Chloe #6: Green Thumb by Greg Tessier is a compilation of two stories about growing up and being the best you that you can be.
In story one, Chloe and her friends tackle the school project of creating a garden at their school. Chloe at first does not want to get “down and dirty” until one of her friends shows her own much fun it can be. And from there Chloe figures out ways to make her school and home greener. While it branches off into some great ideas for environmentalism, there are a few flies in the poop (cue the popular mean girls, one who has the neat fashion choice of always wearing spots of some kind) and they are not helping, or are they? After all, they seem to be gathering up a lot of trash…
And in the second, Chloe tries to deal with cyber-bullying on her own when she tries to help a friend dealing with their own cyber-bullying issues. But, instead of helping, Chole’s action make things quickly spiral out of control and she finds more questions than answers. Can Chloe and the gang learn who the person spreading the mean gossip and posting secrets online is?
Both stories are fast paced text and include bubbly art that looks like a cross between the Sabrina Teenage Witch cartoon of the 1990s and a more modern Archie Comics. The colors and format are glossy comic book images and coloring. It is bright, bold, and lighthearted. A cute factor in them is smiles look like there is a heart in the middle of the mouth. While not “sophisticated” art, the illustrations are clever and complement the text. Ages strong six and seven to about (young) thirteen can read.
This edition of this coming-of-age series can be read solo (as this is book six and I had little trouble jumping into things) but it would be best to start with book one to flesh out who some of the characters are and maybe answer why Chloe’s mom calls her Misty.
If I have one complaint about the character Chloe it is that even though she is relatable to the modern reader, the adult reader (i.e.: me) felt she was a bit pushy, self-centered, and maybe did not always realize how bossy she was being.