NOTE: I did a review of Brave by Svetlana Chmakova… which is actually the middle book in the series! So, I decided to do a combined quick pick review of Book #1 and #3. 🙂
Awkward // by Svetlana Chmakova
Genre: MG, Contemporary Graphic Novel (2015)
My Thoughts: Liked this first book in the series. Peppi has an adorable name! And personality. Particularly funny were all her attempts to avoid Jaime. Of course, he ends up being her science tutor! Cue the awkwardness. (One of my absolute favourite parts was when Chmakova puts little definitions of the word “awkward” = “this” with an illustration similar to the one of the cover the book!)
There’s a fun geocaching section. And I really like how the art and science clubs come together for the fair. What they create is out of this world! 😉
One of my favourite parts of these books is the design gallery at the end. Here Chmakova shows us various sketches and talks about the “making of” process she goes through for each book. [4 Stars]
Crush // by Svetlana Chmakova
Genre: Upper MG, Contemporary Graphic Novel (2018)
My Thoughts: This is Jorge’s story. As I mentioned in my review of Brave, I loved Jorge, so I was glad to get a book devoted to him.
In this book, we get how Jorge is secretly crushing on Jazmine. The cover does a beautiful job conveying this. But it’s about more than that. We also have Jorge’s two friends: Olivia and Garrett. I really liked (painful as it was) the storyline that follows Garrett’s attempts to join the popular crowd and how he [*SPOILER] betrays Jorge in the process. [End Spoiler]
The one thing about this book is that it almost seemed older than the other books. I kept thinking that they were in high school. I checked. No, it’s middle school. Maybe it was the dance that seemed a little like “Prom” to me. (Although, I know there are dances in middle school.) [4 Stars]
Quick Pick books are always recommendations. (If I don’t recommend the book, it’s not a Quick Pick!)
Note: I’m posting this for Greg Pattridge’s Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday…
“Fence Detail” / Theme: Round
Basic plot: This is one of the books in the Horrible Histories series. The introduction puts it this way: “History can be horrible. So horrible that some boring old fogies think young people should not be told the whole, terrible truth… Of all the history in the world, the story of the First World War… is perhaps the most horrible… But it’s also a story of courage and craziness, brave people and batty people, friendships and fierce hatreds, love… and lice.”
“On the Creek Bed” / Theme: Under Water
This was a cute story about a girl (Francine) and a boy (Kansas) who get into a dare contest to see WHO will be the new anchorperson for the school announcements. She really wants; he doesn’t but is the kind of boy who can’t turn down a dare.
This book is about bi-racial twins. One of them is black and the other is white. And when their grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl beauty pageant… cue the drama.
One of my favourite books from my childhood. Paddington is adorable. I like how he just fits right in with the Brown family. And I love his relationship with Mr. Gruber! How they share elevensies together. And Mr. Curry! Arrgh! The ultimate mean next-door neighbour.
Cute story about a girl and her mom who is a great mom, but she’s not very good at being a fairy. The book is very episodic. In one of their adventures, Ella wants to bake cupcakes, but Fairy Mom’s 
From the author of Because of Mr. Terupt… Here’s another group of middle-school kids, each of them telling their version of the events in their lives. I did not realize that this was a sequel to another book, so I didn’t already know the characters. This left me a wee bit confused over what was happening, especially at the beginning of the book.
“Octoberfest Dancing Feet” / Theme: Feet
Book: Nothing Up My Sleeve (2016)
“Autumn Colours” / Theme: Pick a Colour
Book: Birdie (2019)