Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (Revised Edition)

Volume XXVIII / Issue 6 - October 8 / 2021
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (Revised Edition)

Author: 
Prudence Shen
Illustrated by: 
Faith Erin Hicks, Colors by Alison Acton
New York, NY: First Second (Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books), 2021
279 pp., trade pbk., $23.99
ISBN: 
9781250779625
Grades: 
8 and up
Ages: 
13 and up
Review by: 
Sarah Wethered
4
Excerpt: 

“Move your can, Charlie!”

“Yeah, Yeah.”

“You’re just lucky I came to pick you up at all – after what your girlfriend and her jackal cheerleaders did to me.”

“Holly’s not my girlfriend anymoooooorre -”

“Ohgodlamppost!”

“What do you mean she’s not your girlfriend anymore?? You’re the captain of the basketball team. She’s head cheerleader! It’s an iron-clad school rule you date Holly. To make the rest of us less-attractive-but-infinitely-smarter mortals hate you.”

“Sorry, not my girlfriend anymore.”

“Huh. Did she give you a reason?”

“Nope. Three weeks ago she decided we were dating, and now we’re not. Holly moves in mysterious ways.”
“Well, whatever! Do you know what your now ex-girlfriend did? She’s trying to take my science team’s funding to buy uniforms for her evil cheer squad, that’s what! So Principal Getty calls me to her office today and I’m thinking ‘well crap, the physics lab had to catch on eventually,’ right? No! It’s Holly and her evil fembot co-captain Norma, asking to spend my robotics competition money on their new hoochie outfits.”

“You didn’t say that to her did you? Because she punches. Hard.”

“Getty decided that since the money hadn’t technically been earmarked for the science team, she’s let the student council decide who got to spend it.”

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is a graphic novel that is set in an American high school. Two friends, Charlie (the captain of the basketball team) and Nate (president of the robotics club) end up both running for student council president. Charlie is forced into it by his ex-girlfriend Holly, the head cheerleader. Nate runs because he wants the student council to sponsor a trip to the national robotics championship. When a series of election pranks goes wrong, the cheerleaders, Charlie, and the robotics team must work together to win the Robot Rumble to be able to pay for both new uniforms for the cheer squad and a trip to the national robotics champions for the robotics club

Readers of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong will be drawn into this funny and, at times, poignant story. Readers will laugh at the election antics of the two candidates and will empathize with Charlie’s trying to deal with his parents’ divorce. The story is fast-paced and exciting; readers will not want to put down this book so they can find out what happens at the Robot Rumble.

I recommend Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong to readers who enjoy graphic novels with teenage characters. While the characters and situations, can, at some times, be a bit over the top, readers will enjoy the story and may see themselves in one of the characters. Female readers may be able to identify with Joanna, the only girl on the robotics team and the true hero of the Robot Rumble. Further, readers whose parents have divorced may understand the issues with which Charlie is dealing. Lastly, being a graphic novel, this book might encourage reluctant readers to read more.

Highly Recommended
Reviewer: 

Sarah Wethered is currently on leave as teacher-librarian at New Westminster Secondary School to service as president of the New Westminster Teachers’ Union. She currently lives in New Westminster, British Columbia.