The What Happens Next? series is sort of a new version of Create your Own Adventure or a bit like the Meanwhile book from a decade ago.
It was difficult to review and use as a digital copy. I don’t recommend it. The pages that are marked within issuu’s scrolling viewer are not the same as the printed pages, so it was hard to do the flipping back and forth. I was unable to create a cohesive story or to evaluate how well the story moved or hung together. Each page, when viewed serially, was a mish-mash of non-sequitur vignettes of one-dimension childish heavy marker and crayon frames. If one could review the print version and was able to flip the pages back and forth the story cohesiveness might improve.
The difficulty with reviewing this title digitally (the page problem) is enough that I feel like I can’t review it fairly. But that is not my only reservation about this title. There are lots of portrayals of scary adults, bullies, and inappropriate behavior.
Even on the second flip of a page, I know that the teacher Mr. Fisher should NOT be working with children. This character is disturbing. In fact, all the teachers, parents and adults are written as venal, clueless, self-centered, abusive and just plain gross. Being unable to flip the pages in the way that would give me a cohesive storyline, I flipped through the pages serially, using the viewer. There’s something about two students using a drone, a bully texting, ostracizing and non-inclusion of the nerdy student character called Weird Randall (who has old clothes and a bowl haircut) and it’s impossible to determine if a student newspaper is actually being done. On page 85 (the print page) there is a depiction of a classroom of kids who passed out. It’s hard to determine the context, because while the lower right side of the page says “Go to page 161”, there is no way to determine what page came previously. Page 161 shows a nurse asking for towels and bandages! It’s not the kind of image I want in a comic for middle readers who regularly have to deal with lockdowns.
The print edition of this title is an optional purchase.
What Happens Next? Newsroom Nonsense
By Jess Smart Smiley
Macmillan First Second, 2024
ISBN: 9781250890993
Publisher Age Rating: 7-10
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11)
