DISCLAIMER:  I received an advance copy of Scout is Not a Band Kid from the publisher through NetGalley for the purposes of writing an honest review.

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.

#ScoutIsNotaBandKid #NetGalley