Friendship Is The Focus Of Middle School Confidential 2

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Many children find the transition from child to tween to adolescent difficult. Many adults don’t remember this time fondly. No one peeks in middle school. Middle School Confidential 2: Real Friends vs. the Other Kind, Electric Eggplant’s second graphic novel app tries to offer concrete suggestions about behavior that aim to make this confusing time in a kid’s life just a bit easier.

The story follows 7th grade students Jack, Jen, Chris, Abby, Mateo, and Michelle through situations as thorny as they are familiar. Quizzes with titles such as “Do YOU make snap decisions?” are interspersed throughout the app, to get the reader thinking about what they just read. The illustrations are engaging and the app’s UI is seamless.

Small details, such as the opening splash screen and the quiet soundtrack enhance the story and make reading it more enjoyable. As the story begins, the reader has the option to tap on the “Who Are We?” button to learn more about each kid’s identity.

Tone is critical to any work like Middle School Confidential 2, which has a message. The storytelling gets a bit heavy-handed at times. For example, the kids in the story don’t speak like real kids. In chapter 1 Michelle ask, “Probing question! How come we’ve stayed friends so long?” At the beginning of chapter 5 Monique says, “Abby, you journal? Me, too! We should totally hang out.”

However, there are probably some kids who feel so overwhelmed by middle school that the app’s very clear approach – complete with definite answers to otherwise confounding questions — might be a life raft for a student who doesn’t feel comfortable talking to adults or even their friends about these issues.

Even if a child reads the book and dismisses it, the ideas from the book might still plant a seed to guide the child. If every kid in that child’s life is acting in a disappointing manner, then seeing the characters model good choices gives the kid another option

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Self-help books, like Middle School Confidential 2, are not a panacea but encouraging a child to read this book has the potential to help some kids.

The book treads the line between being a story that adults love for its wholesome good intentions, but kids can see right through. It’s not Judy Blume. Blume’s books were so successful because she tackled issues through the lens of fiction, following the “show don’t tell” directive that every writer learns. Middle School Confidential 2: Real Friends vs. the Other Kind has the right idea, but its message-driven approach may not appeal to all.

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