I picked this book because it mentioned that the character would read books and write stories of her own. After reading it, I was amazed at how motivated and passionate these middle school kids were. This story spoke about the problems teens face when they have to put up with joint custody, loneliness, peer issues, etc. It did a wonderful job in portraying the characters and lending out their voice through words and illustrations. The main character in this story dreams of becoming a writer and she writes such great fantasy stories, I was sold to them. What was most notable was how Tori would project her real life problems in her stories. It was an escape mechanism which helped her to cope up with all the changes in reality. Definitely recommend it to everyone.

This book will fly off the shelves at my library. This is one of those books that when you read it you count yourself lucky for finding it. This is a great read for children. teen and adults. Great characters, wonderful writing.

I know many of my students will like this book. This graphic novel tells the story of a young girl who moves through middle school. She also has to navigate her parent's divorce and having to move from house to house with her siblings. It touches on her feelings and her sibling's feelings too. To help her with these issues, she writes comics and stories with her friends and these are also included in the book. It is a fun combination of real issues and pretend stories.

4.25 twinkling stars!

This was a very heart felt and relatable autobiography that I absolutely adored! The characters laid bare on the page. You could feel each of their emotions, and I liked that.

From navigating friendship to divorce, 'Just Pretend' has a premise that I'm sure many kids will resonate with. Much like Tori, as a child my best friends kept on moving away. This deja-vu really made me tear up.

Moreover, I loved how Tori is such a creative!! Her determination is bound to inspire young kids everywhere!

Overall, this was a sweet and inspiring coming of age that's perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier!

(Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for a copy in exchange for an honest review.)

I loved that this book encouraged readers to be their own writers and didn't sugar coat real life experiences. However, I'm not typically a graphic novel reader and I found this one hard to follow at times. I would add this book to my classroom library for my graphic novel lovers, children who are facing a divorce in their family, and students who are interested in writing their own books.

Just Pretend will absolutely become a classic for middle grade and teen readers! With the multidimensional problems faced by the characters, from school to family, Sharp provides a relatable backdrop for readers to empathize with and find comfort, all while also teaching the importance of creativity and perseverance.

I appreciate that the story encompasses so much about life as a pre-teen/teenager. We see the main character's experiences with friendship and family relationships, including fight with friends, friends moving away, and life with divorce parents. I also liked that throughout her life's complexities, we see the main character use writing as a positive coping mechanism. While I enjoyed the storyline, the story jumped around in time span which I found a bit confusing to follow, and I was left unsatisfied with a somewhat unresolved and abrupt ending, Additionally, I was hoping for some resolution with the siblings, but perhaps we'll see that if there are more books to come.

This was such a sweet and relatable story.
With such realistic characters, situations, feelings, I truly felt as though it was someone's life story, and not just solely exaggerations.

Tori explains about her life; divorced parents, friends who appreciate her imagination, and her need to create. Writing stories allows Tori an escape from her stressful life, and eventually helps her fall into her future career.

I know it's difficult to create a graphic memoir because so much of a memoir is internal and real life doesn't have a beginning, a middle, and and end. This book lacked structure. We see difficult situations happen to Tori, and we see her react to them. There's no growth or build up; it's just event after event until middle school graduation. Though I liked the secondary story that Tori is writing (since it had a followable narrative), specific events in the secondary story didn't tie to the primary story in any way so it was just two completely separate stories running simultaneously. I also think the pacing was too fast. I think if the pacing was slower and we had more explanation of events leading into one another, this would be a stronger book.

Graphic novels are very popular in my classroom. This one will be no exception. Many students will be able to relate to Tori's struggles.

I loved the idea of this story, writing as an escape from reality and problems and sharing that love of writing with friends. The characters were realistically drawn and I felt as though I see these kids every day. What I didn't like as much was the way the story leapt around from situation to situation. The transitions from the story to Taylor's written world were well done, but the transitions in the realistic part of the story were more choppy.

I'm always looking for new graphic novels for my middle grade library--it's hard to keep them on the shelves. The description and artwork in this one sounded like exactly what I needed.

Based on the author's own childhood, the story follows 7th grader Tori. She prefers to lose herself in the fantasy book she's writing rather than deal with what's happeining in real life: divorced parents, difficult sibling relationships, and changing friendships. Her book is full of powerful girls and magic, and the artwork for these sections is particularly beautiful.

However, I enjoyed the realistic parts of Tori's story more than than that fantasy book...even though they are pretty tough to read at times. Both her mother and father are absent in their own ways, and Tori struggles to get them to see her and acknowledge what they are doing. Her twin bother and sister are constantly putting her down--in fact her brother's behavior is downright cruel. Having the beautiful fantasy sections interupt the darker realism was powerful, but I found myself skimming some of Tori's book excerpts just to get back to her real life.

Though I have mixed feelings, I'm sure this is going to be a hit with my students.

Just Pretend is a great graphic novel! The main character is in middle school and is dealing with her parents divorce and middle school friendships. I highly recommend Just Pretend!

In this graphic memoir, we see Tori as she is going into 7th grade. She and her friend spend a lot of time creating pretend worlds, both in written stories and in playing. This is an escape for Tori from her family. Her parents are divorced after bickering a lot, and while her dad's new girlfriend is nice, it's still not a great family dynamic. Her older brother is especially troubled, and Tori has to tag along to her older sister's ballet classes since her mother won't let her stay home alone. Even these lessons are a point on contention. As things worsen, Tori distances herself from her best friend, who has her own struggles and secrets.

I'll probably buy this one, since my students will like the illustration style, but it was confusing at times-- I found myself going back a page to see if I missed something major. It also seemed a little younger than 7th grade. It seems like most children give up playing pretend games (at least on school grounds) by middle school, but since this is a memoir, perhaps children 20 years ago did this for longer.

This graphic memoir was a great for middle grades. It tells the story of a girl who is dealing with her parents divorce and trying to figure out her place socially. She uses writing as an escape and a way to deal with her feelings. The graphic format will engage readers and the topic and plot draw in readers who see themselves in her experience.

This debut autobiographical graphic novel was quite enjoyable and reads in the vein of Telgemeier, Hale and Pham, but I can see areas of growth for the author. Transition elements would be helpful since some portions of the book felt choppy jumping from one scene to the next. Some of the ages of the memories may be off as many of the pretend sequences seemed younger than the chronological age in the memoir. All-in-all this book has a lot of good things going for it and I will definitely be adding it to my middle school collection.

The author states in the back matter of the book that “this is a true story, which means it’s a story.” This story is the series of events and interactions with people in the author’s life during her teenage years, all of which were shaped by her parents’ divorce, her struggles and alliances with friends and siblings, and finding her place in an ever-changing world.

A graphic novel memoir about growing up, maintaining friendships, and weathering family life after a divorce. Recommend for voracious graphic novel readers, particularly fans of Svetlana Chmakova, Lucy Knisley, or Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham.

There is much to like in this mostly autobiographical book by Tori Sharp: it’s graphic novel format, the focus on a tween coping with divorced parents, frustrations with family, and the angst of growing up. The authenticity rings true and will resonate with my students as they read. However, the abrupt shifts in time and place were difficult to navigate and more than once, I turned back a page to see if I had skipped a few such as when I went from a panel with young Tori eating a midnight snack with her bff and in the next one, to a new day and a conversation with who I assume is a nanny/babysitter/housekeeper type character. (Banners with transition phrases or even “chapter” headings would make the frequent jumps less confusing.) Tori, in the book and in real life, has a vivid imagination and is always creating art and story in notebooks. Her imagination is, in large part, the tool that helps her process all the difficult changes in her life. However, few of my 5th graders are still dressing up and play-acting fairies and goddesses with their friends unless it is online or in their reading and the regular occurrence of this type of pretending will possibly feel awkward to other tweens rather than the encouraging message to let imagination take you to wonderful places that I believe Sharp intends. My ARC copy only had a handful of full color pages, but the illustrations are realistic and appealing. Final verdict? If you need more graphic novels in the vein of Telgemeier, Hale, Chmakova and similar, this one has a place in your collection.

This one wasn't bad. It suffered a little from the comparison to the Real Friends trilogy, because it just doesn't live up to the standard set by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham. And it shouldn't have to! Especially because this is a debut.

Daydreamy Tori likes to make up stories. Her writing helps her deal with the stressors in her life, especially her parents' divorce. Ever since the split up, Tori feels lonely at her mom's house and her dad's apartment, even when she's surrounded by her siblings. She writes a story about a magical fairy finding companionship and her way home.

I can see this one being popular with kids who like to write or just daydream.