Imogene (Impy) is eleven years old and eager to start training as a squire at the Renaissance Faire where she works with her family. To set herself on this path to knighthood, Impy will need a quest to prove her bravery and she knows exactly what to do. What could be braver than facing public school after being homeschooled all of her life?
Impy thinks she has middle school figured out but it turns out it’s not easy to be a knight-in-training while also trying to make friends and fit in. Impy isn’t sure she’s found the right friends. She’s embarrassed by her thrift store clothes for the first time ever. Even her family’s small apartment and their unconventional lifestyle–things Impy has always loved–start to make her self-conscious.
Impy knows all about how to be a noble knight. She always thought being one herself would be simple until she starts to wonder if she might be more like the villainous dragon in All’s Faire in Middle School (2017) by Victoria Jamieson.
Jamieson follows up her enormously successful Roller Girl with this standalone graphic novel about Impy and her unusual family.
All’s Faire in Middle School is a perfect blend of contemporary middle school challenges (Making new friends! Dealing with mean teachers!) and renaissance faire fun. Each chapter starts with a page designed like an illuminated manuscript complete with a drop cap and stained class style illustration. Impy’s story is related as an actual quest in all of its epic glory while the full color panels for Impy’s day-to-day show that being a heroic knight can sometimes be as simple as rescuing a brother’s lost toy.
Adventure, humor, and a winning attitude come together and help prove that kindness is the truest form of bravery for knights and middle school students!
Possible Pairings: Gabby Gets It Together by Michele Assarasakorn and Nathan Fairbairn, Making Friends by Kristen Gudsnuk; Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham; Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke; The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow; All Summer Long by Hope Larson, Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell; Past Perfect by Leila Sales; The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner; Smile by Raina Telgemeier; Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd, illustrated Michelle Mee Nutter; Audrey’s Magic Nine by Michelle Wright, illustrated by Courtney Huddleston and Tracy Bailey
Miss Print 