5/5 adorable ⭐️’s

A massive thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Cheer Up!

I requested this graphic novel 100% because of the cover but stayed for how precious this book was! Following a trans girl who is the leader of the cheerleading team and is learning how to say no to people and learn that it’s okay to put yourself first. And Annie the schools outcast who is forced into cheerleading to add an extra curricular to her college application. Annie and Bebe used to be best friends but after a falling out haven’t talked for a couple years, but Bebe vouches for Annie to join the cheerleading team and as their friendship reconnects an adorable romance will bloom!

From the story itself to the writing style I just adored this and will 100% be buying a physical copy when this is out to reread again and again!

Cheer Up is a sweet queer teen story that's full of heart. The art is beautiful and the plot is just adorable. It's only a snapshot, a very short insight into the lives of the two main characters, but we manage to get a real sense of who they are and the journey they've been on so far. There's a lot packed in to not many pages! The story feels whole and wraps us nicely, but I would love more of Bebe and Annie in the future.

Beneath the cute, there are a lot of lovely, meaningful messages about acceptance and what it means to truly support your friends. This graphic novel is full of great representation, not just from the main protagonists, but also the secondary characters.

Recommended for all graphic novel fans, particularly those looking for great LGBTQ+ representation in a light-hearted, but still meaningful, story.

I loved this! I must have missed that it was a graphic novel but it made it even more amazing - queer rep/trans rep/fat rep! It was perfect and I can't wait to get a physical copy to own!

This was a very interesting graphic novel about a transgender cheerleader. I think this is very relevant in our society now. There is also some bullying that the characters have to work through. I liked the parents and their perspective.

I received an eARC of Cheer Up: Love and Pom Poms by Crystal Frasier, Val Wise, and Oscar Jupiter from @netgalley and @onipress in exchange for an honest review.

This is a light and sweet graphic novel about two cheerleaders discovering first love and learning more about themselves. Bebe is trans and the team treats her like a token or mascot. Annie is a grumpy iconoclast who needs cheerleading to pad her college applications. They used to be best friends and it’s never clear why they fell out of touch but they reconnect through cheerleading. They crush on each other and they smooch. The ending wraps up a little too quickly and nicely. The cheer team magically realizes they were treating Bebe badly and her parents suddenly accept her and give her more freedom.

I give this four fizzy feel-good stars. I really enjoyed this graphic novel and the art was great.

Cheer Up is one of the sweetest graphic novels I've read recently! As a middle school teacher, I can't wait to add it to my classroom library. The book consists of a group of diverse characters (also inclusive of size-- cheerleaders don't look like the ones you expect from pop culture which is rad) and it goes over some important themes like friendship and microaggressions in a very accessible way without being too on the nose.

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms is an adorable LGBT graphic novel featuring one of my favorite ship dynamics: grumpy x sunshine. And I honestly loved reading about Annie, BeeBee and the other girls on the cheer squad. This was a cute romance but it also leaned heavily into the importance of friendship and properly supporting your friends who need it.

This graphic novel is short but it still found a way to perfectly demonstrate the harmfulness of performative activism. I think this will be an important book for young readers, because when the other girls feel like they have to over protect BeeBee or make a show out of her being trans, they realize that they aren't really listening to her needs. It is only when they start to listen to her that they're all able to be better, happier friends.

The art in this was also beautiful. I loved the style and colors. Overall it was a really enjoyable read. The only drawback was that I wish there had been just a few more pages in some of the moments where Annie and BeeBee were bonding and rebuilding their friendship into something more. Their chemistry was clear and I loved them together, but it still felt kind of rushed.

rep: trans latina MC, lesbian MC, nonbinary SC, POC SCs
TWs: transphobia, sexual harrassment, fatphobia

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an arc of this book!

I absolutely adored this read! It is the perfect fluffy and wholesome read that follows two main characters Annie, an anti-social, plus-sized lesbian who is mad at the world and Bebe, a trans girl who is scared to stand up for herself and be in the spotlight. Both start out on teh cheerleading team andf their relationship starts from there.

I loved the way in which both Annie and Bebes struggles were addressed. Showing the blantant forms of transphobia and the micro-aggressions that can occur. I also liked the way in which Annie was educated on a problem she was also contributing to and took it in her stride to understand and stop!

I would have loved to see more on the family dynamic between both bebe and her family but also Annie and hers!

Overall this was a really wholesome read and I would highly recommend it!!

This is a really sweet story about Annie and BeeBee and their friendship. The two girls used to be friends, but have drifted apart a bit over the years. When Annie is encouraged to join a team - cheerleading no less - to try and improve her college applications, she's reunited with BeeBee.

As well as dealing with school grades, parents, and teen drama, they're also experiencing everything that comes with being queer high schoolers; the good and the difficult. The two become close and eventually discover there might be more than friendship ...

It was such a cute story, while also covering some really important issues that arise through the characters and their lives. I loved the style of art in this graphic novel, illustrated by Val Wise. It's definitely my favourite type of graphic novel; soft and round, rather than sharp and edgy, if you know what I mean.

If you're looking for a sweet tale of friendship and love (and pompoms), then pick up Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms, when it comes out in August.

super super cute, if a bit choppy. the storyline is pretty straightforward but the pacing is off, and things move just a little too fast to feel natural. plus, there’s the whole backstory between bebe and annie we never even really get a peak at. why did they stop being friends? why did annie have so much animosity towards bebe before they reconnected?

regardless, i sped through and finished in about an hour. the relationship is sweet and the novel itself brings up a lot of really important issues surrounding trans identities!

This story follows Annie, a smart, antisocial lesbian, who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications and BeeBee who is a people-pleaser—a trans girl, she must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition.

This was a short and cute story about how two former friends rekindle their friendship and discover that there could be something more between them.

The characters are very lovable and totally opposites, I liked seeing how they both helped each other with different things.

I really liked the illustrations and had fun reading this story!

CWs: transphobia, microaggressions, harassment, depiction of abusive courtship
Rep: lesbian MC, trans girl MC, nonbinary side character

This was a fun, adorable and important graphic novel. This story is about a trans girl and a fat-girl forming frienship over cheerleading. Both deals with their own issues. This graphic novels deals with important topics like transphobia and fat-shaming and still it is not a heavy read. I wish this was a little longer because I wanted to know more about Beatrice and Annie. Their character development was so amazing.

Definitely recommend it.

This graphic novel captured my heart and played with my emotions. Following Bebe and Annie navigate re-forming their long lost friendship when Annie is aggressively encouraged to join the cheerleading team. </spoiler> was heart warming. I found myself immersed in their worlds and frustrated by the ignorance of the people around them, both obvious and subtle. I also found myself cheering for Annie and Bebe's growing relationship, and incredible joyful as it deepened and grew. Their ability to grow and help each other grow was heartwarming. I wish I had books like this that depicted the love I never thought I could have in a completely normalized manner. Bebe and Annie's love story will make your heart happy, and bring you hope from the next generation of children.

So cute! I loved the art & Annie and Bebe wonderful romantic leads! They were the best of opposites-attract, friends-to-lovers, & awkward-teen-romance! Their growth was beautiful to watch. Would love to see more of them in the future. Will 100% be recommending to friends and to my local library!

Cheer Up is a sweet, funny queer graphic novel.
BeeBee and ANnie used to be friends. Annie is a lesbian that hates anything girly. BeeBee is trans who is the captain of the cheerleaders. When Annie is forced to try out for cheerleading to improve her college applications, the two rekindle their friendship.

this graphic novel was an absolute delight!! following annie, a fat, grumpy lesbian with a soft heart, and bebe, a sapphic, biracial trans girl learning to stand up for herself, i loved the diversity and happiness packed into this short story. annie is encouraged to join the cheerleading team by her mother when she realizes she doesn’t have enough extracurriculars, and though angry, annie reunites with bebe. it’s a love story, and just an adorable read with lots of heart and beautiful art.

the plot, overall, was quite simple, and showed annie and bebe growing closer, as well as their antics while cheerleading and training with their team. i loved how this book tackled important issues, such as transphobia, in a serious way, without focusing the entire story on it. i also really appreciated the fat rep!! annie is fat, and there are other teammates who also are, but it’s not shown as an issue or causing any conflict!! i truly have nothing much to complain about with this sweet story.

one thing that did throw me off slightly was the length, as it was very short at 128 pages, and read almost more as a middle grade than a young adult novel. it was nice, and just meant it was a more fast paced read, but i do think they could’ve expanded a bit on the story and developed the plot further.

I loved the relationship between the characters. They are so cute and respect each other. I liked the conversations about some aspects of the experience of a trans girl in high school too. I recommend !

Annie is pressured to join the cheer leaders team for her grades. There she find Beebee her former best friend.
Beebee is a transgender girl who faces a lot of pressure from her parents and her colleagues at school.
Soon, the two girls find solace and their friendship rekindles. They continue to protect and support each other in the face of discrimination and hate.

What I loved about the book:
This book is a very gentle story that has realistic characters. It shows that love can be found at hard times.
I really loved the art and the diversity of the characters.

What I didn't loved about the book:
The story felt a little bit rushed.

Overall, this is a very sweet book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oni Press for providing an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Cheer Up follows two cheerleaders: Annie, who needs to socialise more before leaving for college and Bebe, a girl stuck in the cycle of trying to impress everyone.

I love that there are cute, cliched stories filled with diverse characters like this! I also really appreciated that it dealt with tough topics like transphobia and sexual harassment while managing to inform the audience and keep it lighthearted at the same time. Bebe's struggle with speaking up for herself and addressing the transphobia she experienced was also very helpful to read about, though I'm not sure if a trans reviewer has spoken about this yet or if there were trans creators behind the scenes.

Consequently, this is a quick, lighthearted graphic novel that's perfect for reading in one sitting or reading about more diverse characters!

Queer cheerleader romance?! I was instantly sold upon reading the description of this graphic novel. I haven't read a lot of literature in this format, but this seems to be my motivation for picking up more graphic novels in the future. Cheer Up features a lesbian mc and a biracial trans mc following their journey through falling in love on the cheer team. It was a primarily happy read, but did touch on topics of transphobia and sexual harassment. Keep that in mind when going to pick up this amazing book.
This was just what i needed to close out pride month and i Look forward to seeing more from this author.