Review of "Changing Moon"

What its about:
Nola is a middle school girl who lives with her workaholic mother in Alta Donna.  She is a good student, but isn't a fan of school, and dreads going.  Life was ok until two new students started attending Nola's school.  Damiano has a few classes with Nola, and seems ok.  But, there is something about his sister, Ines, that Nola thinks is weird.  She is manipulative and always gets her way.

Nola starts investigating Damiano and Ines and realizes that things aren't always as they seem.




The Good:  
Normally, I like graphic novels, especially for struggling readers, however in the case of Changing Moon, the vocabulary used is really advanced.

The Not-So-Good:
Like I said, I like graphic novels, because they allow the struggling reader to rely on visual clues instead of words words words.  But, the vocabulary used was very high, and sometimes questionable (ie. saying Damiano had "hair herpes").
I also found the frames hard to follow, and, for me, it was hard to distinguish between a thought bubble and a speech bubble.  I don't know if it was because of this, or just the plot of the story itself, but I found myself having to reread because the story seemed to jump around and not make sense.
Lastly, there were a few questionable illustrations (Nola getting ready for school).

All in all, I don't think I would have this book in my classroom (grades 3-5).  It is definitely not one for the elementary reader.  But, I also think that high school readers would have a hard time getting into the story, because it jumped around so much.