This one’s set in the same middle school as Awkward and Crush. The main character is a kid called Jensen, and there’s side characters that I recognize from the other books. It was nice to see them from other perspectives. Jensen is kind of introverted, a dreamer who’s interested in science, fantasizes about space adventures and making great discoveries- or saving the world from zombies and sunspots, ha ha. He struggles with math though, which makes his dream of one day being an astronaut seem unreachable, and other kids tease him (about his weight, and his sunspot obsession). Jensen is pretty easygoing, he mostly just keeps his head down and tries to avoid two boys who pick on him in the hall. He pictures his day as a video-game like obstacle course, a series of challenges to overcome on the way to a goal (the visuals for this are fun). But then Jensen gets involved with the newspaper team- and a “social experiment” they’re doing which includes raising awareness of bullying. They set up an interview with Jensen, asking him questions about how bullying has affected him, and he’s shocked: he never considered the teasing from other kids was actual harassment. He thought it was okay because “they’re my friends”. Newspaper girls’ handouts about bullying make him rethink everything. Are those kids he sits with at lunch really friends, when they constantly make jokes at his expense? He starts to see interactions between other kids in a new light- girls making fun of each other’s clothes, for example. Decides he has to do something, to make it stop. It’s hard to get up the nerve, though. Meanwhile there’s other things going on- struggles to do a group project when he has no knowledge of or interest in the topic (and feels intimidated by his group partner Jorge), gradual improvements in his math skills, weathering a bout of the flu, and finding himself in the middle when friction rises between the art club (his regular group of friends) and the newspaper kids (new friends). In the end, it was really pleasing to see how this character became aware that something wasn’t right, and he made an effort to stand up for himself, even though it was a scary move. I especially liked the final panels, where Jensen shows compassion towards one of the kids who used to pick on him. He had a big heart.
Borrowed from the public library.