Fifth-grade Olive loves that she is a free agent and "clicks" with everybody in her grade at school. When a talent show is announced, the fifth-grade flies into a flurry of activity planning their acts. Olive walks around checking out all of her classmates’ acts, yet no one invites her to join them. True, her skill set does not necessarily lend itself to some of the talent on display, still it makes Olive realize that she isn't part of a tight group of friends-or a clique. For the first time in her life, Olive feels like a lonely outsider. A sleepover with her independent and cool aunt yields results, as Aunt Molly shows Olive video footage of old variety shows. The lightbulb goes off as Olive finally realizes where her talent lies. She decides that she will be the host of the show, cracking jokes and introducing acts. Once back in school, her friends hear the plan and vie for Olive's attention in order to get the best host-support possible. Finally, the big night arrives with all of the accompanying anticipation and jitters. Does Olive have what it takes to stand the pressure?
Debut graphic novelist, Miller, writes (and illustrates) a heartfelt story, sure to appeal to fans of the current trend of graphic memoirs. For a slightly younger audience than Raina Telgemeier, this is a perfect choice to hand to readers wanting to read Raina, but maybe not mature enough for some of the content. It is nice to see ten-year-olds behaving like ten-year-olds. Boys and girls are all friends with each other, and everyone is clamoring to show off their talents. Olive is super-cheerful and has a great sense of who she is. Realistically, this is the age when friendships that were always so easy start to get complicated. Olive finds herself struggling to navigate the waters. She resists her mother's efforts to fix the problem for her with a phone call and, luckily, has an awesome aunt to turn too-who is also a cool librarian, which I love! Olive figures out her place in fifth-grade society and finds a way to make it work outside of a clique. The full-color illustrations are simple and eye catching, perfect for the intended audience. First in a trilogy, I tried to check out Camp, which was released last summer, following Click's January 2019 release. Unfortunately, Camp was already checked-out, proving how popular these books are. Act is set to be published in July 2020 and will conclude the trilogy. Give to fans of graphic novels (and who isn't?) and kids starting to navigate those tricky tween-friendship waters.
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