Published by JY

Summary:  Grace is excited to be starting middle school, but before long she’s dealing with what’s been a lifelong problem for her: living in the shadow of her popular, athletic brother Kyle.  One of her two best friends, Jay, has a crush on Kyle, and the other friend, Amy is trying to push the shyer Jay into telling Kyle how she feels about him.  Finally, Jay and Grace have had enough, and the whole friendship falls apart at a disastrous sleepover.  Feeling friendless, Grace welcomes the overtures of a more popular girl named Cam, and enjoys hanging out with her and her friends until she starts to notice what a bully Cam can be, particularly towards Amy.  When Grace learns that Cam has a crush on Kyle and is just using Grace to get to her brother, she realizes that Cam isn’t a real friend…and that Amy and Jay were.  Fortunately, the two other girls have come to a similar conclusion, and the friendship is soon back and better than ever (and even Kyle turns out to be not such a bad guy).  240 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  Did you follow all that?  There is a LOT of middle school drama in these 240 pages, but it is true to life, and fans of the realistic fiction graphic novel genre will love both the story and the anime-style art.

Cons:  At times, dialog was written in bubbles with no little tail indicating who was saying the words, which I found a bit confusing.