Various Middle Grade Graphic Novels

The third Goddess Girls graphic novel came out recently and it was fun but suffered from the same problem as the first two. Namely, some of the character designs just aren't up to par. 

I still don't think Aphrodite would wear a ponytail. 

Makeover Athena was cute.

Hephaestus was really cute. He, Medusa and Pheme have my fave graphic novel looks overall. 

Atalanta was a little too girly for my taste. 

We didn't meet anyone else new. The story goes along with the original book, although they followed it a little TOO closely, because there are multiple mentions of Ares' blond hair and blue eyes...neither of which the graphic novel version has. 

These are cute but could be done a lot better. 

I don't know if I've ever talked about Kayla Miller's Click series here. The stories follow fifth grader Olive on her various trials. Click was about her finding the right act in a variety show. Camp had her meeting new friends at summer camp while dealing with her wet blanket friend Willow's constant clinginess. Act has Olive starting sixth grade and running for student council against two of her friends. Clash deals with cool new girl Natasha and how she randomly hates Olive. And Crunch is about Olive learning not to over-extend herself with too many activities. There's also a spinoff series featuring one of the BFF pairs in the supporting cast.  

This is a fun, light-hearted series that's less heavy-handed than some of the middle grade graphic novels. I love Olive's cool librarian aunt, who clearly has a crush on Olive's female guitar teacher. So cute. 

I've reviewed the first two in the Witches of Brooklyn series here before. I reread the second one before tackling this third one and I think this might be my second fave series after Berrybrook. I LOVE the art. 

It's summer and Effie is off to camp for a month. Witch camp! Apparently, green thumb is a real thing and it's a big deal for witches, so Effie is leaving the city to connect with nature for a month at this camp. She does so on her very first night there, waking up to find ivy entwined in her hair and her palms glowing bright green. This is way more than most witches get and it provokes envy in the cabin mean girl. 

I loved seeing all the different witch kids and their varied powers. That was great. The mean girl and Effie never came to terms with anything, although it was the girl's meanness that actually got Effie out of a tight bind (she accidentally woke a dragon and had to put it back to sleep). And there's a side plot involving that panda. He's the one whose room Effie is actually sleeping in. I forget how he's related to either Selimene or Carlota. But he connects with animals and when he got his heart broken, he turned into a panda and went to live in the Bronx Zoo. A girl came and sketched him one day and then his hands transformed back to human, so he came back home, only to have to go along to camp with Effie and be a counselor. The artist girl actually is one of Effie's counselors so their little sideplot romance is adorable. 

Definitely highly recommend this series. 

Then I tried out a new series called Peapod Farm. Jen (on the left) is dragged from the city to the country after her mom and dad get divorced. Her mom bought a farm to run with her boyfriend. Jen is forced to help and, on the weekends, the boyfriend's daughters come to help, too. 

This one was good but also frustrating. The boyfriend character is an ASSHOLE. He's not full-on abusive but he isn't very nice and he frequently gets away with it. Both Jen's mother and his eldest daughter Andi (on the right) excuse his behavior basically as "He's an asshole but that's just the way he is and we all deal with it." I mean, one of the things was really minor. Jen likes to be called Jen, not Jenny, but he keeps calling her Jenny. This is when the mother should step in and ask him to please call her kid by the name she wants to be called. It's not difficult but it never happened. There is a moment nearer the end where both his daughters side with Jen though and that was good. But Mom needs to grow a hell of a backbone. This is definitely semi-autobiographical, but there's a time when the author needs to realize that replicating reality is less important than good writing, unless you're writing an actual autobiography. Her stepdad never changed and she's choosing to portray that, but she should definitely give her dad character here some comeuppance. Stop showing the mom as weak and unable to stand up for her own child. 

I really enjoyed this other than the bullshit from the boyfriend character. The oldest daughter takes a while to grow on you, but she gets there. The younger daughter is awesome. I loved her. 

This one brings us to the fall. Jen is worried about school. She and Andi are working at the pumpkin farm's haunted hayride because the farmer's market is closed. Andi has a thing for the pumpkin farmer's nephew and Jen begins to feel left out. 

At school, the closest friend she finds is the boy in her class that's younger than everyone else. The class bitch teases them. The other kids seem to be liking her more nearer the end though. 

Jen's big frustration this time is that everywhere she turns there are people in relationships. She gets mad when people assume her male friend has to be a boyfriend, and not one but two people spout bullshit about how men and women can't be friends. I don't believe this is ever corrected by an adult and it needed to be. It's like I really want to fully love this series, but in each volume there's one major incident of bad writing that irritates me.

Everything works out in the end and even the class mean girl comes around. Turns out she's envious of Jen's art skills.