Brave - Svetlana Chmakova

Title: Brave
Author: Svetlana Chmakova
Publisher: Yen Press, May 23, 2017 (Paperback)
Length: 248 pages
Genre: Children's/Young Adult; Graphic Novel, Realistic Fiction
Started: May 19, 2017
Finished: May 19, 2017

Summary:
From the back cover:

What does it mean to be brave?

In his dreams, Jensen is the biggest hero that ever was, saving the world and his friends on a daily basis. But his middle school reality is VERY different - math is hard, getting along with friends is hard...Even finding a partner for the class project is a huge problem when you always get picked last. And the pressure's on even more once the school newspaper's dynamic duo, Jenny and Akilah, draw Jensen into the whirlwind of school news, social-experiment projects, and behind-the-scenes club drama. Jensen has always played the middle school game one level at a time, but suddenly, someone's cranked up the difficulty setting. Will those daring daydreams of his finally work in his favour, or will he have to find real solutions to his real-life problems?

The charming world of Berrybrook Middle School gets a little bigger in this highly anticipated follow-up to Svetlana Chmakova's award-winning Awkward with a story about a boy who learns his own way of being brave!

Review:
I read Awkward, the first book of this series, back in 2015, and to this day I can't say enough good things about it. I've read practically everything this artist has put out over the years, and this new series set in the middle school years really strikes a chord with me as a teacher. Brave, the new instalment, takes all the great elements from Awkward and just gives readers even more to love.

Rather than focusing on Peppi and Jaime and their respective art and science club friends from the previous book, this one focuses mainly on Jensen, and Jenny and Akilah who work on the school newspaper, though previous characters do make repeat appearances. Jensen is a boy with big dreams but also big problems. He's failing math class, is being bullied on a daily basis, and his friends in the art club frequently leave him out of things. When he gets roped into helping Jenny and Akilah with a social experiment related to bullying, Jensen finally acknowledges the problems he's facing. With the help of his friends he figures out how to face his problems, as well as those of others, with bravery.

Brave does an awesome job yet again of showcasing diversity in many areas, including body types and abilities: Jensen and a few other characters have larger builds, Akilah and Mrs. Rashad are Muslim, the math tutor uses forearm crutches, and there's even a background character with vitiligo. I can't applaud this enough, but I really wish this were the norm in our books and graphic novels rather than a notable exception. The author also does a great job of taking the issues in the book a step further than what you'd normally see or expect in a middle grade book. The bullying Jensen faces from his friends is very subtle, which is why he denies for so long that it is indeed bullying. They make him the butt of their jokes and forget to include him, very much a frenemy-type relationship, which kids experience all the time but you don't usually see portrayals of. Also, Jensen doesn't stop at just resolving the bullying related to him, he goes as far as to change the entire culture in the school, including being nice to and inclusive towards one of the boys who bullied him. I love that the author goes the extra mile to get down to the root cause of the problem rather than just the surface issues. I also love how there's a subplot of Felicity getting suspended for an unfair dress code "violation" and the kids all work together to show their outrage in a respectful, yet persistent way in order to bring her back. This issue is popping up everywhere lately, and I especially like how the teachers in the story backed up the kids completely and supported them.

Recommendation:
Not only is the artwork adorable and and full-colour, the content alone makes this a must-have for classrooms and libraries. Awkward has won several awards (kids love it) and I have no doubt that Brave will as well. I also hope that there will be more from this series in the future, it is one of my favourites in recent years.

Thoughts on the cover:
Not quite as detailed and packed to the brim as Awkward's, but I like it, and each character's pose completely reflects their personality.