“Okay, so when you’ve just moved to a new town and are still a total outsider…”

From Svetlana Chmakova’s Awkward.

On her first day at her new middle school, Peppi trips and finds herself being laughed at by everyone in the hallway except a boy named Jaime who stopped to help her pick her stuff up. However, when everyone starts making fun of Peppi and Jaime, she panics and pushes him in her mad dash to get away. Feeling horrible every day since, but unable to build up the courage to apologize to Jaime, Peppi has tried to put her mean reaction behind her. The one bright spot in Peppi’s new school is Art Club where she’s managed to make a few friends, including the no-nonsense Maribella. However, when the Art Club learns that they haven’t been given a table at the upcoming Club Fair, they take on a challenging assignment of creating comics for the school paper… though interference from their nemesis, the Science Club, only makes things more difficult. When Peppi realizes that Jaime is in Science Club, she resolves to apologize for pushing him and the two soon become friends. The rivalry between the Art and Science kids soon blows out of control, jeopardizing everything that they’ve all worked for, and it’s up to Peppi to find a way to unite the warring clubs before it’s forever too late.

The first book in the Berrybrook Middle School series is a quick read that introduces the characters to the reader. The animation is fun, flowing well as the story develops. Highlighting issues that many young readers will relate to, Chmakova manages to create a solid series opener in Awkward that will be an instant hit with readers.