I continue my slow acquisition of this series through random bookstore visits with Act and Clash. The series follows Olive as she learns various important lessons in middle school about friendship and standing up for what’s right. In Act, Olive finds out that some kids are unable to go on field trips because their parents can’t afford the extra cost. She decides to run for student council and this causes some turmoil in her friendships and requires her to learn how to get her message across. In Clash, a new girl joins the class and seems determined not to get along with Olive. She also starts trying to take Olive’s place in her friendships and slowly ostracize her. Since Olive is friends with everyone and is unsure of how to respond to someone being undermining and rude to her, she has to figure out how to stand up for herself and how to deal with the fact that not everyone will be her friend.
Both books have lively, cheerful cartooning throughout. I really enjoy these books because there is a lot of nuance here and the answers aren’t always pat. Miller is also adept at showing conflict between friends and then how to work to resolve it. I liked that in Clash, Olive has to learn that she can’t actually be friends with everyone, as sometimes personalities don’t mesh, but that you can still be polite and coexist together. The wider messages about fairness and community working together are also nice and don’t come across as too heavy-handed. All in all, I’m happy to add these to the collection.
