Tyler knows wanting to go back to school after winter break isn’t normal. Most kids would rather stay on their overseas holiday or in their rooms playing video games. Tyler has spent most of his holidays on his own, especially when a blizzard kept everyone at home.

Now back at school he can hang out with his friends and play basketball. He hopes one day to be as good as his older brother Zac.

School turns out a little different this term for Tyler. The basketball he lived for before starts to take a back seat to something else – Art. His art teacher has set her students a challenge. Write and draw a comic to be entered into the school’s monthly showcase competition.

Teaming up with a girl in his class (Emmie) is something else he never expected, but he enjoys working with her on their joint project, even preferring to be doing that than basketball practice.

An important game is coming up, and tensions rise between Tyler and his team mates. They begin to tease then make fun of him and Emmie, until he feels like he has to make a choice.

Emmie has had a crush on Tyler for ages, and her secret got out the worst way possible, (See Invisible Emmie) but Tyler has been really nice about it. Teaming up with him on an Art project is a dream come true for her, until the teasing starts up again.

Confused and shamed, her damage control backfires, and she nearly loses her BFF. After always being quiet and shy, standing up for herself is near impossible but what she knows she must do.

This is the 5th in the Emmie & Friends series, but it can be read without reading the previous 4. Middle school is tough – trying to fit in, make friends, and find out who you really want to be.

Both Tyler and Emmie tell their stories alternatively throughout this graphic novel. Just like the characters themselves their sections of the story are in different styles. Both however are dealing with friendship challenges, doing what’s right and not just what’s cool.

There is the added bonus of a book within a book, as we get to read Tyler and Emmie’s sections of the comic they are writing for Art. Will they win the showcase, be true to themselves and rescue crumbling friendships?

I love Terri Libenson’s easy, funny style. She knows middle-schoolers inside out.

Author / Illustrator – Terri Libenson

Age 9+

Graphic Novel

See more books in this series (Click on a Cover)

(2021, Harper Collins, Middle School, Intermediate, Fitting in, Friendship, Popularity, Art, Comics, Graphic novels, Sport, Basketball, Absent father, Older siblings, Cliques, Crush, Teasing, Memes, School, Courage, Growing up, Humour, Funny, Series)