FILM NERDS

A tween navigates the trials and tribulations of middle school.

Ami (“pronounced AH-mee”) Hendricks loves working with her best friend, Ivy, who reads Black, on the movie they’re sure will be a blockbuster. When sixth grade begins, Ami finds herself in a different school-assigned cohort than her elementary school friends and desperately missing Ivy. The new kids tease her, calling her “Tomato” due to her propensity to blush, which is embarrassingly obvious with her light skin. Feeling awkward, Ami spends her days alone with her daydreams. When she’s picked by the popular kids to work on a group project, Ami jumps at the chance, even though it seems too good to be true. Things don’t turn out as she hoped, and Ami, disheartened and even more isolated, must find a way out of her oppressive cloud of numbness and despair by setting boundaries, taking personal accountability, and articulating her needs. Storyboards from Ami and Ivy’s science-fiction movie project are interspersed throughout, reflecting the ups and downs of their friendship and transition to middle school. Cartoonist Warren’s evocative young readers’ debut captures all the discomfiture of early adolescence and how social stumbles can turn into large roadblocks. With its keen and gently configured lens focused on social trials and a personal health challenge plus a visually stylish and pleasantly familiar artistic style, this work will feel welcoming to fans of authors of genre standouts like Raina Telgemeier, Kayla Miller, and Jennifer L. Holm.

Thoughtful, heartfelt, and oh-so-relatable.