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Evan and Jessie Treski are siblings who live with their divorced mom. They are close but are very different in personalities and intellect. Evan is outgoing and makes friends easily, but he also has difficulty academically, especially in math. Jessie is younger and she has more difficulty making friends, even being targeted by some mean girls. However, she is extremely intelligent, especially in math. In fact, she is so far advanced that she will be skipping a grade and going into the same 4th grade class as Evan! This horrifies Evan because he knows that he will be ridiculed and classified by his friends and classmates as a “dummy�.

It's the last 5 days of summer until school starts after Labor Day. Since it is so hot with temps climbing up near 100 degrees, Evan decides to make some money by selling lemonade. Maybe he will sell enough lemonade to buy that coveted iPhone! He finds Jessie being pesky and annoying and calls her a baby. Jessie proves that she is no baby and in fact she is very savvy and sets up her own lemonade stand along with Evan’s crush Megan who is new to the neighborhood. Jessie’s business acumen allows her to outpace Evan’s lemonade sales. They make a bet as to who could sell more lemonade before the Labor Day fireworks. The Lemonade War is on!

The sibling rivalry is authentic which is very normal for kids at this age to compete and battle. What makes this story endearing is that they also have each other. While witnessing their parents� arguments pre-divorce, Evan and Jessie make a spit vow with each other to never, ever argue in front of their mother. They keep their promise and know they have each other’s back in the long run.

I never read the original Lemonade War books. However, I really enjoyed this graphic novel format with the illustrations, dialogue, story, color and fonts. The educational benefit in this story is Jessie’s awesome business plan, cost/benefit analysis, and her ability to calculate her profit margin. Impressive! I hope there will be more in this graphic novel series so that I can enjoy more adventures with Evan and Jessie.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.