![]() ![]() She’s apprehensive about her Tuskday, a rite of passage for young elephants when she’ll give a speech in front of the rest of the herd. In this follow-up to 2020’s The One and Only Bob, Ruby the elephant is still living at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary. Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house-and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw-Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and-most serious-civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves-during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement. Both Emmie and Kate appear to be white, but school scenes reveal multiethnic classmates.Ĭlassic middle school themes come alive, but they fail to really go anywhere However, the repetition of Emmie’s description as quiet, shy, and disenfranchised becomes as grating as a nasal whine. Though readers may be puzzled by the device initially, Libenson’s rationale for the dual portrayals becomes clear in the end. An artist using her doodles to illustrate the seventh-grade world, Emmie sees herself as someone with no voice, while the enigmatic, charismatic Kate is full of confidence and determined to push Emmie out of her comfort zone. Libenson uses two different illustration styles to distinguish between Emmie, the soft-spoken wallflower, and Kate, the outgoing girl of fabulousness. Emmie is a painfully shy girl who is forced to see and be seen one fateful day when a playful game with best friend Brianna turns into a nightmare. With doodle-illustrated prose chapters depicting Emmie’s world and entire comics-style sections depicting the popular Kate, Libenson takes readers inside the halls of middle school with the same nod to weirdness and eye-rolling angst as such format standards as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries. However, even end-of-the-world–level heartache can have surprising and comic consequences.Įmmie’s story is part of the growing subgenre that hybridizes the middle-grade and graphic novel. Baltzer+Bray, 2017, 192 pp.One bad day in seventh grade can feel like a lifetime. ![]() Middle school will always have its ups and downs, but "Invisible Emmie" shows how even the worst day can end with joy and relief. The story's twisting end is also unique, especially as both characters are surprised by self-growth and freedom. When Emmie says, "I'm trying to ignore him," Katie counters with "It's not working. When Emmie is teased mercilessly by the obnoxious Joe Lungo, Katie says, "Why do you let him pick on you?" ![]() Katie also shows Emmie how to effectively take care of herself. (Then again, Katie doesn't see Emmie as a threat.) Needless to say, Emmie's day goes from bad to worse.īut "Invisible Emmie" isn't a generic book about middle school.įirst of all, author Terri Libenson doesn't make Katie the stereotypic "mean girl." In fact Katie supports Emmie when she's suffering. Before long, the obnoxious Joe Lungo finds it and reads it aloud in homeroom. The meat of the story doesn't begin until the halfway point when Emmie and Bri decide to write love notes (which they never plan to send) to their crushes.Įmmie's note falls out of her binder. ![]()
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