March 2nd, 2021

Allergic is the story of Maggie, a kid with an obsession with animals. Maggie has a problem: she feels lonely. Her parents are distracted by the new addition to the family on the way, and her younger brothers are no help, being twins who are constantly lost with one another in thier own world. But fortunately, Maggie has arrived at a brilliant solution: to get a puppy!

On her birthday, Maggie’s parents take her to the animal shelter to see if they can find the right puppy. No sooner do they arrive than does the right puppy appear – but there turns out to be a different complication: Maggie soon breaks out in a severe allergic reaction!

It turns out that Maggie has an allergic reaction to anything that has fur, causing her to break out in rashes and hives (and as you’ll see below, this gets quite a reaction from her family, especially her younger brothers)!

But in spite of her allergies, Maggie is determined to find an animal to be her perfect pet companion. For those of us who are pet lovers who also happen to have allergies, it’s a very familiar story, so perhaps it should come as no suprise that writer Lloyd based the story in part on her own personal experiences finding the perfect, allergy-compatable pet!

Check out the exclusive excerpt below, and be sure to stay tuned to The Beat for more about Allergic between now and its March 2nd, 2021 release date. In the meantime, you can learn more about Lloyd and Nutter on their respective personal websites.

Allergic