Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms

by Crystal Frasier, Val Wise (Illustrator), Oscar O. Jupiter (Letterer)

Overview

2021 Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
2021 New York Public Library Best Books for Teens
2021 Cybils Award Winner
2022 GLAAD Media Award Winner
2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalist



A sweet, queer teen romance perfect for fans of Heartstopper and Check, Please!

Annie is a smart, antisocial lesbian starting her senior year of high school who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend Bebe is a people-pleaser—a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped up social pressures (not to mention micro aggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620109557
Publisher:	Oni Press
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	212,589
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Crystal Frasier is a girl from small-town Florida who now has twenty years’ experience writing for comics, fiction, and games. She has contributed to major brands like Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as small-press projects and anthologies, but she got her start self-publishing transgender-focused webcomics. Today Crystal is the proud mama of two energetic corgis, Calamity and Adamant.

Val Wise is a cartoonist originally from Clearwater Beach, Florida. He's contributed to a handful of anthologies, including Dates! and Wayward Kindred, as well as projects like Rolled & Told. He currently lives in the Southern U.S. with his husband, two best friends, and two talkative cats named Biscotti and Ciabatta.

Editorial Reviews

06/21/2021

This sharply observed graphic novel overturns high school archetypes to present a nuanced portrait of queer cheerleaders. Frasier seamlessly integrates the backstories of Annie, a chubby, white, sarcastic brainiac, and Beatrice (known as Bebe), a Latinx-cued teen who rose to school popularity as the state’s first trans cheerleader and who worries about putting people out. The former childhood friends reacquaint when Annie, needing extracurriculars, reluctantly tries out for cheerleading. The team tries to support Bebe, but as Annie notes, “they’re treating you like a mascot, not a person.” Meanwhile, Bebe’s overprotective parents make their support of her transition contingent on getting good grades. Bebe admits she feels pressure to be perfect to avoid conflict; she’d rather brush off passes from creepy schoolmate Jonah than confront him. As Bebe schools Annie in being a team player, and Annie tutors Bebe in history and self-advocacy, their friendship evolves into a romance and leads to a memorable homecoming night. Wise’s fine-lined illustrations add to the novel’s specificity of character, from the rose tattoo emblazoned on Annie’s mother’s shoulder to Bebe’s koala-shaped phone case. Sweet without being saccharine, this short work is a wise, funny look at the distance between queer rights and real acceptance. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)■

Publishers Weekly

"Cheer Up! is joyful and insistent in its portrayal of queer teens like Annie and Bebe as worthy of love and respect, imperfections and all."

Shelf Awareness [Starred Review] - Alanna Felton

THE NEW YORK TIMES, "8 Comic Books in Honor of Pride"

BUZZFEED, "28 New LGBTQ+ Young Adult Novels That'll Add Sunshine To Your Summer"

BOOK RIOT, "20 Must-Read LGBTQ Comics for Teens and Young Adults"

EPIC READS, "The 16 Most Anticipated YA Books to Read in August"

LAMBDA LITERARY, "August’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ Literature"

THE SEATTLE TIMES, "A Seattle-authored graphic novel and long-listen audiobooks"

OUT MAGAZINE, 18 New & Upcoming Queer Comics We Love

From the Publisher

"Readers will root for these girls as they navigate the waters of self-confidence, love, and cheerleading."

Booklist [Starred Review] - Sarah Rice

"Showing that everyone has more to learn, and that embracing others is often the best way to do it, Cheer Up is a wonderful graphic novel."

Foreword Reviews

08/01/2021

Gr 9 Up—Cheerleading meets girl-girl romance in this sporty rom-com. Annie is "the best student this school has ever seen," but her guidance counselor worries that her lack of extracurriculars will hurt her college chances. Her mom, a tattooed former cheerleader, suggests that Annie join the cheerleading team. The squad doesn't want her at first—antisocial Annie's reputation precedes her—but head cheerleader Bebe, Annie's former friend, changes their minds. Bebe, who struggles balancing grades, popularity, and being the first trans girl at their high school, finds Annie a welcome change to her routine. As the girls rekindle their friendship, they also start to feel something more. But will Bebe's overprotective parents, who worry about their daughter getting hurt, be OK with it? "Wholesome princess" Bebe and devil-may-care Annie form a classic romantic pairing. Frasier's dialogue and Wise's full-color art create some dynamic scenes, and the quiet, wordless sequences that show the two gradually falling for each other take the story into swoon-worthy territory. As several well-intentioned characters learn to stop treating Bebe like a mascot, the story also demonstrates good allyship amid microaggressions. Annie is white, Bebe is tan-skinned, and the ensemble cast is diverse in skin tone. VERDICT In the vein of Ngozi Ukazu's Check, Please! or C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad's Fence, this peppy yet angsty graphic novel irresistibly reclaims sports for queer and trans audiences. Recommended for all teen collections.—Alec Chunn, Eugene P.L., OR

School Library Journal

2021-06-01
Two high school cheerleaders learn from each other while falling for one another.

Annie and Bebe were close until Bebe suddenly became popular, a change that happened to coincide with her gender transition. Now uber-academic, anti-social Annie needs some extracurriculars to beef up her college applications, and Bebe advocates to bring her onto the cheerleading team in the face of universal opposition. Brash, assertive Annie learns teamwork from people-pleasing Bebe, who in exchange learns to stand up for herself. Rather than the coming-out process, the story addresses some of the more subtle, everyday challenges of being transgender, and it tackles these themes simply and sweetly. It shows how being a trans girl can mean constant behavior policing, even from one’s closest friends and family. Bebe’s parents are supportive, but they see transitioning as a luxury that can be taken away: They tell her that she is not a “normal girl,” and they fear to let her out of their sight. The cheerleading squad members use Bebe for progressive points, but they don’t always act like real friends. Even Annie, who wants to stick up for Bebe, projects what she thinks is best for her. The art is cute and expressive, with tons of personality in the characters’ faces and bodies. The supporting cast is diverse not only racially, but in body type and gender expression as well. Annie reads as White; Bebe is cued as Latinx.

Wholesome and heartwarming. (Graphic fiction. 12-17)

Kirkus Reviews