“Peanut” by Ayun Halliday & Paul Hoppe

This is another one of those “okay” books that didn’t rock my world, and another fictional book that sounds so much like a memoir that I have to think there is a grain of truth in there.  Sadie, a nerdy little Freshman with no friends, transfers to a new school her Sophomore year and wants to reinvent herself.  So, she pretends she has a peanut allergy, which kinda-sorta ingratiates her into a club of cool kids.  As one of my teen readers said, the plot is just weak (or, in her words, “lame and stupid”).  It’s the great failing of this graphic novel, which portrays teen life fairly accurately but doesn’t have any oomph.  The mean girls are overly mean, the awful teacher is truly awful.  Characters are pretty black and white (no pun intended) with the exception of Sadie’s mom, the school nurse, and Sadie’s boyfriend “Zoo” who is nothing if not unique.  The artwork is “okay” as well.  Done mostly in pen and ink, with gray shadings and a burst of red for Sadie’s shirt, the drawings are good without adding much to the tale.  One colleague who read the book objected to the dialog of the mean girls, who harp on everything and everyone, including the idea that a kid who killed himself was trying auto asphyxiation (it’s never stated as such, but inferred).  This book isn’t awful, but it’s not “good enough to defend” in the parlance of my profession.  Short enough to be read in one sitting, it will likely entertain a number of teen readers, but is unlikely to challenge their ideas regarding the price of popularity.  Bottom line:  The book is on a cart for Middle School students but might be more appropriate to High School kids as the dialog is real, if distasteful.  Since this is the second “ehh” book I’ve read in the last few weeks, I’m looking forward to my next choice.