On Guard!

Gr 4-6–Grace has a lot to worry about as she starts seventh grade. At the end of the previous school year, her best friend Ava told her she didn’t want to be friends anymore, trading Grace for a more popular group of kids. Grace’s parents’ constant fighting finally reached its peak that summer too, resulting in a divorce. Grace now lives with her dad and still sees her mom on the weekends, but her mom doesn’t understand Grace, often treating her more like a fun accessory than a real person. Grace’s first day of school is as bad as she expected, but while hiding out in the gym during lunch, she ends up sitting in on the eighth grade fencing team’s daily practice. Her interest is piqued, and Grace soon joins the club and makes a new friend, Asher, who is just as passionate about fencing. While fencing gives Grace an opportunity to center herself and work through her emotions, her life doesn’t calm down. Readers follow her as tensions with her mom escalate, and then as she spirals thinking Asher is trading her for a new friend. While this title doesn’t stand out among the plethora of friendship-driven middle school graphic novels, it is a solid coming-of-age story. Kids who simply can’t find enough of these types of graphic novels will devour this one, and it’s a great choice for fans of The Tryout, Duel, and Nat Enough.