Clash: a Click graphic novel by Kayla Miller

Book 4 of the Click series of graphic novels does not disappoint.  I really like this series of graphic novels especially as the themes of friendship and moving from Primary school to secondary and the challenges that are faced are so well discussed. 

In Clash, Olive has to deal with a new girl in town, from the very beginning everyone can see that Natasha is cool and wants to be her friend, including Olive.  However, this is not as easy as it first appears.  Olive has to deal with feeling like Natasha is taking over her friends and that they like her more than they like Olive and in actual fact Natasha is doing this in the subtle way that bullies do. Whether she is a perpetual bully or is angry at the world and taking it out on Olive does not change the fact that she is not a nice person to Olive. The realistic portrayal of this age groups friendship interactions that lead to feeling of inadequacy and trying to fit in are so carefully and accurately covered by Olive and the other characters in this novel is the reason why I would recommend this book to most students and their parents. It is a great book for opening up conversations about friendships, conflict and teenage angst, along with the way that the adults handle the conflict and the bullying. My biggest issue was that Natasha was really mean and a bully and it wasn’t addressed in the way I hoped, in the end Olive welcomed Natasha and accepted the explanation for her behaviour which as a parent of the teenage girl really bothered me. However, while this could cause some huge feelings to come up if the reader is being bullied, especially if the reader is being told that they should be more understanding, Olive is told that it is hard for Natasha being the new student. Natasha takes advantage of this, again this helps students to look at the conversations they have within their own lives and the feelings this causes.

This is a read alone but I think it should be one that children read and then discuss with their parents as it is a great book to stimulate conversations.

Themes: Friendship, Middle school, Conflict, Forgiveness.

Mhairi Alcorn