New York Times bestselling author, Maria Scrivan, is back with her second installment in the Nat Enough series. This book has all the typical middle school challenges: popular kids, braces, a school election, kickball, and music practice. Days are filled with ups and downs, heartbreak and self-confidence shifting to feelings of self doubt. Luckily, Nat has great friends to help her pull through, or does she?
To start off, we’re introduced to Nat, or should I say, to her crush on Derek. He’s the avocado to her toast, the frosting to her cake, he is her everything. She thinks about him constantly and starts slowly losing her own identity to his. Favorite foods, favorite things to do, figuring out what to wear in the morning, all of these choices come down to, “what does Derek think?” Her patient and supportive friends, Zoe and Flo, finally just can’t take it anymore. They get ignored and promises are broken routinely. After cooling down from a big fight, Natalie realizes she’s taking them for granted. She’s somehow let herself become a bad friend. There’s got to be a way for her to win them back.
Award-winning syndicated cartoonist, Maria Scrivan, does an excellent job of creating a whole world for her own characters. Her artistic style reminds me of Raina Telgemeier’s Smile or Sisters. Fans of her books would certainly enjoy these titles too. They are very appealing to middle school kids, with pages filled with cute animals and funny details. Scrivan uses a combination of full panel fun explanatory pages that give background information, such as how Nat’s feeling, chapter pages with funny banter between a cat and dog, and comic style pages with panels that are easy to follow along with.
This is a wonderful series that is sure to be popular with middle schoolers. It’s a light story that can easily be read without needing to read the first book. Nat’s story is completely relatable as we see many issues that students commonly face such as, trying to fit in, having first crushes, and figuring out who you are. Scrivan sprinkles in lots of good natured humor, and laugh out loud chapter title pages in between serious lessons, including how to have a positive self-image with practical strategies to help improve it and the value of friendship. This book will be easy to circulate in your library, and I highly recommend adding it to your collection.
Nat Enough: Forget Me Nat, vol. 2
By Maria Striven
ISBN: 9781338538243
Scholastic, 2020
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12
Series ISBNS and Order
Title Details and Representation
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Related to…: Book to Comic
