In Crush, readers meet Jorge, a middle schooler who is big for his age, but who uses that fact to stand up for the kids being bullied.

One of Chmakova’s great strengths is her ability to create wonderfully lovable protagonists, ones who want to uplift others and to always choose kindness, but ones who also are flawed enough to be believable. The result is a sensitive exploration of learning how to deal with shifting relationships lead by a protagonist sure to steal readers’ hearts.

In Crush, Chmakova tackles the intricacies of pre-teen romance, as well as the harmful gossip that often surrounds the idea of someone liking someone else. In the first two books, Svetlana Chmakova focuses on the perils of trying to fit in in middle school and the experience of being bullied, sometimes by people who seemed like friends.

They proudly stand in stark contrast to some of the more popular school-centered comics, celebrating kindness and respect,and presenting readers with thoughtful protagonists who, quite simply, try to do the right thing. The Berrybrook Middle School graphic novels are some of the best currently being published–and yet I seldom see any buzz about them. Then a scandal rocks the school, and Jorge realizes he might lose all his relationships. Everyone’s gossiping about everyone else. But when he begins to crush on a girl from drama club, life suddenly gets much more complicated. Between classes, he patrols the halls, standing up for the students being bullied. He has baseball, his friends, and the athletic club. Jorge Ruiz has middle school pretty much figured out.

Crush by svetlana chmakova