ON GUARD!

A tween seeks refuge in an after-school fencing club while trying to weather challenging life situations and relationships.

Gracie Collins has just started seventh grade, and it seems like her world is falling apart: Her parents recently announced they’re divorcing, and her former best friend, Ava, abruptly ended their friendship. In addition, Gracie’s relationship with her self-absorbed mother is poor. Her mom lacks self-awareness and struggles to accept Gracie for who she is. Rather than eat alone in the cafeteria, Gracie finds refuge in the gym, where she watches the school’s fencing team practice. Urged by her father to join a club to make friends, Gracie, who reads white, lands on fencing, which leads to new friendships with light-skinned, auburn-haired Asher, who uses they/them pronouns, and brown-skinned Nia, who wears a hijab. With appeal for fans of Sarah Sax’s The Brinkley Yearbooks series and Jessixa Bagley and Aaron Bagley’s Duel, this series opener uses Gracie’s relationships with her father and with fencing as vehicles for her emotional growth that provide her with tools to build the self-confidence she needs. The mood of the story shifts among feelings of loneliness, anger, and joy. The simple, shaded monochromatic backgrounds have the appearance of sponge painting, spotlighting the characters’ expressive facial expressions and body language and mirroring the complexity of Gracie’s shifting emotions.

Readers will commiserate with the emotional journeys in this simply presented, deeply affecting story.