Middle School Confidential 3: What's Up with My Family?
Middle School Confidential 3: What's Up with My Family? gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Middle School Confidential 3: What's Up with My Family? is the third in an app-based graphic novel series written by anti-bullying activist Annie Fox. This book continues the story of six middle schoolers with diverse racial and family backgrounds who dealt with self-esteem in Middle School Confidential 1: Be Confident in Who You Are and learned about friendship in Middle School Confidential 2: Real Friends Versus the Other Kind. Now they learn how to get along with and appreciate the families they have, warts and all. The kids work through issues involving a new strict stepdad and goofy little stepbrother; a single mom and a new relationship with an estranged father's family; a big family that's embarrassingly close; a mom's pressure to lose weight; and a little sister who's always in the way.What kids can learn
Teens and tweens will identify with the relationships in the story -- with parents, extended family, and siblings, or with the longing for any of those family members.The graphic-novel format is fun, and the illustrations and writing will engage kids.
Using a format tweens can appreciate, Middle School Confidential 3: What's Up with My Family? uses a diverse group of kids to demonstrate how to maneuver family relationships, empowering kids to think about their own relationships and offering concrete ways to improve them.
Clear instructions on the first page show how to navigate the story, which is pretty intuitive. There's no penalty for incorrectly answering a quiz question, and all answers -- right and wrong -- are explained.
What's it about?
MIDDLE SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL 3: WHAT'S UP WITH MY FAMILY is a graphic novel made up of eight short chapters, each focusing on a different tween's relationship with his or her family. Kids will read the graphic novel themselves, either page by page or panel by panel. Each chapter ends with a short quiz, recognizing the challenge of each family dynamic as well as its positive aspects. The quiz questions present real scenarios and ask tweens how they'd handle them, and then explain why that would be a good method or not. Kids can zoom in on panels to get a closer look (which sometimes activates background sound effects that fit in with the story line), and they can also easily skip the quizzes by swiping past the quiz title page.
Is it any good?
Tweens and teens will be drawn to the easy-to-read graphic-novel style, and most will find at least one family relationship relatable. The watercolor illustrations are lovely but "cool" enough to be inviting to a tween audience. There's no option to have the text read aloud, which may limit the enjoyment of kids with special needs, but sound effects add to the mood of the stories, giving insight into characters' feelings.
The takeaway message is that no one's perfect -- not certain family type, not parents, not kids -- but that we can all work on getting along better with those we love. The characters are diverse, as are the family types -- from single-parent families and blended families to large, extended families and two-parent families -- which may help kids accept their own families, whatever they may be like, as "normal."
Families can talk about...
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Families can talk about their own frustrations with one another. Do you identify with any of the characters?
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Take the quizzes together and talk about the answers. Some of the scenarios have more than one "right" answer. Talk about those and encourage kids to try some of the techniques when they're in similar situations.
App details
| Devices: | iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad |
| Price: | $2.99 |
| Pricing structure: | Paid |
| Release date: | August 14, 2014 |
| Category: | Books |
| Topics: | Great boy role models, Great girl role models |
| Size: | 59.40 MB |
| Publisher: | Electric Eggplant |
| Version: | 1.0.1 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 6.0 or later |
