Act, by Kayla Miller

Act opens with a classroom lesson about direct democracy versus representative democracy… and then ultimately segues, appropriately enough, into a story about Olive running for sixth-grade student council.

She’s prompted to run after the realization that her’s school’s field trip policy is a barrier to some students—one of her classmates misses out on an amazing class field trip because her family couldn’t afford the fee. Olive goes to a teacher about it, and the teacher explains the school’s reasoning—and while Olive understands the logic, she still doesn’t think it’s right.

She tries a petition and she even tries a sit-in, but nothing seems to work.

So, running for office it is!

But! She’s also contending with two of her best friends suddenly acting DIFFERENT—lots of lingering glances and nice gestures and blushing, which makes Olive feel weird and left out and in the way—AND she’s dealing with two other good friends ALSO running for student council… on a very popular platform of better cafeteria snacks??

Like the other books in the series, this one has great characterization, it does a wonderful job of showing different perspectives of the same situation or problem, and it’s set in a world peopled with largely-kind, thoughtful, empathetic kids. (Largely.)

Some highlights:

• Olive is running on a platform that’s about trying to solve problems by taking action and grappling with school policy… while her main competitors are running on a popular slogan, and that’s about it. Ultimately, the election results are reflective of The Real World, which I appreciated for the realism, even though it was a slight gut punch.

• There’s a really nice moment, post-election, where Olive expresses the truth that she can still make change without being in office—which, yes!

• Once Olive starts her campaign, students start coming to her with other issues they’re having at school. The whole experience is an eye-opener for her—and, one would assume, will be for her young readers—in showing her that just because things at school are largely okay for her, not everyone has the same experience.

• More great sibling stuff with Olive’s mother and her sister, in which Olive tells them that she’s got a problem at school, and the sister’s immediate advice is to STAGE A PROTEST and Olive’s mom is like STOP TRYING TO RADICALIZE MY CHILD and it made me laugh out loud.

• There’s also a great sequence where Olive is reading up about the history of protest & Miller includes panels of various famous protests throughout history…

• …AND THEN GIVES MORE INFO ABOUT ALL OF IT IN THE BACKMATTER, WHICH ALSO INCLUDES A SUGGESTED READING LIST AND A BONUS COOKIE RECIPE. THANK YOU KAYLA MILLER, FOR YOUR DEDICATION TO BACKMATTER. Seriously, these are the things that make my day.

The fourth book in the series, Clash, is due out in July.

More by Kayla Miller