Kusunoki’s Flunking Her High School ­Glow-Up, Vol. 1

Gr 6 Up–When outcast Shizuki overheard cute girl Ririsa, whom he thought a friend, badmouthing him to her friends back in junior high, he made a pact to completely reinvent himself when he got to high school. Having successfully done that, he finds himself in a more desirable social standing. But when his ex-junior high classmate Kusunoki, a fellow outcast-turned-high-school-heartthrob, asks Shizuki to help her with her communication skills, Shizuki wonders if this new camaraderie will throw his identity into chaos. This manga title is charmingly funny, where the young adults at its heart just want to fit in a little better. Shizuki and Kusunoki are both heartwarming leads, and teens will see themselves in the duo if they struggle with bullying and/or connecting with others their age. Mii does a good job of teasing the plot as a typical coming-of-age romance, before throwing a curveball with the story’s beguiling supporting characters. While readers can make their predictions of who’s going to end up together, it’s clear there’s plenty more story to come in this series before the dust truly settles. The art is light and radiant, befitting the story’s tone very well.