This is NOT a graphic novel, though we are treated to a page from Mallory’s webcomic at the start of each chapter.
Mallory Marsh is going through some stuff. Her parents have divorced, leaving her to take on more responsibility for her twin brothers while mom works overtime to pay the bills. Mal already has a problem with conflict and wanting be exactly what every else wants from her, so she doesn’t want to let her mom know that the twins are more than she can handle, or her math homework is too hard, or that she didn’t want to be on swim team this year because the new coach takes all the fun out of it. She certainly can’t tell her mom about the webcomic she runs to blow off steam.
It can be frustrating to read a book where the character lies and digs herself deeper into trouble. Logically, we know everything is going to spiral out of control and come to a head, often in real life and always in fiction. If Mal were a secondary character she’d be written off as fake, if not vilified. Seeing her perspective, the fear and anxiety that makes her mold herself into each situation, not only makes her feel like a real person but also serves to show how anxiety can lead to unfortunate decisions.
Kudos to the author for not only showing how anxiety can lead to bad decisions that cause a situation to snowball out of control, but also for doing so in such a way that builds tension and leaves the reader on the edge of their seat waiting for the other shoe to drop, instead of rolling their eyes.

“Mallory in Full Color” is a heartfelt book encompassing the gamut of issues that are current with young people, including family relationships, friends, identity, and more. They are encountered with open-mindedness and honesty.
Mallory is a middle schooler who wants to please everyone—her family, friends, and teachers. She wants to help everyone while trying to be who they need her to be, even to her own detriment. But Mallory also has a secret: Metal-Plated Heart, the comic she has created. It seems to be the only thing she is able to do for herself.
There are many multi-faceted characters who add to the enjoyment of this story. They help elevate what could have been a slow middle, by adding some additional intrigue and interest to Mallory’s struggles.
The messages in this story are uplifting. This book will be inspiring to middle graders who are trying to find their own place and identity in the world.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy!

The story is about Mallory who is struggling with who she TRULY is. Like any student of the middle grades, she is not sure where she fits in. She writes and illustrates a web comic where she uses her friends (and their character traits) and characters in the series. Along the way, Mallory meets Noa, who identifies as they/them. Her friendship with Noa allows Mallory to start thinking about who she really is. After a giant blowout with her mom and her friends, Mallory knows it is time to start being honest with everyone, but mostly herself.

Mallory in Full Color is a powerful piece of middle grade literature. It comes out in November and should sit on everyone's TBR. I absolutely love the way that most of the characters are portrayed in this book...as true allies. It was refreshing for my social justice loving heart to read a book where people were open and inclusive and just loved each other for who they are. There was even a part in this story about colors having no gender, which is something I talk to my girls about all the time. It's not just color...it's sports, it's books (there are not boy and girl books...book are for everyone!), it's movies, it's so many things. This book is perfect for any middle grader who is struggling with identity or just fitting in. It's perfect for any middle graders who is an activist and loves to take a stand. It's perfect for any middle grade parent who is looking for connection with their kiddo. I applaud the author and I am so eager to push this book on everyone!

I think middle schoolers will enjoy this and I think it is important to have more books like this. It could help a lot of kids understand themselves and others. As a queer swimmer who wrote fanfic (a little different than the comics but still similar) in middle school, I hoped to connect more with Mal and the rest of the characters but I just never felt super tied to them. It was worth the read but I wish it was a graphic novel rather than a novel with some graphic elements. I think that would have made me feel more invested due to the story being told. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Mallory is the oldest of a single parent. She does everything she should and more. Her outlet is her graphic novel. The platform requires you to be 13, which is isn't yet. So she fudges her birthdate to gain access and soon gains a loyal fan base. Mallory has the usual teen struggles. She struggles with being her own person. Even her pizza selection is based on the group she is with at the time. Key moments: writing her friends into her webtoon, falsifying emails from her mom, interactions with a drag queen story time, aggressive swim coach, falling grades, and "winning" a webtoon competition lead Mallory to reflect on who she is and who she wants to be. It's nice to see a character grow without being preachy. Even the interactions with telling her mom she babysits her brothers too much are crafted well. The reader feels for Malory and her mom. The more Mallory finds her voice, the more she finds herself.

VERDICT: Must add for MG libraries and strong consideration for teen libraries.

Very sweet middle grade story. I normally don’t read middle grade books, but I always want to find books like these to recommend to the middle school kids coming into the library.

Our MC Mallory is a great example of an evolving character, and learning to advocate/speak up for yourself. I think Mal is a very relatable character for the younger audience.

Also I really liked the plot of the drag story time at the library!

E ARC provided by Netgalley

In this return to the Leopold Preparatory Academy in Rooville, Ohio (a fictional suburb of Columbus!), we focus on Mal, a friend of Etta and Wendy's. Mal is dealing with a lot at home, since her parents have recently divorced and her mother, Magnolia Jeong, a busy paralegal, frequently expects Mal to babysit her younger twin brothers and make them dinner. While Mal doesn't mind that much, she also needs to get her schoolwork done, and wants time to work on her web comic. Metal-Plated Heart is a story she's been working on and has posted on the Comic Koala website, run by a local comic store, even though she isn't thirteen yet. When her mother signs her up for swim lessons that conflict with a new comic club she really wants to attend at the public library, she's very angry, but doesn't say so. Mal is a people pleaser, and always tries to go along with whatever other are doing or saying so that they keep liking her. After dropping her brothers off at the community center, Mal realizes that she could easily pop over to the library for the comic club. There, she runs into Noa, a nonbinary tween who is helping set up a Drag Queen story hour. Mal really wants to be friends with Noa, and to attend the comic club, so she uses her mother's account to e mail the swim coach and say that she isn't going to be on the team. At school, Mal feels torn-- many of her friends talk about which boys are cute, but Etta invites her to attend the Gay Straight Alliance (which is changing its name to the Gender and Sexuality Alliance). While Mal has had crushes on boys', she's also had crushes on girls, and isn't quite ready to assign herself a label yet. Her friend K.K. really likes makeup, but Mal doesn't, even though to make K. K. happy, she lets her friend do her face. She even agrees to perform with Noa, even though she does not like performing in front of others. On top of these daily stresses, she still has to watch her brothers, and deal with not seeing her father as much. She overhears her mother talking about possibly moving to the West Coast to be near family, and that adds a level of stress. Not only that, but the one thing that calms her down, her web comic, has become a source of anxiety. Not only is the owner of Comic Koala contacting her and telling her that she's getting a lot of votes in a contest, so if she wants to win she has to get her parental permission forms turned in, but people at school are discovering her comic and realizing that the characters are based, sometimes unflatteringly, on people at school. On top of that, the Read with a Queen story hour is being challenged, and is eventually canceled. Noa is crushed, and Mal and Noa have a bit of a falling out because Mal won't be honest with them. Eventually, of course, Mal's mother finds out about the swim team and web comic deception, as well as some of Mal's failing grades, and the two have a falling out, especially since Mal has been asked to take on too much responsibility at home. When Comic Koala offers to host the story time, it looks like one of Mal's difficult situations will be resolved, but will she be able to set all of the other matters in her life to right as well.
Strengths: So many of Mal's experiences reflect the current social zeitgeist: parents over scheduling children or expecting them to serve as caretakers, children navigating living with divorced parents, several LGBTQIA+ issues, drag queen story times, and the social emotional learning topic of being true to oneself and not being a people pleaser (like Greenwald's Absolutely, Positively Natty). There's even a bit of support for graphic novels being legitimate forms of story telling when Mal's language arts teacher doesn't approve of her web comic sketches. No wonder Mal's poop head is spinning! I liked that there were some supportive adults in Mal's life, like her grandmother, who comforted her when an aunt made an insensitive comment, and also talked to her about knowing who she was and standing up to other people, and like the librarian, Barbara, who looked like a stereotypical, unfriendly white librarian but who ended up helping in several ways. I also really liked the depiction of a middle school student having to take care of younger siblings, because I think many of my students experience similar demands from parents. The inclusion of comic style panels will be an additional draw for this book.
Weaknesses: I have found that my students struggle to understand stories that are more complicated in a way that was not true five years ago. There is a lot to process in this story, and some struggling readers might have difficulty. As important as the drag queen story hour line was, it almost deserved to be a completely different book. I would have liked to see more about how Mal's dishonesty about posting her web comic, and the way her classmates felt about being portrayed, affected her, and how her mother dealt with it, since lying to parents about social media postings can end rather badly.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Doucet's graphic novel Art Club, or Howard's Middle School's a Drag, You Better Werk It, or those who want to return to the world of this author's Tethered to Other Stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and Author for an ARC of this work in exchange for a review.

Mallory in Full Color by Elisa Stone Leahy is a story about identity, self-discovery, acceptance, belonging and authenticity. The main character struggles with being a people pleaser and wanting to be liked. She then must come to terms with why she does some of the things she does, and how to become true to herself as well as to others around her.

This is a very good book, perfect for teens and tweens but enjoyable for any age.
The art in the story is really well done, and the cover of the book connects back to a self portrait in the story. Because there are only graphic novel pages in between each chapter, it is basically is an illustrated novel, which makes it a a cool hybrid, perhaps appealing further to reluctant young readers.

This is a great middle grade novel and I wish it was a graphic novel as advertised, but it was still a great read regardless. I can definitely see this book being popular amongst my younger patrons for sure.

First of all, the cover is absolutely gorgeous and that's really the reason I picked this one up. Unfortunately, that's really the only part of this book that I cared about. I definitely see this book really helping some of the kids that I work with, but it just wasn't for me.

Mallory in Full Color is a wonderful, realistic story of a middle schooler who is finding her identity while also trying to please everyone in her life. Elisa's descriptions of the struggles of the queer community are very true to my own experience as a queer person, and to the experiences of many queer people I know. As a kid who grew up writing stories, you often include people you know because you know so little about the world- in Mallory's story, we see her nerves about being discovered as the author of a popular online web graphic come to fruition in her closest friendships. The real life stakes of something so taboo are explored well in this book, and while the conflict seemed easily resolved to me, the end result reads well as a middle grade novel that is exploring the pressures of social relationships and how they interact with art.

Overall, I highly enjoyed this read and will be recommending it to middle schoolers and teens!

This was a cute middle-grade novel about a girl trying to figure out who she is. You can really understand what she’s going through and why she does some of the things she does. I could really relate with the main character and it brings up some really good topics.

What I struggled with:

Despite a strong concept and story elements I typically enjoy—queer self-discovery, developing friendships, standing up against library bans, artsy protagonist—I failed to truly connect with the characters, storyline, and writing voice of MALLORY IN FULL COLOR. Although I understood Mallory’s struggles with expressing herself around different people, it didn’t altogether ring true.

I think this was partially because the aspects of the setup which made me believe that Mallory acting in this way were truly necessary were virtually debunked by the end. For example, the conflict between her friends made me believe some of their friendships would fall apart if Mallory was authentic, and the anger they felt upon discovering Mallory’s comics about them was legit. However, the ease with which all of them accepted Mallory felt almost anticlimactic, making Mallory’s anxiety appear misplaced rather than legitimate. I appreciated the happy ending, but the book’s execution made it feel like a middle-grade friendship version of the infamous miscommunication trope.

What I liked:

That said, I think middle schoolers who are struggling with the same need to people please as Mallory will connect with her and find the ending reassuring rather than flat. Her introduction to Noa, who is nonbinary, and the backlash over drag queen story hours and other public library events also provided a thoughtful and realistic introduction to gender diversity and homophobic/transphobic attitudes.

Mallory's interactions with her friends also felt very authentic, and I could really relate to the complex feelings surrounding conversations where she felt like she needed to perform and be someone other than herself to be liked, supportive, and a good friend.

In short, although I don’t think MALLORY IN FULL COLOR will become a favorite of most outside of its target audience, I think it’ll both be enjoyed by and helpful for the middle schoolers it’s written for.

3.5 stars, rounded up

**FYI - NetGalley has this tagged as Comics, Graphics Novels, Manga, but it is a middle grade novel. There is a page of sequential art from Mal's webcomic before each chapter, but the rest of the story is prose.**

Hands down the best middle grade novel I've read in a long time. Mallory is a pre-teen trying to figure out who she is outside of her people-pleasing tendencies. As pressures from friends, family and school grow, Mal avoids dealing with her problems by lying, bottling up her feelings, and channeling her real feelings into her webcomic that she isn't even allowed to have. When Mal starts ditching swim for comic club, she meets Noa, a non-binary teen who seems to truly know themselves. As their friendship and feelings grow, the toll of Mal's juggling act catches up with her. Mal must be honest with everyone to learn how to be honest with herself. Something I really respect about this book is how Elisa Stone Leahy incorporates the reality of queerness in youth - even before youth can define themselves they start hearing messages that who they are is wrong or too much or not for the public - and when they try to just be themselves it comes with hatred from complete strangers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Quill Tree Books for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, this was just a good book. I don’t know if it was the writing or the sweet story, but it was never far from my mind. I liked the representation of a queer kid trying to figure out their identity in an environment where it’s safe for them to do so; where they have queer and trans friends to turn to and family members who they know will support them. However, that’s not to say there isn’t transphobia and homophobia surrounding her, as most of the book centers on her local drag queen storytime becoming national news due to controversy and subsequently being canceled.
The way that the comic pages and art in the story show Mal exploring her identities as a queer Korean American child was really well done, and I love how the cover of the book connects back to this with her self-portrait in the story. Mal spends the majority of the story trying to be who everyone wants her to be to the point where she loses track of herself and feels a disconnect from how everyone perceives her. Mal screws up a lot, lies to a lot of people, and says the wrong stuff sometimes, but she does genuinely act like a middle schooler, and I feel like these are middle schooler things to do. This book was so middle school in a way that didn’t make me cringe, but was moreso funny and nostalgic to me. Her brothers were also so feral and funny. I feel like this author just understands children and tweens in a way that I don’t get from a lot of middle grade books, and I can’t really put my finger on why. I think it would be excellent for queer middle school kids read this book, and it makes me happy that this will surely happen.
I think the main part that took me out of the story was the mom’s monologue in the end ending with her saying a line about Mallory being in “full color,” which struck me as a last ditch effort to include the title of the book in the book in a way that didn’t feel organic or natural. I do also think that the tag on NetGalley of this being a graphic novel threw me off because there are only graphic novel pages in between each chapter, so it’s basically a novel with illustrations, which is still cool. There was also a friendship in the book (with Fiona maybe?) that never felt resolved other than Mal recognizing that she didn’t like how she acted around her and then I don’t think she really showed up again, which felt like a loose end, but wasn't too big of a deal. I adored the book overall.

DNF, I will not be providing feedback as this book is listed as a graphic novel and it is not. It is a chapter book