Written and Illustrated by Kristen Gudsnuk
Making Friends: Back to the Drawing Board is the sequel to Making Friends and follows Dany’s adventures as she navigates middle school. It is a brand-new year and Dany is hoping to fit in. After finding out that popular Cara finds her annoying and pays Cara to be her friend, Dany knows she needs to do something about her situation or the school year will be unbearable. So, with her magic sketchbook that grants her the ability to bring anything to life that she can imagine, Dany makes a clone of herself that is more confident to take her place in school. Everything goes smoothly until Dany’s clone accidently breaks a glass bottle that contained a dog jinn. Dany must fix her mistake with the help of her friends before the bully of the school uses the magical dog to make everyone’s life miserable.
This book is a combination Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and fan fiction. The writing style is simplistic, and the characters are uninteresting. Dany was an annoying character from beginning to end. The slight change she made in her personality felt forced and unnatural. This book is forgettable and I would recommend reading the Berrybrook Middle School series by Svetlana Chmakova if you are interested in reading a book about surviving middle school in a graphic novel format.Reviewed by LeeAnne Grover, Media Clerk, Hillside Elementary
Rating: ★✩✩✩✩ (1 star)
Interest Level: Grades 4-7
Author Website: https://kristengudsnuk.com/
Making Friends: Back to the Drawing Board
Written and Illustrated by Kristen Gudsnuk
Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic
198 pages
Release Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 9781338139273
A review copy was provided by the publisher.
I disagree with this biased review. This book is an amazing book and the author has a very creative writing style. As an actual kid, I think that other kids should read this book and don’t listen to the review because we shouldn’t let other people tell us what to think.
Thanks for sharing! You were right to speak up and share your opinion about this book. We love to publish kid perspectives in our reviews whenever students share them with us. Are you a student in our school district?