Saturday Morning Cartoons- Picture Day

Sax, Sarah. Picture Day
June 27, 2023 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Viv (who demands that she no longer be called Olivia because there are too many by that name in her class), is tired of being boring and ordinary and invisible in middle school. She would rather be like Sammi, who is popular and has a ton of followers on social media. Viv does have two good friends; athletic Al and maker Milo, who share her interest in Roller Team Skate Force. For a con, they are working on costumes and a roller skating act, but Viv is too busy trying to make herself stand out to support her friends' efforts. On picture day, she impulsively cuts off her braids and has Al film it and post it for her. Her long suffering mother has to take her to get her hair fixed, and the stylist gives her a cut reminiscent of the social media person with whom Viv is enthralled, Quinn Sparks, once had. Viv embraces Quinn's admonition to "be in charge of your own truth" and keeps doing ill advised things just to get people noticing her and talking about her. They do, but not in any kind of positive way. She's determined to roll out the Roller Team Skate Force act at the school dance before it is really ready, and it ends in disaster. Al and Milo have had enough, and there's a little altercation that ends in the destruction of a helmet that Milo has spent a lot of time creating. Viv's mother shows her her own high school year book, where the mother had very ill considered clothing and hair choices because she bowed to peer pressure, and explains that she keeps trying to tamp down Viv's spirit because she is ashamed of her past and also wasn't comfortable making a spectacle of herself. Viv understands that she was not taking her friends' feelings into account, and apologizes to them while still embracing her own truth. 

Strengths: This fully embraces the cultural zeitgeist that tells tweens that they not only need to embrace their truth, but they should feel free to share it with everyone, no matter how those people might react to them. Viv, in a typically single minded way, is determined to do this, and doesn't take her friends' feeling into account. This is definitely very typical. The longing for followers or likes is definitely gaining ground among students who are allowed to have social media. It is also very realistic that Viv wants to have a fashion sense that will seem very dated when she is a grown up, but I think it was inspired to include her mother's experience and regrets in this. 

Weaknesses: I was a little distracted by the fact that both Viv and her mother's hair was purple, but it's described as boring. It sort of reads as brown, but is it purple? Even the mother's? It seemed important to know, and I was confused. Maybe it was just the E ARC, although the cover also looks to be more purple. 
What I really think: ***Waving cane while yelling at you to get off my yard!**This is where my age is clearly evident. As one of a million Karens, I would NEVER have demanded that my parents call me anything else, and I can only imagine the trouble I would have gotten into if I had given myself an ill considered haircut. Viv should have had all screens taken away. Compulsively watching Quinn Sparks did not help her in her own life or in her relationship with her friends. I regularly have students who tell me to mind my own business when I very kindly ask them to stop running in the hallways so they don't injure themselves or others. Middle school students can speak their own truth, but they also need to be taught to follow rules for the public good. The target demographic, as well as the dyed hair teachers with tattos who are under fifty, will love this the way they love Miller's Click and Chmakova's Berrybrook Middle School books.