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A review by finesilkflower
Besties: Find Their Groove by Kayla Miller, Jeffrey Canino
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Beth and Chanda, best friends who are minor characters in the "Click" graphic novel series, got their own story first in "Besties Work It Out," which was a fun middle grades graphic novel about the two fifth-graders starting a pet-sitting business. This volume, which centers around the sixth grade dance, feels like a real transition in concerns from childhood to teenagerhood. Beth and Chanda's immediate reaction to the dance news is to start building outfit moodboards, but thanks to an offhand comment from an older sister, they realize to their horror that they're expected to go with dates. Chanda immediately begins a Type A quest to find the perfect arm candy, while Beth quietly fosters a sweet flirtation but struggles to find a dress in her size.
This volume felt not only more complex but a bit scattered with multiple storylines and issues raised. There are at least six storylines (each girl has a distinct date and dress dilemma, plus a storyline about her older sister), and there's not really enough room to fully get into everything. I appreciate that the overall lesson is about honoring your own needs and desires over perfectionism in the eyes of society, and that the various conflicts are handled without drawing a wedge between the best friends.
Random Observations:
* I appreciate this series' commitment to continuity; for example, the pet-sitting business from the previous Besties book is still a big part of Beth and Chanda's lives.
* I also really like that, most of the time, complex issues are honored by having frank discussions about them. We don't just see it implied that Beth has a hard time finding a dress because clothes aren't made for fat people; she talks openly about it.
* I feel like queerness is a notable exception (and that this has been a pattern in this series). It's heavily implied that Chanda and Ava like each other, but in a series that so often blows up subtext by making it text and actually dealing with it, it's a little disappointing that there was no actual statement that they were interested in each other romantically. It feels like a missed opportunity, particularly because compulsory heterosexuality joins whiteness and thinness as things society praises and holds up as perfect which you actively have to fight to question, and the book did manage to explicitly address those other issues in a simple kid-friendly way.
* Ava is also conspicuously absent from the wordless epilogue that goes out of its way to tie up other loose ends and fully establish Sam as a part of Beth's life going forward.
* Beth's mom coming through with a dress felt like deus ex machina.
* What kind of sixth-grade coach insists that the cheerleaders go to a dance with the football players?? This seems like something you should get fired for??
* Olive going to the dance with two people feels like a tacit endorsement of my "Olive will grow up to be polyamorous" theory outlined in my review of "Break."
This volume felt not only more complex but a bit scattered with multiple storylines and issues raised. There are at least six storylines (each girl has a distinct date and dress dilemma, plus a storyline about her older sister), and there's not really enough room to fully get into everything. I appreciate that the overall lesson is about honoring your own needs and desires over perfectionism in the eyes of society, and that the various conflicts are handled without drawing a wedge between the best friends.
Random Observations:
* I appreciate this series' commitment to continuity; for example, the pet-sitting business from the previous Besties book is still a big part of Beth and Chanda's lives.
* I also really like that, most of the time, complex issues are honored by having frank discussions about them. We don't just see it implied that Beth has a hard time finding a dress because clothes aren't made for fat people; she talks openly about it.
* I feel like queerness is a notable exception (and that this has been a pattern in this series). It's heavily implied that Chanda and Ava like each other, but in a series that so often blows up subtext by making it text and actually dealing with it, it's a little disappointing that there was no actual statement that they were interested in each other romantically. It feels like a missed opportunity, particularly because compulsory heterosexuality joins whiteness and thinness as things society praises and holds up as perfect which you actively have to fight to question, and the book did manage to explicitly address those other issues in a simple kid-friendly way.
* Ava is also conspicuously absent from the wordless epilogue that goes out of its way to tie up other loose ends and fully establish Sam as a part of Beth's life going forward.
* Beth's mom coming through with a dress felt like deus ex machina.
* What kind of sixth-grade coach insists that the cheerleaders go to a dance with the football players?? This seems like something you should get fired for??
* Olive going to the dance with two people feels like a tacit endorsement of my "Olive will grow up to be polyamorous" theory outlined in my review of "Break."