A Certain Slant of Light

I really liked Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl, so of course when I saw she'd written a new graphic novel (All's Faire in Middle School), of course I had to read it. And I enjoyed it just as much if not more than Roller Girl! It would be hard to say which. I wasn't shouting at the heroine for questionable life choices at the end of this one, so it probably edges out ahead. 

Jamieson has a real talent for writing heroines who are genuinely quite flawed and make some horrible choices, but are still basically good people who are trying to be their best selves - only it's hard to tell what that is when you're twelve. 

Our heroine, Imogene, has grown up in the Renaissance Faire. Literally: her parents both work there, and she's been homeschooled all her life. Until now! This year, she is going to prove her knightly courage by... going to middle school! 

This is actually not the complete disaster that you might expect from the premise - she doesn't start spouting off "prithees" on her first day and instantly become the least popular kid in school - but it's also a hard transition. Imogene is used to being one of the few kids surrounded by a cast of generally kind and supportive grown-ups (and one of the things I really liked about the book is this cast: it's unusual to see child characters with so many supportive adults in their lives!), and it's weird for her to suddenly have all these other kids around - and to have to navigate which ones are genuinely good friend material, and which ones aren't even though they seem nice. When they feel like it. No one is a good friend if they're only nice when they feel like it. 

I also liked the complexity of the middle school social situation. There's one girl who turns out to be pretty bad news, but you can totally understand why Imogene doesn't realize that at first. The girl asks Imogene to sit with her at lunch on Imogene’s first day! Right as Imogene is beginning to wish she could sink into the linoleum, because she doesn’t know anyone in the cafeteria and there’s nowhere she could possibly sit! Of course Imogene loves her. 

And she's also lots of fun - when she’s feeling nice. And even when she’s feeling mean - well, Imogene is so relieved to have a place to sit at lunch that it’s easy not to worry about that too much, as long as she’s not the one in the crosshairs. 

And the mean girl has a friend who is nice, and is maybe beginning to reevaluate her friend choices now that she’s in middle school, and is realizing that her elementary school friends are kind of mean. (I like to imagine that as time passes, she and Imogene form their own little splinter group, and perhaps gather some other friends too.)

And then there's the dorky girl who also turns out to be a big Renaissance Faire fan - but might be sometimes-friend rather than best friend material for Imogene, because the Faire may be the only thing they have in common. 

I liked that there wasn't a clear binary contrast between Popular Mean Girls with no redeeming features and Dorky Girl who is actually a 100% perfect friend. The popular girls aren’t all mean; the dorky girl has her drawbacks too. It makes sense that Imogene has difficulty figuring out which friendships she wants to pursue, because all the candidates have pros and cons (and are quite aware Imogene has good and bad points, too!) - and they’re all still very young and still figuring out who they want to be. 

Also, one of Imogene's RenFaire mentors speaks fluent Shakespearian insult. That alone makes the book worth the price of admission.