Scout is Not a Band Kid by Jade Armstrong is a middle grade graphic novel.
Scout learns that her favorite author will be appearing at a music festival. However, there's no way she's going to find a way to go. Until she learns that the school band will be performing there. Scout quickly joins the band so she can meet her hero. However, Scout has never played an instrument in her life and the other trombone player is quick to notice something is amiss.
This was really fun and sweet. I loved all of the characters and the author did a great job of introducing them.

Scout is Not a Band Kid is a fun quirky story that feels relatable and rooted in the turmoil of adolescence. I read this with my own little band kids and they enjoyed that characters and illustrations. The style is fun and modern and complimented the plot perfectly. I will be adding this to my library and recommending it to the band kids in my life.

Former band kid here, this was so cute as a middle school band nerd who also really sucked at playing in middle school. Go clarinets! Great story about kids finding the right group of friends for them who encourage and support their interests rather than making fun of them for it. Good diversity of characters as well.

Scout is Not a Band Kid is a wonderful graphic novel that will appeal to every band kid. I think this graphic novel will only improve with the coloring.

Such a cute story! I loved most of the characters. I love that Scout actually started to like playing the trombone. I also really liked that both the girls got into Liston.

Started out as a zany middle school hijinks comic and quickly evolved into a nice lesson on friendship, passion, empathy, and the value of hard work. I really enjoyed the little world that Armstong created and the way she gave even the minor characters personalities, motivations, and little unique details. The two main characters both have nice arcs, the acceptance of non-standard gender presentation and identification is well done, and the ending is quite satisfying. And I loved the art!

Spoiler Alert: Scout is in fact a band kid.
A really cute story about how fun and fulfilling band can be and the friendships made through it, as well as the meaning of friendship and the importance of practicing skills you wish to excel in. I liked the story of the cosplay/art interest and getting to the festival, I only wish there was more of a resolution with her other group of friends about them constantly degrading her interests.

Words and art combine to tell a story that is youthful, relatable, full of humor and life. An ideal graphic novel for upper elementary/middle grades that older readers can enjoy, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eBook ARC of this title.

Scout *needs* to attend a festival so she can meet her favorite author, but the only way she can get there is by joining the school band so she can go on the school trip to a band competition at the same festival. Scout decides to pick up the trombone, despite having zero experience with instruments or reading music (something she neglects to mention to the band teacher). Scout clashes with the other trombone player, Merrin, who doesn’t think Scout takes it seriously and is majorly irked that someone who doesn’t know how to play (and seemingly isn’t all that interested in learning) is allowed to join the band.

I’ll totally admit it - I sided with Merrin on this and found her to be a much more sympathetic and interesting character than Scout. Merrin works really hard on her music. Scout lies about her trombone ability, skips practice for two weeks, plays random notes, refuses to try, and just kind of acts like a jerk at times in the beginning. Full disclosure: I was a middle grade band kid who worked really hard at being a top seated clarinet so I definitely vibed with Merrin’s character more.

I definitely think middle schoolers will enjoy this book in general. It’s a good story of coming into your own, compromise, and forging friendships (while also ending friendships that are toxic, which is something a lot of middle school kids have to think about). I give it 3.5 stars.

This was so much fun to read. This is my first ever graphic novel based on music and I absolutely loved it. We follow Scout, an artist who’s dying to meet her favourite author at a book signing. She soon realises the only way she can meet her hero is by joining her school's band. There she meets Merrin and the story goes on from there.

I loved the main characters so much. I liked seeing their friendship grow. I also liked how the characters were rated on a scale. I really wanted them all to be rated on the same scale, but it was still a good way to introduce the characters without going off-topic. I really enjoyed the music aspects of this. It made me wish I took my piano lessons more serious when I was younger. The sheet music and music terminologies brought back so many memories.

Scout wants to meet her favorite author. To do so, she joins the school band, because they are going to be at a festival where her favorite author is going to be. But she doesn’t play an instrument. So, she says she does, and figures she can fake it, the whole time. She doesn’t realize that first trombone is very serious about playing, as well as other things.

And what starts as a nemesis, turns into a friendship when Scout realizes that there is more to Merrin than just being hung up on music. That she likes gaming, and cosplay and the same author that Scout loves.

I was never in band, nor in theatre, which is definitely a different crowd. But, I get that creative arts have to be practiced, something Scout doesn’t get.
This is a cute graphic novel, and I love how Merrin is not just someone to annoy Scout, but someone with many flavors, and more to her than meets the eye, and ear. That knowing her makes a big difference for Scout.

Really cute graphic novel.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

A delightful graphic novel about female friendship and what it means to put someone else's dreams before yours. Also, gotta love the female trombonist representation. Definitely going to evoke fond memories for all my fellow band folx out there!

This is the story of Scout, a girl that desperately wants to meet her favorite author. The only way she can get to the event is to join her school's band. Unfortunately, she has no idea how to play. Scout's interest in comics and cosplay and the pressure Merrin faces to be as perfect as possible will likely be relatable to many. There was also quite a bit of diversity amongst the characters, which I appreciated. There were, however, a lot of miscommunications throughout the book, which was a bit frustrating to me. I wish I would have connected a little better to some of the characters. I really enjoyed the art style of the book. Overall, I think this would be a good choice for fans of realist graphic novels, such as those by Raina Telgemeier, Kayla Miller and Terri Libenson.

Super cute story about friendship, hard work and learning what is important in life while not being afraid to be total and complete dork about it. Will definitely be a hit with the middle-grades.

This was a cute read with an important message about friendship. Perfect for middle grade readers! Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

Scout wants to meet her favorite author and is willing to do anything - like joining her high school band - to do it. The problem is that Scout has never played an instrument before and cannot read music. She meets Merrin, the super-intense first chair of the trombone section, and things devolve from there.

Armstrong paints characters and friendships that are realistically imperfect. It's easy to both like and dislike them at various points in time, just as it is in the real world of high school. Good addition to middle school and high school graphic collections where band, manga, and realistic stories are popular.

This is a cute and fun middle grade graphic novel. Perfect for tween who enjoy cosplay, art and fandoms. The ups and downs of making an keeping friends also features heavily in this story.

A fun graphic novel perfect for band kids, cosplayers, and anyone who considers themselves a massive fan of something. Scout really grows through the story and that growth, and her friendships, shines as the story reaches its conclusion. Readers who've put a lot of pressure on themselves to succeed will find themselves relating with Merrin and her storyline.

Scout will do anything to see her favorite author, Pristine Wong, at Almontefest. Pristine Wong is doing an exclusive autograph signing at the event, and Scout wants to meet her before Wong retires or, worse, dies. The problem is that her father thinks the trip would be too far away for someone her age to travel to meet an author. So she needs a plan. That plan is to join the Holy Moly Grades Seven Eight Band since they will be going to the same place for a competition. What could go wrong?

Well, first, Scout knows nothing about playing an instrument, and she can't even read music. She also has some old friends that don't seem to support her in her quest to meet her favorite author. How could they, since Scout keeps this part of her life to herself because she knows they will make fun of her.

As I read this novel, I seemed to relate to Scout and her troubles in middle school. She wanted to be with friends she had known her whole life, but unaware to herself, she had grown apart from them. As many middle schoolers do, Scout hides who she really wants to be. Scout does this because she is afraid of losing the friends she has grown up with, and she is scared of the unknown. But luckily, she has the band.

Although this is an early ARC, I have some concerns with the graphics, which I hope they change before release. The facial expressions on Scout and Merrin don't always seem to fit the mood that they are trying to express with their words. For example, Scout seems to be yelling a lot when her words communicate a concern or puzzlement. This doesn't happen a lot, but enough that I noticed it. There were some finished frames, and those looked amazing.

Overall, I was pleased with Scout is Not a Band Kid. I love the diversity in the book. I love that when some characters are introduced, they are shown their pronouns along with their character's strengths/weaknesses. I only wished the author would have done it for all the characters like the band teacher, Mr. Varma. Having an adult with different pronouns than the students expected would have added more to the diversity.

Overall - I would recommend this book to any readers of Raina Telgemeier, Shannon Hale, Kayla Miller. I also hope that Jade Armstrong has more stories of Scout, Merrin, Lou, and the rest of the band.

This was such a fun journey. In school, I was in theatre and chorus, so getting a look into the instrumental band side was fun and informative (RIP spit rug.) The explanations notated with asterisks (like explaining OC, tsunderes, and terrible Canadian cell phone plans) provided insight without taking away from the story. I appreciated the beautifully colored panels and how, at times, there was slight color and accents added to the greyscale pages. Little things made me laugh, like Scout's everchanging headphone emoji to the music puns and dialogue. I can't wait for the finished product because I really wanna know what is said on the blank pages (83, 152;) even though some pages didn't have text, the graphics were clear and we could infer emotions and situations without feeling like we were missing out on too much. Lastly, I loved the mini-comics at the end, I could read a whole book of those! (Inviting Lou was so relatable and humorous to me as an anime nerd and a POC.) Thanks for the journey, and for reminding me that I need to brush up on my sight reading!

Thank you NetGalley, Jade Armstrong, and Random House Graphic for the ARC.