Awkward by Svelana Chmakova

Did you ever feel awkward throughout your middle school experience? Not being able to fit in, or having friends but never in the same classes that you were in? Well, here is a book just for you! Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova is a graphic about a young adolescent middle schooler, struggling to make friends, fitting in, understanding herself and finding the courage to speak out against bullying, and finding her passion.

This book in my expectations was phenomenal! Let's begin with the story, a middle schooler named Penelope, new and as awkward as they can get, enters in accidently tripping on her first day of school. As a boy was helping her with her stuff, the teasing began with calling the two, a nerdy couple as the boy wears glasses. Embarrassed Penelope, lashes out and shoves the boy to the floor and runs away, feeling guilty and awkward as ever. She then feels guilty and wants to say sorry but doesn't have the courage to say it yes. As time goes on, Penelope is part of the art club, she enjoys her time there as her only friends belong in the art club, and barely speaks to anyone else in her other classes. A problem has arisen as their teacher wants them to enter into the school's fair but because the art club says no to be involved in many school activities when asked, and so they are never asked to join in. However, the competitive science club is involved in many school activities and is always granted a table as the schools fair. This year the art club and science must compete in order to gain a table at the school's fair! Will Penelope win? Will she ever say sorry to the boy with the glasses? How will she overcome her fears?

The art in the novel is amazing, it has a lot of detail and stands out a lot. The author uses a lot of similar colors and is able to use a few in order to get out the message of the story. It was consistent, detailed, and made the text readable. She used a lot of techniques in order to incorporate theme and diversity for the characters and the ability to use art in order to get her point across.

Readers will both enjoy and learn from the comic. It is academically successfully, it involves drama, comedy, friendship and the understand of the moral decisions. It's a thrilling novel, including the realities of a middle schooler and going through puberty. As anyone can relate to this in some way whether it is art, science, friendship, moral decisions, struggling in school, struggling with self-identity, bullying, courage and or inspiration. Readers will relate to Penelope, see her struggles and how she changes herself to be a better and confident person.

Pros:

•  This book is great, it involves a lot of character, theme and understanding of experiences
• It allows readers to dive in and read about a character which they can relate to
• It sends out a message for bullying
• It gives the ability to bring in diversity without it being obvious
• It is beneficial for readers who are going through a lot and want to be able to fit in
• It is great to include in a classroom curriculum, involving critical thinking, essay writing, character analysis and finding themes from the book which can be incorporated in real life experiences. 

Cons:

• I did not find any which will cause anyone to not read this graphic novel. 
• Possibly just not liking to read a graphic novel

Here are some links:
 The author has her own website which includes some other books she has written and art that she has drawn: Svelana's website

Technique about the creation of the book from the author:
Author's Technique