He's failing math class, is being bullied on a daily basis, and his friends in the art club frequently leave him out of things. Jensen is a boy with big dreams but also big problems. Rather than focusing on Peppi and Jaime and their respective art and science club friends from the previous book, this one focuses mainly on Jensen, and Jenny and Akilah who work on the school newspaper, though previous characters do make repeat appearances.

Brave, the new instalment, takes all the great elements from Awkward and just gives readers even more to love.

I've read practically everything this artist has put out over the years, and this new series set in the middle school years really strikes a chord with me as a teacher. I read Awkward, the first book of this series, back in 2015, and to this day I can't say enough good things about it. The charming world of Berrybrook Middle School gets a little bigger in this highly anticipated follow-up to Svetlana Chmakova's award-winning Awkward with a story about a boy who learns his own way of being brave! Will those daring daydreams of his finally work in his favour, or will he have to find real solutions to his real-life problems? Jensen has always played the middle school game one level at a time, but suddenly, someone's cranked up the difficulty setting. And the pressure's on even more once the school newspaper's dynamic duo, Jenny and Akilah, draw Jensen into the whirlwind of school news, social-experiment projects, and behind-the-scenes club drama. But his middle school reality is VERY different - math is hard, getting along with friends is hard.Even finding a partner for the class project is a huge problem when you always get picked last.

In his dreams, Jensen is the biggest hero that ever was, saving the world and his friends on a daily basis. Genre: Children's/Young Adult Graphic Novel, Realistic Fiction

Brave by svetlana chmakova